- Musselman High School
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Musselman High School 
Once an Appleman, Always an ApplemanAddress 126 Excellence Way
Inwood, WV, 25428
United StatesInformation Type Public 4-year Established 1949 School district Berkeley County Schools Superintendent Mr. Manny P. Arvon Principal Holly Kleppner Faculty 158 [1] Grades 9-12 Number of students 1,657[2] Color(s) Kelly Green and White, with a touch of Red Mascot Red Delicious Apple with muscular arms and legs and an aggressive facial expression Nickname Applemen Newspaper The Cider Press Yearbook The Echo Website www.applemen.org Musselman High School is a class AAA high school in Inwood, West Virginia, USA, located at 126 Excellence Way. Inwood is in Berkeley County, West Virginia and just outside the city of Martinsburg, the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest municipality in West Virginia. Inwood is approximately 79 miles from Washington, DC. Musselman High School was established in 1949. Musselman High School was named for the C.H. Musselman Company, an apple processing plant and maker of Musselman's Applesauce. The mascot for MHS is the Applemen, a Red Delicious apple with large, muscular arms and legs and a formidable, aggressive facial expression. A new school building was built for the Musselman community in 1998 to replace the aging original structure and to better serve a rapidly increasing population.
Contents
Administration and Staff
Musselman High School has Holly Kleppner as its principal, and four assistant principals, Ronald Branch, Becky Harden, Denny Price, and Steve Campbell, whom is also the Athletic Director.[3] The school has a faculty and staff of about 160 members. Each high school in Berkeley County is supplied with a School Resource Officer, Musselman High School has a member of the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office with them along with security staff. School staff are hired through Berkeley County Schools and the West Virginia Department of Education.
History
In the 1930's, the South Berkeley community began to realize that a new high school was necessary. Bunker Hill High School, the only high school in the south end of the county, had become overcrowded and substandard. The Berkeley County Board of Education could not afford such an endeavor at the time, so the thought was set aside. Years later, Mr. and Mrs. C.H. Musselman, owners and operators of the Musselman apple processing plant, saw the need and decided to share their wealth by providing the area with a new, modern structure. Mr. Musselman died before the building was completed. The original building was actually built largely by employees of the C.H. Musselman Company. In order for the Musselman Foundation to make the gift to the community without special legislation, an interesting legal procedure was followed. First, the school board purchased the agreed upon site for the building. The site was then leased to the C.H. Musselman Foundation and the building was constructed. The lease was subsequently terminated and the key was handed over to the Berkeley County Board of Education once the structure was finished. The Board of Education named the school Musselman High School. Classes commenced before all details were completed due to the strong need for the facility. In the first months of operation, the school had no chalkboards, lockers, pencil sharpeners, nor mascot. The building also lacked a gymnasium and an auditorium, however, the community was still very grateful. Many activities that still exist today started the first year the school opened including marching band, football and basketball teams, and a school newspaper called "The Cider Press." The marching band made its debut in the spring of 1950 at the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Virginia. The first football team that same year consisted of eleven members and coach, Mr. Kenneth Waldeck. Mr. Waldeck nicknamed the team the "fighting eleven" after their first season brought only one tie and six losses. The Musselman High School football stadium is named for Mr. Waldeck.
The original mascot chosen for Musselman High School was the "dragons" and the football team wore borrowed burgundy-colored uniforms from nearby Handley High School. Fundraisers by the students and community helped to raise money for the chalkboards and other necessities. The school offered a contest in 1950 for students to choose the school colors and Macks Beasley was named the winner with his selection of kelly-green and white. In 1951, then coach and principal, Mr. Kenneth Waldeck, decided to further honor the Musselman family by using an apple theme for the school's mascot. He named the "Applemen" as the mascot and the color red was added to the school colors. The Berkeley County Board of Education paid to construct a gymnasium on the south end of the building in 1955. Prior to the gyms construction, the Applemen had been holding their home games at Martinsburg High School. The auditorium did not come until 1979, thanks to the joint contributions of the Board of Education and the C.H. Musselman Foundation. By 1996, the original Musselman High School building had also become severely overcrowded and substandard and the South Berkeley community held an election and passed a bond that would help to build yet another new building. The new high school was relocated on the opposite side of Rt.11 and opened in 1998. The old building was demolished and is presently the site of the new Musselman Middle School. The original gymnasium and auditorium were kept and integrated into the middle school building plans. The new state-of-the-art high school building cost 16.1 million dollars to build and encompassed a school store, two gymnasiums, a high-tech auditorium, greenhouses, a public library, and 63 classrooms. The building has since been renovated and expanded twice to handle the influx of residents to the area and ever-increasing enrollment. [4]
Athletics
Musselman High School has many winning athletic teams in a variety of different sports including basketball, baseball, cheerleading, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, wrestling, and volleyball. MHS teams compete in the AAA WV state classification, the classification for the largest schools in the state and are overseen by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC). Football is a major sport at Musselman High School, having achieved much success through the school's history, including four WV state titles, all under legendary coach Mr. Denny Price. Coach Price recently was named the all-time-winning-est coach in the state of West Virginia. Also, the Musselman volleyball team has recently achieved state champion titles in 2008 [5] and 2010 [6].
Championships
Musselman High School has won several state football championships, having won a Class A championship in 1974 and Class AA championships in 1982 and 1995.[7] The Volleyball team became the first female sport to win a state championship in school history in 2008[8] and again in 2010.[9]
Activities
Musselman High School has an always expanding variety of clubs and groups in which students participate. The Musselman "Marching Applemen" marching band is extremely successful and well-known, having won numerous competitions and competed at the national level.[citation needed] MHS is also home to three successful show choirs that achieved much success in the past under the direction of former director, Sherry Hager.[citation needed] "Kaleidoscope" is a mixed varsity show choir of 40 students that was originally organized in 1981 by Mrs. Hager and was one of the first show choirs in both West Virginia and Berkeley County. "Vivid Image" is an all-female show choir and "Elite Dimension" is the all-male show choir. Students also participate in a drama department which produces many plays and musicals each year. Numerous clubs and organizations are offered at the school including Key Club, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Peers Against Tobacco (PAT), Rotary Club, Science Club, National Honor Society, Library Club, Student Government, Travelers Club, Bible Club, Yearbook, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), and Girls Athletic Association (GAA).
Feeder Schools
Students entering Musselman High School typically come from Musselman Middle School. Musselman Middle School eighth grade students are invited to participate in Freshman athletics and programs at Musselman High School. This school is fed from various Intermediate and Elementary schools within Berkeley County, West Virginia.
References
- ^ http://wveis.k12.wv.us/nclb/profiles/staff.cfm?sy=09&cn=004&sn=503
- ^ http://wveis.k12.wv.us/nclb/profiles/s_profile.cfm?cn=004&sn=503&sy=10
- ^ http://www.edline.net/pages/Musselman_High_School
- ^ http://www.edline.net/DocViewBody.page?currentDocEntid=3832849208631438756&returnPage=/pages/Musselman_High_School/History_of_MHS
- ^ http://articles.herald-mail.com/2008-11-16/news/25056241_1_musselman-state-volleyball-title-state-championship
- ^ http://www.wvssac.org/new_site/wvssac_website/html/sportsandschedules/volleyball/Volleyball%20State%20Champions.htm
- ^ http://www.wvssac.org/new_site/WVSSAC_WebSite/HTML/State%20Champions/Football.pdf
- ^ http://articles.herald-mail.com/2008-11-16/news/25056241_1_musselman-state-volleyball-title-state-championship
- ^ http://www.wvssac.org/new_site/WVSSAC_WebSite/HTML/State%20Champions/Volleyball.pdf
External links
- Musselman High School Edline
- Musselman High School Sports Page
- Berkeley County Schools Profile
- WVEIS School Profile
- The Journal newspaper, "Remembering the Old, Less Snazzy Musselman-1949," September 1998
- The Mill Creek Peddler, "Musselman High School...A Gift," August 1998, Volume 3, no. 7
- Bunker Hill Historical Committee, "As Far As We Know...," Virginia, Commercial Press
- Musselman High School Yearbooks from the years of 1950 to 1999
Categories:- High schools in West Virginia
- Schools in Berkeley County, West Virginia
- Educational institutions established in 1949
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