Winter Springs High School

Winter Springs High School, is a high school in Winter Springs, Florida. It was founded in 1996 as the seventh full-time high school in Seminole County.

Winter Springs High School

Principal	Dr. Michael R. Blasewitz
School type	Public
Religious affiliation	none
Founded	1997
Location	Winter Springs, Florida
Enrollment	2410
Faculty	158
Campus surroundings	Suburban
Sports teams	Bears & Lady Bears
Club&Event Names	WSHS Cheerleaders and also "Bear" Affiliatedex: Hunny Bears, Jitter Bears, Broadway Bears, etc.
Mascot	Grizzly Bear
School color(s)	Purple & Gold

History

Winter Springs High School first opened in 1997 as the latest high school of Seminole County. Plans had gotten under way three years earlier as a result of overcrowding at Oviedo, Lake Howell and Lyman High Schools. The small community of Winter Springs successfully lobbied to have the school built in their town as a way of creating a "town identity and center, and not just be an outgrowth of the surrounding cities". [http://www.wshsbears.com/about/sac_report.pdf]

A.W. Epps was the school's first principal. When the school opened in 1997, it housed only 9th and 10th grade students. In the 1998-99 school year, there were only 9th, 10th and 11th grade students. The 1999-2000 school year was the first time that Winter Springs High School would have students from all 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade classes, thus the first class graduated in 2000. Dr. Elise Gruber became principal in 2000, and was succeeded by Dr. Michael R. Blasewitz in 2004.

ports

Winter Springs High School sponsors many interscholastic sports teams including football, cross country, volleyball, golf, track and field, lacrosse, wrestling, swimming, water polo, bowling, baseball, basketball, soccer, weightlifting, softball and tennis. The Winter Springs teams compete at the A.W. Epps Sports Complex, named after the high school's first principal.

Football

The head football coach as of the Spring of 2007 is Mike Kintz. Kintz, hired at 29, is the youngest head coach of all football teams in Seminole County. The Bears finished the 2007 season with an overall record of 7-3, 4th in district 6A-2 with a 1-3 record, and a 4-3 conference record. It was the first time in team history that the Bears finished the season 6-0 against all non-district opponents. So far he is the best coach in Winter Springs High school history.

chool rankings

The Florida Department of Education gave the school an "A" rating in the 2003-2004 school year. It also had an A rating in 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. In addition, the school is a Florida 5-star school and is also accredited by the Florida Department of Education.

This school is ranked #326 on Newsweek's 2008 list of the Best High Schools in America. [http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/?q=2008/rank/301/] .

Theater

The theater department of Winter Springs High School is one of the more successful programs in Seminole County.Fact|date=October 2007 The program has been under the direction of George Frank Colangelo since 2003. He holds a BFA in acting from SUNY Purchase, and a Masters of Arts in Theatre from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition, Mr. C (as he is known) is a member of Actors Equity and the Screen Actor's Guild, and has been a professional actor, director and writer for well over 30 years.

Major Productions include "You Can't Take It With You", "Grease", "Les Misérables", "Godspell", "Romeo and Juliet", "Lucky Stiff", the female version of the Odd Couple, which was double cast, and most recently the musical All Shook up.

Winter Springs High School Drama is active in the International Thespian Society. In 2006, the original one-act "Love Isn't Black and White" written by Keith Traver and Taylor Jeffers placed 3rd at the District Festival and then moved on to State Festival, where it received a superior rating as well.Fact|date=October 2007 The students who created Love Isn't Black and White formed Last Minute Panic Productions and took the play to The Orlando Fringe Festival in 2007, where it earned the Patron's Pick award in its venue.Fact|date=October 2007Opinions Vary.

In addition to the drama department's success, the Winter Springs High School Band Earned the highly coveted Otto Kraushaar Award for the first time in 4 years under the direction of J Adam McIntyre in April 2008.

National Prominence

In 2004, Winter Springs High School gained national attention for its excellent Safe-School Ambassador program and was featured in a segment on MSNBC. In 2005, Winter Springs High School gained national attention yet again when several Winter Springs students, riding in a limousine to prom, stopped the drunk driver and called police. This story gained national headlines, and the students were featured on several national talk shows. In addition, the major news companies, including NBC, CBS, and ABC, all aired coverage of the event. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/12/national/main687643.shtml CBS News Story]

In 2005 the school was recognized as having the second largest number of National Merit semifinalists (19) in the state of Florida. The story was featured on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel.

In 2007, Kenneth Colonel, a graduate of the class of 2007, was named the National Champion at the National Forensic League National Speech and Debate Tournament in the Student Congress House of Representatives. [ [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:VVK_jW2KrKUJ:www.orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/seminole/orl-sdebate1507jul15,0,1500440.story+%22Winter+Springs+grad+wins+war+of+words%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a|"Winter Springs grad wins war of words."] "Orlando Sentinel". 24 July 2007.]

Culinary

In 2007, seniors Matt Ponziano, Scott Ward, and Junior Taylor Tharp all received 5th place in the 7th Prostart Competition (Students were coached by Chef Jay Judy) there were over 50 schools throughout the state competing. This is the first time Winter Springs High School has ever placed in this competition.

External links

* [http://www.wshsbears.com Winter Springs High School official website]
* [http://www.wshsbears.com/about/sac_report.pdf School Advisory Council report on Winter Springs] (PDF)