Ruston High School

Infobox high school | name = Ruston High School
established = 1921
type = 4-year, Public high school
staff = 85
students = 1,200
city = Ruston, Louisiana
country = United States
website = [http://rustonhigh.lincolnschools.org/]

Ruston High School is a 4 year public high school located in the Lincoln Parish School District of Ruston, Louisiana, United States. The school has an enrollment of approximately 1200 students with 85 faculty members; the mascot is the bearcat. The school colors are red and white. It is most recognizable to fans of the Elephant 6 collective for being the meeting place of the original four founders of the collective, Jeff Mangum, Robert Schneider, Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart.

The campus is in the National Registry of Historic Places. [" [http://www.rustonhighalumni.org/schoolhistory.html History of Ruston High School] ." "Ruston High School Alumni".]

Debate

Ruston High School Speech and Debate has won numerous state championships: Advanced Cross Examination in 2000 and 2006, Intermediate Cross Examination in 2001 and 2002, Novice Cross Examination in 2003, 2004, and 2007, Intermediate Lincoln-Douglas in 2007, Oral Interpretation in 2006, and Student Congress (Senate) in 2007. In 2007, they placed 1st in Novice Cross-Examination Debate, 1st in Declamation, 3rd in Oral Interpretation. Jake Guinn was the recipient Renaissance Award for 2007. Ruston High School placed 3rd overall at the Louisiana High School Speech League State Championships and was the recipient of the Novellen Price Ellis Rotating Sweepstakes Trophy. Gursimran Bola is the first Debate Team Manager.

Notable faculty

Oscar P. Barnes, Jr. (ca. 1921 - April 17, 2008), was band director at Winnsboro High School in Franklin Parish and assistant band director at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge before he began his tenure at Ruston High School. In 1987, he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Educators Association Hall of Fame. The City of Ruston proclaimed June 16, 2002, as Oscar P. Barnes Day. A native of Plaquemine, the seat of Iberville Parish in south Louisiana, Barnes was a former choir director of the John Knox Presbyterian Church choir. He was the first conductor of the Russtown Band and played the trombone in the band, "The Debonnaires". [ [http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/dclassifieds?Dato=20080420&Kategori=OBITUARY&Class=30&Type=CAT30200&Lopenr=804000207&Selected=9 thenewsstar.com | Monroe OBITUARY | The News Star ] ]

Harold Montgomery, a former Louisiana state senator from Bossier and Webster parishes who also operated Montgomery Feed and Seed in Ruston, taught agriculture at Ruston High School in the 1930s.

Morgan D. Peoples taught history at Ruston High School prior to 1965, when he joined the faculty of Louisiana Tech University for a 20-year career in college teaching.

Notable alumni

Founders of the prolific Elephant Six Collective, Robert Schneider, Jeff Mangum and Will Cullen Hart met at Ruston High School and graduated together. Cofounder Bill Doss attended the neighboring town's Dubach High School, not Ruston High School.

Fred Dean -- inductee into the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame, played for Louisiana Tech, San Diego Chargers, and San Francisco 49ers

Wiley W. Hilburn (Class of 1956) -- journalist and head of the Journalism Department at Louisiana Tech

Norman L. Richardson (Class of 1953) -- journalist known for front-line coverage of hurricanes

References

External links

* [http://rustonhigh.lincolnschools.org/ Official Website]
* [http://www.rustonhighalumni.org/schoolhistory.html School History from the Alumni Association]