Colleyville Heritage High School

Fresh Fish In The Building
"The Traditions Begin"
Location
5401 Heritage Avenue Colleyville, Texas, Tarrant County, 76034 United States
Information
Type	Co-Educational, Public, Secondary
School district	Grapevine-Colleyville I.S.D.
Principal	Becky Prentice
Grades	9-12
Number of students	2,385[1]
Color(s)
Mascot	Panthers
Website	Colleyville Heritage Panthers

Colleyville Heritage High School is a public secondary school in Colleyville, Texas, United States, a city in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The school is a part of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District.

CHHS is located several miles west and in sight of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The high school has been categorized as one of the top 100 high schools in the United States of America by the Newsweek magazine's Challenge Index.^[2] Colleyville Heritage High School celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006. The school became the focus of national attention during a 2005 steroid scandal involving multiple student-athletes.^[3] This episode and others like it in the Metroplex, would lead to publication of an award-winning feature in The Dallas Morning News on high school PED abuse and the introduction of random drug testing for students in UIL-sponsored school activities. Students come from Heritage Middle School, half of Grapevine Middle School and half of Colleyville Middle School. Although Colleyville Heritage is in Colleyville, only 45% of its student body lives in Colleyville, while the other 50% lives in Grapevine and 5% lives in Euless.^{[citation needed]}

History

On March 1, 1994 the Cadence Group General Contractor began clearing the 64 acres (260,000 m²) between Heritage Avenue and State Highway 121 that would be eventually become Colleyville Heritage High School. CHHS opened its doors on August 15, 1996 with a student population of 1,369, making it the second high school in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. It is located across the street from Heritage Elementary and Middle School, which feed into the high school.

Academics

CHHS has the distinction of being recognized on a repeated basis by Newsweek magazine as one of the nation’s top 100 high schools based on students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses and success in those courses. The school offers over 17 AP courses for students beginning as early as their freshman year. In addition, CHHS offers dual enrollment courses in conjunction with Tarrant County College and work programs through Career and Technology Education classes.^[4]

Athletics

Football

Colleyville Football in the early 2000's

Colleyville Heritage Panther Football currently competes in UIL Division 6-5A and has enjoyed several successful seasons in recent years, including a run to the Texas state quarterfinals in 2006. Grapevine plays in a spirited rivalry with the crosstown CHHS. The Panthers' first rivalry win drew a stadium crowd of 11,298 saw Colleyville's first win against rival Grapevine in 2001 season, 33-14. Heritage went on that year to become district champions for the first time with a 10-2 record (second best in school history). CHHS best regular season record came in 2011 when the varsity team went 9-1 with its only loss to the #1 ranked Trinity Trojans in a thrilling 3-point overtime loss.

Varsity football plays its home games at Mustang-Panther Stadium, a 9,100-seat multi-purpose venue which it shares with Grapevine High School. The facility includes an artificial turf field, running track, field house, enclosed press box, as well as a video scoreboard installed in 2007. The junior varsity and freshman football teams play their games on the CHHS campus at a smaller facility.

Baseball

Panther Baseball saw some success in the 2010 season with a 27-5-1 record (12-2 in district play), Where one point in the season they were ranked 1st in State by the coaches poll and 1st in the nation by ESPN The Rise. But finished off the season ranked 14th in the state of Texas.^[5] The team makes plays at Panther Field.

Hockey

The Colleyville Heritage Non-UIL Varsity Hockey team took the 2008 City Championship over Frisco High School and won the Silver State Championship against Birdville High School in overtime. It was the school's first team state championship.

Steroid Controversy

Colleyville Heritage became the focus of a district investigation during the 2004-2005 school year after a Panther football/baseball player and his mother confronted school administrators and GCISD about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The student came forward only after his mother discovered a bag full of syringes and vials of liquids in his bedroom closet. The school and district officials dismissed the mother's claims, and the school's head football coach went as far calling her a "liar" in a Dallas Morning News interview.^[6] Under mounting pressure from district officials, local and national media, and law enforcement, a total of nine other CHHS athletes confessed to use of steroids and other PEDs. In February 2005, The Dallas Morning News published an in-depth report entitled "The Secret Edge", a look at the topic of steroids in high school sports. One section on the report's website (seen here) was called "Colleyville Heritage's team secret".^[6]

A Grapevine High student mocks the scandal during the annual game.

The scandal at CHHS, as well as the well-publicized suicide of a student-athlete in Plano, Texas led to the implementation of random drug testing by the University Interscholastic League in 2007.^{[citation needed]} The testing became controversial, as students in UIL-sponsored extracurricular activities including band, choir, and theatre became subject to random drug screenings.^{[citation needed]} In more recent years, the UIL has slowly begun to lessen the number tests due to costs.^{[citation needed]}

Fine Arts

The Panther Band, Percussion, and Colorguard

The Colleyville Heritage Panther Band has enjoyed a colorful past dating back to the creation of CHHS in 1996. Each season, the band consistently places highly at local, regional, and national marching competitions, winning the Carrollton Tournament of Bands in October 2005. The band itself makes frequent performances around the country, performing in locales such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Antonio in the last decade alone. In 2008, members of the band performed in West Lothian, Scotland, an international sister city of Colleyville.

The Panther Band represented the state of Texas in the 2003 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and attended the Bands of America Grand Nationals competition in 2008 held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Additionally, many of its upperclassmen members audition and perform during the summer with Drum Corps International, as well as exclusive UIL Region, Area, and State groups.

Percussion students often perform with and against other ensembles at various levels of competition. The Panther Drumline frequently wins caption awards at various contests as part of the larger marching band, a testament to its consistency.

Theatre

The Colleyville Heritage Theatre department has existed since the school's opening. Its curriculum features courses ranging from beginning to advanced acting, technical theatre, and also directing. Numerous productions are performed in the school's main auditorium and more intimate black box theater throughout the year; past productions have included West Side Story, Oklahoma!, Bye Bye Birdie, and Anything Goes. In addition to its regular season, the department also works each year to compete in the Texas UIL one-act play competition. The department has been involved in the International Thespian Society (Troupe 5610), even presenting the play Bang, Bang You're Dead at the Society's annual conference, which came to Texas in 2003.

Speech and Debate

The Colleyville debate team has been in existence since 1996. The team has won the Texas Forensics Association state tournament multiple times, in addition to being highly competitive at the national level.

Notable alumni

• Jaimie Alexander '02, actor (Kyle XY, Thor)
• Disco Curtis '10, rock band made up of alumni
• Christian Ponder '06, 12th overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2011 NFL Draft

References

1. ^ Texas Education Agency - School Directory - type in school number "220906004" and select "view report." Retrieved 31 March 2007.
2. ^ Newsweek.com The Top of the Class Retrieved September 24, 2008
3. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7210753/
4. ^ http://www.gcisd-k12.org/173420916103324503/site/default.asp
5. ^ http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/qrlVzekjOUKeqS_aaHBt6g/heritage-panthers/baseball-spring-09/home.htm
6. ^ ^{a b} http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2005/steroids/index.html

Dallas portal

Coordinates: 32°53′17″N 97°06′11″W / 32.888008°N 97.10318°W / 32.888008; -97.10318