North Mecklenburg High School

North Mecklenburg High School
Location
Huntersville, North Carolina, United States
Information
Type	Public
Established	1951
Color(s)	Blue, Red, White
Athletics	Baseball, cheerleading, colorguard, cross country, diving, football, golf, lacrosse, marching band, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, wrestling
Athletics conference	I-MECK Conference (4-A)
Team name	Vikings
Website	http://schools.cms.k12.nc.us/northmecklenburgHS/Pages/Default.aspx

North Mecklenburg High School (or simply North Meck, or North) is a high school in Huntersville, North Carolina. The school was founded in 1951 as an all-white school. It integrated in the 1960s. With over 3000 students, it was the largest school population-wise in North Carolina during the 2005-2006 school year. The current principal is Matthew Hayes. The school has had 4 principals in the 2010-2011 school year- Matthew Hayes, Charity Bell, Mark Matthews, and Joseph Burch. Mr. Burch replaced retired principal Jimmy K. Poole in 2005 and became principal of Cato Middle College in November 2010.

There are many nicknames for the school, the most common being North Meck and North. An older nickname was Redneck Tech. The school mascot is the Viking, and school colors are royal blue and white. The original mascot was a Rebel who was often seen flying a confederate flag during the period in which the school was segregated. Along with the Rebel, the original school colors of red and black were also changed when the school was integrated.

The official school song is to the tune of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Hark The Sound, the fight song is to the tune of Ohio State's Across the Field, and the dance is named "The Boogaloo". These are performed at pep rallies and sporting events.^{[citation needed]}

History

North Mecklenburg High School first opened its doors to students on September 4, 1951. Students came from five local schools in Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville, Long Creek, and Derita, forming a student body of just 500, with a senior class of 126, and a faculty of only 19. Marion Bird became the first principal, the Rebel was adopted as the mascot, and red and black were chosen as the school colors. By 1952, the students began class councils and student body councils. Organizations like Key Club have been around since the first decade of North Meck. In 1957, North Meck won its first State Championship in baseball. In 1958 North Mecklenburg High School hosted its first foreign exchange student: Tapu Putanen from Finland. In 1960 North Mecklenburg High School hosted its second foreign exchange student: Hans Achterhuis from Holland.

Buildings

The school is an outdoor campus, with walkways connecting different halls together. Most halls have a specific academic purpose, from C-hall (English), to H-hall (History), to S-hall (Science), and so forth. Since the opening of J hall in 2009, some of the classes have been moved around. S hall is now foreign language, J hall is the host to Science on the upper floor and math courses and visual arts on the lower level. North Meck's halls are lettered A, B, C, D, E, H, J, L, N, and S.

Curriculum

North Mecklenburg High School offers a comprehensive program including International Baccalaureate which is the most rigorous program at north meck, Advanced Placement, Academically Gifted, and advanced classes, fine arts programs, Air Force JROTC, and a variety of workforce development courses. The school has one of two auto tech courses in North Carolina. Eighty-six percent of graduates attend four-year colleges, universities, or junior colleges.

School day

Most of North operates on a semester schedule, which began during the 2006-2007 school year. Previously, the entire school operated on a block schedule, with classes alternating between "A Day" and "B Day" schedules. Now, only Juniors and Seniors in the IB or AP program use "A Day/B Day." Due to the large number of students, there are four lunch periods (A/B/C/D) each day. Lunch periods are determined by which building a student is in during third block or by Mr. Hayes' grade system. A-lunch is supposed to be 9th grade lunch, B-lunch is supposed to be 10th grade lunch, and C-lunch and D-lunch are supposed to be combined 11th and 12th grade lunches, but it doesn't actually work that way. The 2010-2011 school year was also a year of transition for the students schedule wise: going from 7 to 5 minute class changes among many others.

Awards

In 2006, it was placed 93rd on Newsweek Magazine's Top 1200 Schools list.ouc

Viking News Network

Viking News Network, or VNN, is the school's Closed Circuit TV news program, airing on Channel 7. VNN is shown during second block and is a valuable source of announcements and news of current events for the students at North Mecklenburg. In the 2008-2009 school year the equipment to record VNN was changed from a Casablanca Avio to a NewTek TriCaster, resulting in a higher quality newscast. Until the 2010-2011 school year it was handled by North Meck's Engineering and Scientific & Technical Visualization classes but with the departure of the teacher to the new Hough High School, it came under the jurisdiction of the school's Theater teacher and is now an afterschool activity for the time being. Plans are to transfer VNN to a new TV Production class that may begin during the 2011-2012 school year.

Extracurricular activities

Beginning in 2009, North Mecklenburg competes in the I-Meck (Iredell-Mecklenburg County) conference with the following local high schools:

• Lake Norman High School "Wildcats"
• Mooresville High School "Blue Devils"
• North Mecklenburg High School "Vikings"
• Hopewell High School "Titans"
• Zebulon B. Vance High School "Cougars"
• West Charlotte High School "Lions"
• Mallard Creek High School "Mavericks"
• W.A. Hough High School "Huskies"

North Meck is known for its fan support at sporting events, especially basketball. North Meck's cross-town rival is Hopewell High School and Hough High School. Older North Mecklenburg alumni consider Zebulon B. Vance High School and West Charlotte High School to be their rivals. Mallard Creek High School, only a few miles from North Meck, took 1,000 students from North Meck's student population just as Hopewell and Vance did, making Mallard Creek the 3rd and newest rival to North Meck since 1997. W.A. Hough High School (Originally named Bailey because the school resides on Bailey street, then re-named in honor of former North Meck Principal W.A. Hough) opened in 2010 in nearby Cornelius, North Carolina. As Vance, Hopewell, and Mallard Creek did, the new school accepted a large portion of North Meck students, making them the 4th newest North Meck rival in 12 years. Because of the new conference re-alignment in 2009, North Meck played Lake Norman High School for the first time in school history in all sporting events. Lake Norman's former Head Football Coach, Scott Sherrill, was a former player and Head Coach at North Meck who left the school to become Lake Norman's first football coach in 2002. Their first meeting in football, and Coach Sherrill's first return to North Meck as an opponent, created a new rivalry game called "The Backyard Brawl" similar to Pittsburgh and West Virginia's annual football rivalry. The men's basketball teams developed a rivalry because former North Meck student-athletes transferred to LNHS to play for Lake Norman's Mens Basketball team. Recently several state championship titles have been won by North Meck's sports teams. In 2009 Swimming was the title winner while in 2010 Women's Soccer became the first team to win the title from the west side of North Carolina in 13 years.

Debate & Speech Team

The Debate and Speech team has a rich history and although is not as known as other organizations at the school brings in countless awards. The school, a member of the National Forensics League, is active in both North and South Carolina, as well as in the national scene. The team has been gaining in skill and power and is begniing to gein recognition as a force to be dealt with in Individual Events as of the 2010-2011 school year. Also, the team hosts an annual tournament held in October. The tournament, also coupled with the Carolina Cup Challenge is in its 8th year and has been growing in size from year to year. The Carolina Cup Challenge is a sub tournament held at North Meck, every team from the Carolinas submits up to six competitors to compete in the Challenge, the team with the highest number of points at the end of the tournament gets to keep the travelling trophy--after 5 wins the state gets to retire it. The 2010 winner was Pinecrest High School. Also, the team does volunteer work teaching a debate program from March to May at nearby JM Alexander Middle School.

Notable Alumni

• DeMarco Johnson, former star of the Charlotte 49ers basketball team, Drafted 2nd round by NBA's New York Knicks in 1998
• Bishop Eddie L. Long, Senior Pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA
• Andrea Stinson, Detroit Shock WNBA Player
• Tony Wike, actor, radio personality and journalist.
• Jamie Skeen, basketball player, VCU, formally at Wake Forest University, currently playing with Asvel Basket in Villeurbanne (Lyon) France
• Stephen Haas, runner, Indiana University (IU), currently sponsored by New Balance

References

External links

• Official School Website
• Official Website of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
• Official Alumni Association Website
• Official Website of the Class of 1976
• Official Website of the Class of 1984

Coordinates: 35°22′24″N 80°50′02″W / 35.3731949°N 80.833961°W / 35.3731949; -80.833961