Sullivan Central High School

Infobox School
name= Sullivan Central High School


imagesize=
streetaddress= 131 Shipley Ferry Rd
city= Blountville
state= Tennessee
zipcode= 37617
country= USA
url= [http://www.scde.k12.tn.us/metadot/index.pl?id=2211&isa=Category&op=show Official Site]
district= Sullivan County Department of Education
superintendent=
principal= Melanie Riden
assistant_principals= Dee Musser, Kim Kirk, and Keith Gibson
staff=
fundingtype= Public
schooltype= high school
grades= 9-12
language= English
faculty=
communities=
feeders= Blountville Middle School and Holston Middle School
campus=
mascot= Cougars
newspaper=
colors= colorbox|Blue Blue and colorbox|orange Orange
founded= 1968
enrollment=
enrollment_as_of=
rival= Sullivan East,
Sullivan North,
Sullivan South,
Dobyns Bennett,
Science Hill
conference=
athletics= Baseball, Basketball, Cheerleading, Cross-Country, Football, Golf, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Tennis, Track, Volleyball

Sullivan Central High School is a 9th through 12th grade high school in Blountville, Tennessee. It has around 1000 students annually. The two middle schools that feed into Central are Blountville Middle School and Holston Middle School. The school's mascot is the cougar. The current principal is Melanie Riden.

History

The school opened in 1968, and eventually expanded by means of a classroom addition and a vocational building in 1978. The only construction since that time has been a football fieldhouse, which opened in the fall of 1997.

Athletics

The school has athletic teams in all traditional varsity sports, including football, soccer, basketball, track, cross country, tennis, baseball, softball, and volleyball. Despite its relatively small enrollment, the school fields three football teams each fall; freshman, junior varsity, and varsity, as well as three men's basketball teams in the same divisions. Central maintains intense rivalries with the other three Sullivan County schools, South, North, and East, as well as with the local city schools of Kingsport, Dobyns Bennett and Johnson City Science Hill.

Boy's basketball

The basketball teams play in the Dickie Warren Dome, which was named after one of the greatest Tennessee basketball coaches of all time during the 04-05 season. Its boy's basketball team is coached by Tony Vaughn and he has coached his teams to 20 wins in each of the past six seasons, including a state tournament berth in 2005 in which they went 25-11 that season and won the Watuaga Conf. runner ups in the District 1-AA Tournament, Champions of the Region 1-2 AA Tournament and also beat Alco during their Sub State game. Significantly, the school was forced to move up in classification the following season, but still finished with 24 wins and won the TSSAA's District 1-AAA Tournament Championship. The 07-08 cougars how ever gave the school their first losing record in over seven years and the first in seven years they did not advance to the regional tournament. Many of the local residents say this may have been caused from the politics of the team this year.

Boy's Soccer

The Sullivan Central Soccer team is one of the school's most successful athletic programs, despite the adversity it faces. For 4 consecutive years coaches have been moving in and out, and with little to no student backing soccer is one of the least popular things at Sullivan Central. Despite this the Cougars 07-08 season was one of the most successful in the programs history. They had a record of 13-6 and ended their season in a semi-final game against rival Science Hill losing the game 2-1. They also defeated there biggest rival Sullivan South. While the 07-08 season was great the 08-09 season looks even better with the return of players Bennett Becker, Kenneth Long, Neyland Hopkins, Austin Culberson, Ben Martin, Shaun Behne, John Long, Dylan Van-Tyne, Sean Inglett, Tyler Plunkett, Jake Doran, Evan Dumke, Dakota Sillyman, Zack Shelton (who had his collarbone broken by an Elizabethan player after scoring the team's only goal that game.) The program has also produced King College's newest player Brent Baker.

Band

From its beginnings in the early 70's, the Sullivan Central High School Band has thrived and become an integral part of the school and surrounding community. Under the leadership of past outstanding directors such as Pete Pino, George Naff, Bill Canny, Al Doty, Bonnell Young, and Rod Dye, the band has received numerous superior ratings at festivals and contests across the southeast.

The Cougar Band program now under the direction of Chris Smithson consists of around 90 students performing in various groups and ensembles that consistently receive superior ratings at regional and state events. Many Sullivan Central High School band members also represent the school in the all-county, all-state, and all-district bands as well as participate in many regional, state, and national honor bands.

Central's band has placed first in many competitions throughout the region over many years.Fact|date=June 2008 Along with the marching band program and concert band, they have a jazz ensemble, winterguard, and percussion ensemble. http://www.sullivancentralband.org

Vandalism

On May 16 2008, four seniors broke into the school spray painted the math, science, and english pod lockers, the walls through out the main building, while also cementing the math lockers. The following school day, the school principal had locked all of the gates and other doors to the main building until the students responsible for the vandalism came forward. All damages had been repaired by 10:00 AM when classes resumed. The four seniors were caught. Three of the four seniors are facing jail time and one is facing JCDC, a court date will determine their consequences. All will graduate with their diploma, but will not walk on graduation night. Two of the four seniors had athletic scholarships which have now been suspended due to the records they now hold.Fact|date=June 2008

Faculty and administration

Central High School has a total of 76 teachers and administrators. The principal is Melanie Riden. Assistant principals are Dee Musser, Kim Kirk, and Keith Gibson.

External links

* [http://www.scde.k12.tn.us/metadot/index.pl?id=2211 Sullivan Central Homepage]

* [http://www.sullivancentralband.org Sullivan Central's Band Web Page]