Blue Valley High School

Blue Valley High School
Address
6001 West 159th Street [1]
Stilwell, Kansas, 66085
United States
Coordinates 38°50′22″N 94°39′19″W / 38.839473°N 94.655356°WCoordinates: 38°50′22″N 94°39′19″W / 38.839473°N 94.655356°W
Information
School type Public, High School
Established 1969
School board Board Website
School district Blue Valley School District USD 229 [2]
Superintendent Tom Trigg [2]
CEEB Code 172820 [3]
Principal Scott Bacon [4]
Athletic Director Matt Ortman [4]
Grades 9 to 12
Gender coed
Enrollment 1461 (Fall 2013)
Campus type Suburban
Color(s)      Blac
     Gold
Athletics Class 6A [5]
District 4 [6]
Athletics conference Eastern Kansas [4]
Mascot Tigers
Rival Blue Valley West High School
Blue Valley Southwest High School
Blue Valley North High School
Newspaper Tiger Print
Website School Website
The entrance to the BV Commons (2005)
The entrance to the library (2006)

Blue Valley High School is a fully accredited public high school located in Stilwell, Kansas, United States, serving students in grades 9-12. The school currently operates in the Blue Valley Unified School District. The principal is Scott Bacon, the associate principal is Mark Dalton, and the assistant principals are Mollie McNally and Matt Ortman.[7] The school mascot is the Tiger and the school colors are gold and black. The current enrollment of the school is 1,461 students.

Blue Valley is a member of the Kansas State High School Activities Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Athletic teams compete in the 6A-5A division and are known as the "Tigers". Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs.

History

The original school was located north of Metcalf and west side of 151st St. In 1970, Stilwell High School and Stanley High School merged to form the Blue Valley High School. At the beginning of the 1971 school year, Blue Valley moved to its current location. The former building was turned into the office for the Blue Valley Unified School District.

Blue Valley underwent part two of its renovation in 2008 (part one being reconfiguration and turfing of athletic fields), receiving 8 new classrooms and an athletic department expansion, including a new above-ground weight room. Blue Valley installed two new mobiles for the 2007-08 school year. The office and the serving area of the cafeteria were also reconfigured.

Academics

Blue Valley High School has received several awards for academics. It has met the Standard of Excellence for reading, writing, science and math. In 2012 Blue Valley High School received the prestigious Blue Ribbon Award of Excellence in Education for academic excellence.

Multimedia

The school's newspaper is called the Tiger Print, the school's yearbook is Reflections, and the closed circuit television program is called "Tiger TV". It also maintains cable channel 75 to display announcements throughout the school.

Tiger TV's many features have won national Student Broadcast Network awards, including first place in 2001 and 2006 for the "Hallpass" segment (in the human interest story category) and a 2005 title for short movie award. Tiger TV has won numerous awards at the Kansas Association of Broadcasters annual student contest, winning top accolades in at least one category yearly dating back to its inception in 2001. Tiger TV is put together by Broadcast II students advised by former Emmy Award winning KSHB-TV anchor/reporter Denny Brand.

Pictures, photographs, and poems are submitted every year and put together as the Headrush magazine. The Headrush crew also produces Headrush Junior for middle school level students at BVMS and PSMS.

Extracurricular activities

The Tigers compete in the Eastern Kansas League and are classified as a 5A-6A school, the largest classification in Kansas according to the Kansas State High School Activities Association. Throughout its history, Blue Valley has won several state championships in various sports. Many graduates have gone on to participate in collegiate athletics.

Athletics

The primary rivals of Blue Valley High School are St. Thomas Aquinas, Blue Valley West, and Blue Valley Southwest. The Tiger baseball team won their fourth state championship in 2014, defeating the Maize Eagles 9-3 to win the 6A tournament. The Blue Valley girls' tennis won the state championship for the first time in school history in the fall of 2010. The Blue Valley football team won the 5A state championship in 1991, 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2010. The football team was coached by Steve Rampy who resigned after the 2009 season to become offensive coordinator at Pittsburg State University. Additionally, Steve Rampy once coached the boys' golf team, which won several EKL championships as well as the 2005 5A state championship.

State championships

State Championships[8]
Season Sport Number of Championships Year
Fall Football 6 1991, 1998, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2013
Tennis, Girls 1 2010
Winter Wrestling 1 1997
Swimming and Diving, Boys 6 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 2011, 2012
Spring Golf, Boys 1 2005
Golf, Girls 2 1977, 1981
Baseball 4 1992, 2008, 2010, 2014
Softball 1 1994
Swimming and Diving,Girls 2 2011, 2012
Total 24

Non-athletic programs

Blue Valley is known for a myriad of school clubs. Many clubs are required to have teacher sponsors in order to meet. Some school classes are considered co-curricular, such as debate, and drill team. Once a year, in March, the American Cancer Society hosts a Relay For Life event in which approximately 30% of students participate. The event has grown in popularity, with more students participating each year. Additionally, the Drug and Alcohol Prevention Task Force was added in 2008.

Band

The school has one of the top marching bands in the state of Kansas. The Stridin' Tigers have won several competitions for their shows including Blue Shades (2003), Circuitry (2004), Metamorphosis (2005), Blue (2006), We Came To Play (2007), Dark Side of Oz (2008), Gears (2009), Towards Center (2010), Out of Many (2011), Perpetuity (2012), and Earth Song (2013). The band is currently under the direction of Avian Bear with assistant director Carol Lowman. Prairie Star Middle band director Paul Aubrey, Blue Valley Middle band director Ben Strain, and former band parent Al Hapke also assist the band. The band has traveled around the country and performed at the 1996 and 2000 Orange Bowls and the 2004 Fiesta Bowl.

In April 2007, the band went to Orlando, Florida and placed as band grand champion, edging out perennial powerhouse Westlake High School (from Texas). In addition to this trip, the band went to St. Louis for a Bands of America Super Regional Championship. The band performs at half-time of every Tigers home game and plays in the stands during the game. The band also performs at pep rallies, varsity basketball games, and other school functions.

In May 2006, at the Worlds of Fun contest, the Blue Valley Concert band led by Ben Strain received straight "1" ratings for the first time in the school's history. The 2006 show, "Blue", won 1st place in Class 5A at the Blue Springs Marching Invitational. The show also received fourth place at the Blue Valley Northwest Marching Festival and a Division 2 rating at the Bands of America Super Regional in St. Louis. Blue Valley also had several members qualify for the NEKMEA District and KMEA State Honor Band.

Debate and forensics

Blue Valley High School is well known throughout the state for being a dominant debate and forensics squad. It is the only school in Kansas debate history to have won the 5A 2-speaker and 4-speaker state tournament in the same year and also the only school in Kansas debate history to have won the 6A 2-speaker and 4-speaker state tournament in the same year.

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blue Valley High School.