Crystal Lake South High School

For schools of a similar name, see South High School (disambiguation).

Crystal Lake South High School
Location
1200 S. McHenry Ave Crystal Lake, Illinois, United States
Information
Type	Public secondary
Established	1978
Oversight	Community High School District 155
Principal	Marsha Potthoff
Grades	9-12
Number of students	1935[1]
Color(s)	Green and Gold
Mascot	Gator
Newspaper	'South Side Story'
Website	Crystal Lake South

Crystal Lake South High School, often referred to as "South" or "CLS," is one of three high schools in Crystal Lake, Illinois, United States, and currently has a body of roughly 1916 students. As Crystal Lake's second oldest school, it was founded in 1978 when Crystal Lake Community High School, now Crystal Lake Central High School, split into two schools due to the pressures of the population growth in the communities it served, Crystal Lake, and part of Lake in the Hills. South graduated its first class in 1979 - this class consisted of seniors who were transferred from Crystal Lake Central High School. South graduated its first class who attended all four years in 1982.

After the community's school split, the South Gators and Central Tigers became large rivals in the Fox Valley Conference. Though recently, focus of rivalry has primarily shifted to the Cary-Grove High School Trojans due to vastly increased competition in football games between the two schools. However, an underlying tone of competition still vibrates between the two Crystal Lake schools.

The city of Crystal Lake has grown rapidly since South first opened it doors. The school reached its structural capacity in 2002. A new addition opened for the 2003-2004 school year, with several dozen new classrooms. However, due to the phenomenal growth of the city, the addition was already insufficient by the 2005-2006 school year (the graduating class of 2004 consisted of 366 students, class of 2006 had 435 students, and the class of 2009 contained approximately 540 students). The final phase of the 2003-2004 additions was opened in the 2006-2007 school year. The "Lower level" under C-Hall added 10 classrooms and over 1,000 lockers.

Crystal Lake South High School's mascot is the "Gator". This mascot was chosen in 1976 by a poll of students who would attend South when it first opened. Currently South is being sued by University of Florida (CLS allegedly used their logo without permission to sell it on merchandise) and the logo has to be changed. From this, arose a contest; graduates, current students, and the community got to design and enter logo's to be voted upon for the new one.

Famous alumni

• Jim Verraros - singer/actor of American Idol fame
• Scott Olsen - major league pitcher for the Washington Nationals
• Randy Salerno - news anchor WBBM-TV in Chicago
• Ivana Bozilovic - Class of 1995 Model/Actress 100 Girls, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Wedding Crashers

References

1. ^ http://www.ihsa.org/school/schools/0353.htm