Eldorado High School (Las Vegas)
Eldorado High School | |
---|---|
Location | |
1139 Linn Lane Las Vegas, NV, 89110 | |
Coordinates | 36°10′45″N 115°2′55″W / 36.17917°N 115.04861°WCoordinates: 36°10′45″N 115°2′55″W / 36.17917°N 115.04861°W |
Information | |
School type | Public high school |
Established | 1973 |
School district | Clark County School District |
Principal | John Anzalone |
Grades | 9–12 |
Enrollment | 1,800 |
School color(s) | maroon & gold |
Athletics conference | Sunrise 4A Region |
Team name | Sundevils |
Website | School website |
Eldorado High School is a public high school in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The school is a part of the Clark County School District, located in Sunrise Manor, an unincorporated area on the northeast part of the Las Vegas Valley, south of Nellis Air Force Base. Its team mascot is the Sundevils and its school colors are Maroon and Gold.
History
Eldorado High School was established in 1973 on an open desert lot just west of the Las Vegas Wash between Washington and Bonanza Roads. The school opened its doors in September 1973 along with Chaparral High School, which brought the total number of major high schools in the Las Vegas Valley to eight, including Bishop Gorman, a private Catholic high school. For the first 15 years, Eldorado's zoning covered all of the Sunrise Mountain area north of Charleston Boulevard and east of Pecos Road, which resulted in a total school attendance of more than 2,000 (the largest known class to graduate from Eldorado to date is the Class of 1985, graduating about 550 students).The majority of the students are former students of Dell H. Robison Middle School, O'Callaghan Middle School, Monaco Middle School and Bailey Middle School. In the 1980s, Eldorado received former students from Robison and Von Tobel Middle Schools as well as a handful from Roy Martin Middle School. Today, its zoning border covers areas east of Nellis Boulevard, north of Bonanza Road and south of Owens Avenue.
School Layout
Its campus borders Washington Avenue, Linn Lane, Harris Avenue and Christy Lane, built with an enclosed building (no windows), a football stadium with an asphalt running track (one of the first high schools in Las Vegas to have such a track) and a state of the art sportatorium, used for basketball, volleyball and wrestling as well as assemblies and other school-related activities. Three other Las Vegas-area schools were built this way: Basic High School, Bonanza High School and the Southeast Career Technical Academy (also known as Vo-Tech); all built in the early to mid-1970s along with Eldorado. Both Basic and Bonanza were built according to the same blueprints as Eldorado.
In 2007, the former facilities of Bishop Gorman were purchased by CCSD to house the rising number of freshmen and ease overcrowding at the main campus. Eldorado Preparatory Academy, the name of the temporary ninth grade campus, closed in Spring 2009 when students were rezoned to Sunrise Mountain High School.
Principals
The school's principal is John Anzalone, the eighth principal in school history. Niles Bayles was Eldorado's first principal and its longest serving principal, operating the campus from September 1973 until November 1982. Bayles left to take over Valley High School in November 1982 and was replaced by Richard Paulin (1929–2006), who remained until 1990. Gail Dixon (1990–96), Thomas Barberini (1996–2004), Richard Carranza (2004–07), Ron Lustig (2007–10), and Danielle Miller (2010–2012) also served as the school's administrator.
Sundevil Theater
The campus is home of the Sundevil Theater. The theater has put on many plays, including The Curious Savage, and Carousel to name a few
Extracurricular activities
The Sundevils compete in the Sunrise 4A Region and are classified as a 4A school, the largest classification in Nevada according to the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association.
Athletics
Wrestling
The most successful athletics program at Eldorado has been the wrestling program which has won a total of 12 state championships.[1] The Sundevils were ranked 12th as the High School Scholastic Dynasty Teams of the Last Decade.[2]
Other sports
The school does hold at least one state championship in each of the following major sports: American football (1991), boys basketball (1985) and baseball (1990). Eldorado also holds Nevada state championships in track and field.
Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps
Eldorado High School's Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) Unit, established not long after the school opened, is a part of Naval District 13, and has received multiple awards recognizing the Sundevil Battalion as both an Honor Unit (top 10% of units in the Naval District) and a Chief of Naval Education and Training Command Honor Unit (top 10% of all NJROTC Units) over the years.
Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association State championships
- Baseball – 1990[3]
- Basketball (Boys) – 1985[4]
- Basketball (Girls) – 1978[5]
- Cross Country (Boys) – 1979, 1980, 1981[6]
- Football – 1991[7]
- Track & Field – 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992[8]
- Wrestling – 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995[1]
- Soccer (Boys) - 2013[9]
The Merlin Olsen Cleat
Every year, beginning in 1974, Eldorado and Chaparral holds its rivalry game, in which the winner gets possession of a bronzed cleat once owned by former Los Angeles Rams star Merlin Olsen. The overall series has Chaparral winning 27 of these 40 meetings, and Eldorado winning 13. The Sundevils won the cleat in 1979, 1983, 1991, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
The Sundevils won their first Merlin Olsen cleat game in 1979 in a game that ended in sudden-death overtime, and that team also won its first Sunrise Division Championship and a spot in the post-season. The cleat was won again on October 28, 1983 by beating the Cowboys 10 to 9. Chaparral won the cleat back the following year and remained in their possession until Eldorado's state championship year of 1991. Eldorado's longest winning streak against Chaparral is 4 games; the Cowboys' longest is 7 in a row.
Other Rivalries
Since Eldorado's entry into high school football in 1974, the Sundevils have developed relative rivalries against Chaparral, Las Vegas, Valley, and Rancho.
- Chaparral High School, outside of its Merlin Olsen cleat rivalry, have been very competitive with Eldorado over the years. In 1985, the Sundevils' boys basketball team defeated the Cowboys 69-64 at the Las Vegas Convention Center to win the then-Nevada 3A State basketball title. During rivalry week, western themed events would take place at both schools. In 2007 students from Chaparral vandalized the football field at Sundevil Stadium, harmlessly spraying orange and black spray paint over the Sundevil mascot in the center of the football field, and dug out CHS (Chaparral High School) into the sideline of Eldorado. Although this incident may seem similar to the Rancho incident (see Below) it is very different in the fact that no valuable items were damaged or defaced.
- Las Vegas High School and Eldorado play for the unofficial Battle of Frenchman Mountain game since 1993, when the new campus for Las Vegas High was built. Prior to that, Eldorado was Sunrise Mountain's only high school. Originally called the Battle of Sunrise Mountain, it was renamed following the debut of the new Sunrise Mountain High School.
- Rancho High School's rivalry with the Sundevils have been very heated, and at times, has even been violent. On numerous occasions, many students from Rancho would alter the E on Frenchman Mountain into an R prior to its football game with the Sundevils. In 1983 however, students from Rancho vandalized the Eldorado school campus with spray paint, resulting in extensive damage to the school track, football field, student parking lot and the exterior walls of the Eldorado Sportatorium. Two years later, following a football game at Rancho, a student wielded a handgun, causing others to flee for safety.
- Valley High School's rivalry with Eldorado have been on more friendlier terms over the years, despite Valley's dominance over the Sundevils in a variety of sports, except for wrestling and basketball. The Vikings were originally a member of the Sunset Division, but joined the Sunrise League in the 1990s when new schools were built across the Las Vegas Valley.
A new rivalry between Eldorado and Sunrise Mountain High School began in 2010, with the first ever game between these two schools played on October 1, 2010. Eldorado won the game 58–28.
Other rivalries Eldorado has had over the years includes older schools such as Clark, Western, Bonanza, Bishop Gorman, and Basic, which ended in the mid-1990s following the realignment of its athletic divisions. Eldorado was one time part of a five-team Sunrise Division, which included Basic, Las Vegas, Rancho and Western; while the Sunset Division schools were Valley, Chaparral, Gorman, Clark and Bonanza.
Notable alumni
- Leah Dizon, singer and model[10]
- Arianny Celeste, UFC Octagon Girl
- Steven Jackson, American Football Player for the Atlanta Falcons
- Eric Ludwick, American Baseball Player for the Oakland A's, St Louis Cardinals, Florida Marlins
- Brandon Rock, US Track and Field NCAA 800 Meter Champion, participated in the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta, GA, USA
- Ricardo Laguna, BMX Pro
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Wresting: Record Book" (ENGLISH). Retrieved June 17, 2011.
- ↑ Keen, Cliff (August 4, 2008). "High School Scholastic Dynasty Teams of the Last Decade". Wrestling USA Magazine. Retrieved August 4, 2008.
- ↑ "Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association :" (PDF). Niaa.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
- ↑ "Basketball, Boys: Record Book" (PDF). Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
- ↑ "Basketball, Girls: Record Book" (PDF). Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
- ↑ "Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association :" (PDF). Niaa.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
- ↑ "Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association :" (PDF). Niaa.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
- ↑ "Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association :" (PDF). Niaa.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
- ↑ http://www.niaa.com/sports/soc/2013-14/brackets/2013_NIAA_Division_I_State_soccer_bracket.pdf
- ↑ "Leah Dizon - Biography". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.