Windham High School (Ohio)

Windham High School
Windham Junior and Senior High School from the corner of Bauer Avenue and Main Street
Address
9530 Bauer Ave[1] Windham, Ohio, 44288 United States
Coordinates	41°13′59″N 81°02′51″W / 41.232961°N 81.04743°W / 41.232961; -81.04743Coordinates: 41°13′59″N 81°02′51″W / 41.232961°N 81.04743°W / 41.232961; -81.04743
Information
School type	Public
Established	1883[2]
School district	Windham Exempted Village School District[1]
CEEB Code	365610[3]
Principal	Laura Amero[1]
Vice principal	Gregg Isler[4]
Faculty	19[1]
Grades	9-12[1]
Enrollment	268[1]
Color(s)	Black and Vegas Gold
Athletics conference	Northeastern Athletic Conference - Stripes Division
Team name	Bombers
Rival	Garfield High School
Yearbook	Twin Pines
Website	www.windham-schools.org/school_home.aspx?schoolid=1

Windham High School is a public high school in Windham, Ohio. It is the only high school in the Windham Exempted Village School District. Their nickname is the Bombers. Windham High School was founded in 1883.^[2]

Athletics

Windham High School offers several athletic teams, all of which are known as the Bombers. The school currently competes in the Northeastern Athletic Conference Stars Division and began play in the NAC in 2013. Currently, Windham sponsors seven athletic teams:^[5]

History

The Bombers have a long and decorated athletic history, particularly in football and boys basketball. During the late 1950s, the school played a leading role in establishing the short-lived Tomahawk Conference and was a longtime member of the former Portage County League and Portage Trail Conference..

In 1939, the school was ranked by The American Boy Magazine as the 16th best in the nation for six-man football. This selection was made by Stephen Epler, the creator of what was then a fairly new sport. The Bombers defeated Stamford Collegiate Secondary School in Niagara Falls, Ontario for the first-ever international title on October 5, 1940.,^[6] and were ranked in the top 10 in the nation by The American Boy Magazine. Three members of the team, Harold and Fred Stanley and Robert Turner, were chosen as All-American players, the only Windham players ever so honored.

Tomahawk Conference

According to the Ravenna-Kent Record-Courier, Windham competed in the Portage County League until 1953, when the Windham school district became the Windham Exempted Village School District. In Ohio, Exempted Village School Districts are given similar authority to city school districts; i.e. to "determine for itself the number of members and the organization of the district board of education".^[7] At this time, Windham withdrew from the PCL and competed as an independent.

Prior to 1953, most schools in Portage County were given "A" classification in Ohio's system of measuring school size for athletics. Due to increasing enrollment from the construction of the Ravenna Arsenal a decade earlier,^[2] Windham was close to "AA" classification. In 1957, Windham had an exceptional year in football, posting an undefeated record of six wins and a tie. In order to maintain "A" classification, Windham cut freshmen from the team at the beginning of the season. However, in contests against Garrettsville and Ravenna Township, football coach Leo Kot played two freshmen to prevent running up the score. These contests led directly to Windham's classification as "AA" upon appeal from Mogadore High School, and the subsequent formation of the Tomahawk Conference.

The Bombers won the Tomahawk Conference championship for football all three years of the conference's existence, sharing the title with Southeast in 1959. Windham also won all three conference titles in baseball, and in 1961 the Bombers were state runners-up, losing the state baseball championship to Liberty Union High School.^[8]

Portage County League

In 1961, the Bombers returned to the reconstituted Portage County League. Windham continued to enjoy success in football, and the school was the first head coaching job for later college and professional football coach Stan Parrish. Parrish coached the Bombers from 1972 until 1974 after serving as an assistant from 1969–71.^[9][10]

The PCL became the basis of the extant Portage Trail Conference, created through inter-county expansion in 2005. On July 2, 2011, Windham announced that it would be leaving the PTC following the 2012–13 school year and joining the Northeastern Athletic Conference, citing declining enrollment and a resulting decreasing ability to compete in the PTC.^[11]

Notable alumni

• Thomson Jay Hudson - world-renowned researcher in parapsychology
• Laurin D. Woodworth - Civil War major and member of the United States House of Representatives

Notes and references

External links

• Official website
• District website