Pomperaug High School

Infobox_School | name = Pomperaug High School


|150px
motto =
established = 1979
colors = Grey and Red
type = Public
principal = Dr. John Smith (Interim)

faculty = 89
enrollment = 1300
nicknames =
mascot = Panther
grades = 9-12
location = 234 Judd Road
Southbury, Connecticut 06488
information = [phone]
website = http://www.pomperaug.com/

Pomperaug High School (PHS) is a public high school in Southbury, Connecticut. It is part of Regional School District 15 which serves Middlebury, Connecticut in addition to Southbury.

History

Pomperaug was built in 1979 on the border between Middlebury and Southbury, Connecticut, the two communities which it serves. It is the only high school in Region 15, and receives students who have graduated from Memorial Middle School (in Middlebury) and Rochambeau Middle School (in Southbury). Previous to the building of Pomperaug High School, the region was served by Southbury High School, the now current Rochambeau Middle School building.

Renovations completed in 2004 added a new wing with additional history labs and a special foreign language lab to better prepare students for Advanced Placement examinations. A new 2000 seat gymnasium was constructed and over 100 parking spaces were added in "the bowl," a new lot downhill from the school.

In 2006, Pomperaug completed construction on the Ed Arum athletic complex, which boasts an artificial turf field and rubberized track. The artificial turf field allows the football and field hockey teams to practice on that surface before the state tournament games, all of which are played on turf.

In 2007 new stadium seating was installed around the turf field, its first update since the school opened in 1979. The old home bleachers with seating for 500 became the new visitors bleachers and brand new bleachers with seating for 2000 were installed on the home side bringing total seating to 2500. Indoor bathroom facilies and a paved handicapp only parking lot were also installed next to the field.

In 2008, Pomperaug got a new principal, Mrs. Rodrigue, causing major dissatisfaction amoung the student body due to her controversial policies.

Schedule

The school operates on a four-day class rotation schedule, with eight daily blocks (A-H) lasting for roughly 45 minutes each.

Counterfeiting Scandal

Pomperaug was the center of local media attention during February 2005, after several students were implicated in a counterfeiting scheme. A fifteen-year-old printed one-dollar and hundred-dollar bills on his home inkjet printer and then brought them to the school cafeteria. The one-dollar bills were used to purchase lunches, while the hundred-dollar bills were placed on the ground to witness other students' reactions to finding them on the ground. The ensuing investigation involved local and federal (Secret Service) police forces and resulted in at least one arrest. While local newspapers were forbidden to publish the accused students' names on account of their age, the Waterbury Republican-American published front-page pictures of some of the defendants leaving court.

Athletics

Pomperaug also has a strong athletic tradition. They are part of the South West Conference. The field hockey team under Coach Linda Dirga reached the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) state final every year from 1996 to 2003, winning the championship in six of those years, for a total of eights state championships. The field hockey team has also won the South-West Conference title all but one year since 1994.

The Pomperaug Panthers football team finished the 2004 season undefeated, winning the Class "MM" state title over Branford.

The Pomperaug Boys Swim and Dive Team is very successful under coach Fran Pentino. They have have accumulated 8 State titles in the "M" "S" and "L" classes in the programs history. Most recently, they won back to back State Championships in 2007 (Class M) and 2008 (Class L). They also went on to win the 2008 State Open Championship, the first Open title ever for any team at Pomperaug.

In addition Pomperaug has won state championships in Boys Basketball, Track, Cross Country, Golf, Softball and Gymnastics over the years.

Pomperaug has also produced several notable athletes. Ann Pare, a star athlete in field hockey and track, went to Iowa on a full scholarship in the mid-1990s to play field hockey. C.J. and Heather Orrico went on to Yale to captain the baseball and field hockey teams. [ [http://yalebulldogs.cstv.com/sports/w-fieldh/mtt/orrico_heather09.html Player Bio: Heather Orrico :: Field Hockey ] ] Their younger sister, Jaimie, was the 2007 state player of the year in field hockey and will be attending Northwestern on an athletic scholarship. [ [http://www.courant.com/news/local/nh/hc-hsfhockplayer1226.artdec26,0,7370152.story State Player Of The Year: Jaimie Orrico, Pomperaug-Southbury - Courant.com ] ] Travis McNamara, a two-time All-America selection who won two events at the 2006 State Open, will swim at Princeton beginning in Fall 2008. [ [http://www.newstimes.com/highschool/ci_7792870 NewsTimes.com - Pomperaug star picks Princeton ] ]

Academics

Pomperaug is an academically strong public high school. Its curriculum contains approximately fifteen Advanced Placement classes. PHS is consistently ranked in the top 1000 in Newsweek's weekly list of the best American high schools. It dropped to #1200 in 2007, apparently due to a relatively weak senior class. [ [http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/?sort=Rank&count=1236&start+0&limit=100&year=2007&Search=undefined America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com ] ]

Pomperaug commonly places sutudents in top-tier colleges. Graduates from the class of 2006 went on to attend Harvard, Cornell (x3), Duke, Tufts, and the Air Force Academy. Graduates from the class of 2007 matriculated to the University of Maryland (x3), UPenn, Duke, Johns Hopkins, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt, Yale, Washington University in Saint Louis, and Wake Forest.

References

[1] http://yalebulldogs.cstv.com/sports/w-fieldh/mtt/orrico_heather00.html [2] http://www.courant.com/news/local/nh/hc-hsfhockplayer1226.artdec26,0,7370152.story [3] http://www.newstimes.com/highschool/ci_7792870? [4] http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/?sort=Rank&count=1236&start=0&limit=100&year=2007&Search=undefined

External links

* [http://www.region15.org/default.shtml Pomperaug Regional School District 15 website]