Arrowhead High School

Infobox Secondary school
name = Arrowhead High School

city = Hartland
state = Wisconsin
country = USA
colors = Red, White, Light Blue
district = Arrowhead School District
mascot = Wally The Warhawk
grades = 9-12
established = 1956
type = Public high school
affiliations =
faculty =
enrollment = 2339 (2007-2008)
motto = "Something for Everyone"
principal = Bonnie Laugerman (North Campus) & Greg Wieczorek (South Campus)
yearbook =
newspaper = The Smoke Signal
website = http://www.arrowheadschools.org/
address = 800 North Avenue
campus = Suburban

Arrowhead High School is located in Hartland, Wisconsin. Sitting on 117 acres of land, the high school campus boasts North and South Campuses. The juniors and seniors attend the North Campus and the freshmen and sophomores go to the South Campus. Arrowhead High School also has its own on campus ice rink, the Howard G. Mullett Ice Center, which was donated by the Mullett family and opened in 1998.

Approximately 2300 students attend the school, taught by around 200 faculty and staff members. There are around 126 extracurricular activities for the student body to choose from. Students from the villages of Hartland, Chenequa, Merton and Nashotah, the towns of Merton, Lisbon, Delafield, and Oconomowoc and the cities of Delafield, and Pewaukee attend Arrowhead High School.

The school mascot is Wally the Warhawk.

The athletic nickname is the Warhawks.

History

Arrowhead High School was founded in 1956 in Hartland, Wisconsin. The original high school was what is today known as South Campus. Arrowhead has since expanded to a North Campus (juniors & seniors) and the original building of South Campus (freshmen & sophomores). In 2004, Arrowhead became the first non-professional venue in Wisconsin to use FieldTurf on their football field when they installed it at Pfeiffer Memorial Stadium. 2006 marked the 50th anniversary of the school. In 2007, the school renovated its East Gym in North Campus to include a brand-new wooden floor with their "A" logo at halfcourt.

Academic Performance

In a 2007 story from Newsweek covering the nation's top 1,300 high schools, Arrowhead ranked 696in the nation. The school was ranked 749th in the nation in 2007. [ [http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/?sort=Rank&count=1351&Search=&start=700&limit=100&year=2007& "America's Top Public High Schools"] , "Newsweek", May 22, 2007. Accessed November 14, 2007.]

Class offerings consist of nearly two hundred courses. There are honors sequences in English, mathematics, social studies, science, art, and band. There are currently 17 Advanced Placement courses in which over 350 students take over 600 Advanced Placement tests. Opportunities are offered in "transcripted credit" agreements with Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) in which students earn technical school credit for high school courses in such areas as auto, drafting, fashion merchandising, childcare, commercial art, and computer technology. In addition, students participate in manufacturing and health apprenticeships through WCTC.

The "Something for Everyone" theme is achieved through a 10-period day in which students take a minimum of seven classes. Classes consist of 40-minute daily classes, alternate-day classes for 84 minutes (typically in laboratory courses), 60-minute Advanced Placement classes, and block classes in which a year-long course in taught for a double period for one semester. Of the 50 credits required for graduation, 18 are electives. The flexible schedule is taught by 151 teachers with an average of over 15 years of experience. Fifty-nine percent of the faculty have masters degrees and above. The staff is also equipped with state of the art technology and laboratory facilities. The educational experience extends throughout the community as the high school serves as a community center for Lake Country area citizens in terms of concerts, lectures, athletic events, seminars, and evening classes.

Athletics

Arrowhead High School is nationally recognized for its athletic excellence. Arrowhead is recognized as having the best high school athletic program in the state of Wisconsin, and has consistently been recognized as such by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, though the most recent of these rankings saw Marquette High surpass Arrowhead in the boys section. The Warhawks are a member of the Classic 8 Conference.

In 2005, Arrowhead High School was named the best athletic high school in the state of Wisconsin by Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated had this to say about Arrowhead: "This suburban Milwaukee school is incredible in swimming and football and has won 13 state titles over the last 10 years." It has been named the best athletic high school in Wisconsin in both 2006 and 2007. The school has won 23 WIAA State Championships since 1993; 6 have been in boys swimming, 5 in girls swimming, and 4 in football.

The 2007-2008 school season (as of the end of the winter sports season) has seen Arrowhead advance multiple teams to state and claim state titles in several sports. Arrowhead's girls cross country team won their first ever WIAA State Championship by defeating Whitefish Bay by 3 points. 2007 also saw the Arrowhead girls field hockey team win their second consecutive Wisconsin State Field Hockey Association (WSFHA) State Championship. They defeated University School of Milwaukee by a score of 4-3. The football team took home its fourth state title in the fall with a win over Homestead. The boys swimming team got back to their winning ways by taking home the state title after a disqualification of Sauk Prairie's relay team. Madison had beaten them by one point, but with the DQ, Arrowhead won the meet. It was their 4th state title in the last 7 years. They had taken runner-up the previous three years to Memorial. The wrestling season also ended with wrestler Nick Hucke winning his third straight WIAA State Individual Wrestling Championship. He won his sophomore year at 125 pounds, as a junior at 130 pounds, and as a senior at 135 pounds. He compiled undefeated seasons as both a junior and a senior. He is the only wrestler in Arrowhead history to win three state titles.

In 2005, the boys' soccer team was ranked in the nation according to polls by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/ Adidas. The only Wisconsin teams to achieve higher rankings in the past several years are Brookfield East and Marquette High.

The boys and girls lacrosse teams won state titles in the 2007 season, and in 2006 the boys first year they took home the runner up trophey. The school also offers girls hockey and girls field hockey. Arrowhead is the only public school in Wisconsin to offer field hockey to students. The boys track team won state in 2004 for the first time since 1965.

The high school also boasts the best summer baseball coach in Wisconsin high school history, Tim O'Driscoll. Through the 2007 summer season, the coach had compiled an impressive 685-311 record and .688 winning percentage. In 2006, Arrowhead's baseball team took home the WIAA State Runner-up after losing to Marquette by a score of 5-3. On May 25, 2007, before Arrowhead's game against Kettle Moraine, Arrowhead's baseball field was dedicated to Coach O'Driscoll. The field was renamed O'Driscoll Field.

In 2006 Arrowhead Cheer & Stunt team won state at the WACPC (Wisconsin Association of Cheer/Pom Coaches) State Championships in the Small Co-ed Division.

In April of the 2008 school year, Arrowhead athletic director Geoff Steinbach announced that he would retire on June 30, 2008. Steinbach was hired in 1994 and oversaw 22 WIAA State Championships and 24 State Runner-Up teams. [ [http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=738656 "Arrowhead AD Steinbach Announces His Retirement"] , "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel", April 12, 2008. Accessed April 29, 2008.] He is widely recognized for raising the Arrowhead athletics program to become one of the finest in the state.

Football

Arrowhead has appeared in 8 of the last 15 state championships, the most of any high school football team in that span. Arrowhead's 8 state appearances sets a Division 1 state record for most state finals appearances. Next behind Arrowhead is Kenosha Tremper. Arrowhead has been led by legendary coach Tom Taraska for the last 26 years. As of the end of the 2007 season, Coach Taraska ranked 21st among all-time winningest coaches in Wisconsin high school football with a record of 219-91 and a winning percentage of .706. [ [http://www.wifca.org/winningcoaches.shtml "WFCA - Winningest Coaches"] , "Wisconsin Football Coaches Association", March 5, 2008. Accessed May 7, 2008.]

tate Champions

*1993
*1994
*1996
*2007

tate Finals

*2000
*2002
*2003
*2006

The team finished the 2007 regular season with an undefeated record of 9-0 overall and a Classic 8 Conference record of 7-0 to claim its first outright conference championship since the Warhawks won it in 2002 en route to a WIAA Division 1 State Football Runner-up with a record of 12-2 under 2007 Wisconsin Badgers starting quarterback Tyler Donovan. The Warhawks won the 2007 WIAA Division 1 championship game by a score of 31-7 over Homestead. The only close game they played all season was a double-overtime playoff game against the Hilltoppers from Marquette High. The Warhawks won that game by a score of 44-41. The Warhawks finished with a perfect record of 14-0. They finished the season ranked #27 in the nation by MaxPreps.com. [ [http://www.maxpreps.com/FanPages/NationalRankings.mxp/Boys_Varsity_Football_Fall_07-08 "MaxPreps Fall '07-'08 National Rankings"] , "MaxPreps", December 9, 2007. Accessed December 9, 2007.]

Notable Alumni

*Ben Askren, former University of Missouri wrestler. 2006 NCAA Champion. 2001 and 2002 High School Division 1 Wisconsin State Champion. 2008 US Olympic wrestler.
*Nick Hayden, Carolina Panthers Defensive Tackle, former University of Wisconsin-Madison defensive fackle
*Amanda Franecki [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2585246/] [http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blog-1418-ella-is-played-by-amanda-franecki.html] , actress
*David Merkow, Northwestern University golfer, 2006 Big 10 Player of the Year
*Anna Piscitello, Miss Wisconsin USA 2006
*Dennis Lewis, writer, Class of 1957
*Todd Meisel, former University of Minnesota defensive tackle
*Tyler Donovan, former University of Wisconsin quarterback
*Kristin Olson, Class of 2008, ambitious waitress at Seven Seas, a Weisgerber Restaurant

Arrowhead and the Community

Arrowhead hosts such teams as the Lake Country Phoenix youth swim team and the Lake Country Cyclones semi professional football team. The Lake Country Chiefs youth football team of the Wisconsin Youth Football League also participate in football at Pfeiffer Memorial Field.

References

External links

* [http://www.arrowheadschools.org/ Arrowhead High School]
* [http://www.maxpreps.com/FanPages/HomeSchool.mxp/SchoolID-8d416cfb-f4c7-4366-a66e-e49f56416c00 MaxPreps: Arrowhead Warhawks]
* [http://www.postcrescent.com/includes/newspaper/data/education/schoolsalaries.shtml/ Search Wisconsin teacher salaries, school administrator salaries]