Western Hills High School (Benbrook, Texas)

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Western Hills High School is a secondary school located in Fort Worth, Texas U.S.A.

The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Fort Worth Independent School District.

Western Hills serves portions of West Fort Worth and all of the city of Benbrook.

The current number of Western Hills is 817 560 5600.

Contents

[edit] School history

The Western Hills community encompasses the urban area surrounding the school, the Benbrook City area, and the rural section west to the Tarrant County line. Formerly, the city of Benbrook had its own school system. In 1954, all Benbrook students above the sixth grade were transferred to the Fort Worth ISD. In 1962, the Benbrook School District was consolidated into the Fort Worth system, busing the high school students to North Side High School or Arlington Heights High School and its junior high schools to J.P. Elder or William Monnig Junior High. Western Hills was first opened on the campus of Arlington Heights High School in the fall of 1968 with 714 students crowded into thirteen temporary buildings. In January 1969, this student body proudly moved into its new home on the twenty-five acre tact in West Fort Worth at 3600 Boston Avenue. In 1972, the steady growth and development of the district is reflected by the increase in enrollment from the original 714 to 2,243 due to the recent employement of many families working at Lockheed Martin which gave West Fort Worth a boost in population and also gave the school a population boom because of this. The student body was housed not only in the main building with one level but also in 23 portable buildings. In 1980, the student population started a steady decline to 2,052. At the beginning of the 1980-1981 school year, the school building was expanded to two floors and eliminated the portable buildings. In 1991, the decline of student enrollment had tapered off to 1503 because many people that had worked at Lockheed Martin had got laid off from their jobs and forced to find new work so as they left the student enrollment decreased by at least 500 students. At the present time, the school enrollment fluctuates 1503 to 1461 and 13 portable buildings have been added to the campus.[1]

[edit] Mascot and team colors

The school mascot is the Cougars.

The western hills cougars symbol
The western hills cougars symbol

The offical school colors for the Western Hills Cougars are green and gold and the Throwback colors of the early times at the High School were yellow and green.

[edit] Feeder patterns

The following elementary schools feed into Western Hills High School

Elementary

Luella Merrett

Waverly Park

Western Hills

Western Hills Primary

and Westpark.

Middle School

Leonard 6th Grade Center

Leonard Middle School

[edit] Sports

Wrestling Western Hills was only one of three schools in FWISD to have a wrestling team

Baseball: In 2001 Western Hills won the Texas 4A State baseball championship.

Football: Andy Johnson, Travis Brim, and Bryan Trice were selected for the Texas AAAA All-State Academic Football Team in 2007.

The Freshman Football Team went to the District Championship game Against Rival School Arlington Heights in which they lost to a score of 24-28 in the 2007-2008 Season.

Whiz Quiz: All time points leader: Martin Cleworth scored 68,956,367,867 cumulative points in WQ Varsity career(2006-2007)

[edit] Fine Arts

The Pride of Benbrook Cougar Marching Band has been a sweepstakes band for the past four consecutive years, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 winning straight one's in UIL Competition; Marching, Concert, and Sight Reading. Winning the first Sweepstakes award in a long time for the band under the direction of Shawn Murphy and Color Guard director Mike Blade, in the 2004-05 school year was a tremendous success for the band. In 2006 the Cougar Marching band went under new leadership and direction, under the direction of well recognized band director Joe Dolkos and newly appointed assistant band director James Buckner and percussion director Felix Torres, who marched with the famous DCI World Championship group the Cavaliers with their show of The Planets. In 2006 the Cougar Marching Band for the first time made it to UIL Area B Marching Finals, placing 6th with the award winning show Chronometry by Key Poulan and for the second year in a row made a Division I at the Fort Worth ISD Marching Contest. In 2007 the Mighty Cougar Band, with their show The Planets, placed 2nd in Finals at the Aledo Unleash the Sound Marching Festival and received a Division I rating with straight one's at their UIL Region 7 Competition, and for a third year received a Division I rating, being the only marching band in Fort Worth ISD at the contest to receive a Division I. The Color Guard as well received 3rd Place overall at the NTCA Color Guard Championship medaling in Bronze. In 2007, the band again came under new leadership and direction with Eric M. Mullins as Director of Bands, Michael Serbantez as the Percussion Director, and Emil McKay as the new Color guard Technician. With the Grade 4 show The Rise and Fall Of Rome again by Key Poulan the Mighty Cougar Band once again received a Division I rating at the Fort Worth ISD Marching Contest and the Color Guard again receiving Best Color Guard award for the fourth consecutive year in a row to win the award. The band also placed 8th in Finals at the Aledo Unleash the Sound Marching Festival as well placing 5th overall at the USSBA Marching Contest, and was the only Fort Worth ISD band to advance to the UIL Area B and UIL Area B Finals competition. The bands Wind Symphony also received straight Division I ratings in Concert and Sight Reading for the fourth school year in a row, during their Concert Season with the pieces Pentland Hills, Incantation and Dance, and La Fiesta Mexicana Mvt. 3 Carnival.The Symphonic Band of Western Hills also received straight Division I ratings for the first time in their second year of participating in UIL Competition.

Shows of the Western Hills High School Mighty Cougar Band(Since 2005)

  • 2005-2006

-Chronometry by Key Poulan (Grade 3)

Movement 1 GrandFather Clock

Movement 2 Hourglass

Movement 3 Stopwatch

  • 2006-2007

-The Planets by Key Poulan (Grade 5)

Movement 1 Mars

Movement 2 Jupiter and Saturn

  • 2007-2008

-The Rise and Fall of Rome by Key Poulan (Grade 4+)

Movement 1 Chisels and Stone

Movement 2 Catacombs

Movement 3 Pagan Dance and The Great Fire

  • 2008-2009

-Arabia by John Wasson (Grade 4)

Music from the 1962 7 Academy-Award Winning movie Lawrence of Arabia

Movement 1 Overture

Movement 2 Caravan (By Duke Ellington)

[edit] External links

[edit] Class reunions

Western Hills High School Class of 1996 10 Year Reunion

[edit] References

  1. ^ WHHS School History. whhsinfo.org. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.