Mars Hill Bible School is a nominally non-sectarian preparatory

University-preparatory school

A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...

 day school for boys and girls located in Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Florence is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the northwestern corner of the state.According to the 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the city's population was 36,721....

. The school begins at pre-kindergarten and continues through the twelfth grade.

History

Mars Hill Academy, the first predecessor of today's school was opened by T. B. Larimore on January 1, 1871. He later changed the name to Mars Hill College. The academy and college operated for 16 years teaching hundreds of young men. The college was closed in 1888 in order for Larimore to spend more time preaching.

Mars Hill Bible School was opened in 1947 through a collaboration among local churches of Christ. While Mars Hill Bible School affiliates itself with the churches of Christ and although the Mars Hill Church of Christ is next to the campus, the school is completely independent of all churches and is a fully autonomous entity.

Academics

• In 2006, 50 out of 50 graduates went to college.

• Median composite ACT score for 2006 graduates was 25, with 42% scoring over 26.

• Bible is a daily class for all students and passing this class is required for graduation.

• Chapel attendance singing Church of Christ hymns is required daily for all students.

Athletics

Men's sports Baseball Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond... Basketball Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules... Cross country Cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road... Forensics Squad National Forensic League The National Forensic League is a non-partisan, non-profit educational honor society established to encourage and motivate American high school students to participate in and become proficient in the forensic arts: debate, public speaking and interpretation. NFL is the America's oldest and largest... Golf Golf Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes.... Soccer Tennis Tennis Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all... Track and field Track and field Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

Women's sports Basketball Cheerleading Cheerleading Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate... Cross country Forensics Squad Golf Soccer Softball Softball Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand... Swimming Swimming (sport) Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...  & Diving Diving Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one... Tennis Track and field Volleyball Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

The school has won 13 Alabama High School Athletic Association

Alabama High School Athletic Association

The Alabama High School Athletic Association , based in Montgomery, is the agency which oversees interscholastic athletic programs for public schools in Alabama....

 championships, with three in baseball (including 2010), seven in girls' basketball, one on boys' golf and two in girls' track and field.

Administration

• Milton Sewell served as President of Mars Hill Bible School from 1983-1990. He is currently the chancellor at Freed Hardeman University.
• David Vester served as President of Mars Hill Bible School from 1994-2000. He is a National Christian School Association board member who has since served as President at Dallas Christian School
  Dallas Christian School
  Dallas Christian School is a nominally non-sectarian preparatory day school for boys and girls located in Mesquite, Texas. The school offers classes for students ranging from pre-kindergarten through the twelfth grade...
  
   and later at Nashville Christian School
  Nashville Christian School
  Nashville Christian School is a private school located outside of Bellevue, in Nashville, Tennessee.-History:...
  
  .
• Dr. Kenny Barfield has served as President since 2000. He is the author of The Prophet Motive and Why The Bible is Number One.

Notable alumni

The following list of notable alumni is arranged by Class year and surname.

Benefit Dinner

Every year Mars Hill Bible School hosts a large Benefit Dinner, featuring celebrity speakers, to raise money for the school's General Fund. Past keynote speakers include:

• 1980 - Jerry Clower
  Jerry Clower
  Howard Gerald "Jerry" Clower was a popular country comedian best known for his stories of the rural South. He was often nicknamed "The Mouth of the South", although this title has also been used for other individuals.Clower began a 2-year stint in the Navy immediately after graduating high school...
  
  
• 1985 - Zig Ziglar
  Zig Ziglar
  Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar is an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker.-Biography:Zig Ziglar was born in Coffee County, Alabama, to parents John Silas Ziglar and Viola Ziglar...
  
  
• 1986 – Art Linkletter
  Art Linkletter
  Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...
  
  
• 1987 - Paul Harvey
  Paul Harvey
  Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...
  
  
• 1989 - Gene Stallings
  Gene Stallings
  Eugene Clifton Stallings, Jr. is a former American football player and coach. He played college football at Texas A&M University , where he was one of the "Junction Boys", and later served as the head coach at his alma mater from 1965 to 1971. Stallings was also the head coach of the St...
  
  
• 1991 – Minnie Pearl
  Minnie Pearl
  Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
  
  
• 1992 – Jack Anderson
  Jack Anderson
  Jack Northman Anderson was an American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the fathers of modern investigative journalism...
  
  
• 1993 - Jack Kemp
  Jack Kemp
  Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...
  
  
• 1995 – Marilyn Quayle
  Marilyn Quayle
  Marilyn Tucker Quayle is an American lawyer, novelist, and political figure who is the wife of former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle and held the unofficial title of Second Lady of the United States from 1989 until 1993....
  
  
• 1997 - Heather Whitestone
  Heather Whitestone
  Heather Leigh Whitestone McCallum is a former beauty queen who was the first deaf Miss America title holder, having lost most of her hearing at the age of 18 months.-Early life:...
  
  
• 1998 – Jim Lovell
  Jim Lovell
  James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission...
  
  
• 1999 - Scott O'Grady
  Scott O'Grady
  Scott Francis O'Grady is a former USAF Captain and former United States Air Force fighter pilot who gained prominence after the June 2, 1995 Mrkonjić Grad incident, in which he ejected over Bosnia when his F-16C was shot down by a Bosnian Serb SA-6 while he was patrolling the no-fly zone...
  
  
• 2001 - Bobby Bowden
  Bobby Bowden
  Robert Cleckler "Bobby" Bowden is a retired college football coach. He coached the Florida State Seminoles football team from the 1976 to 2009 seasons...
  
  
• 2002 - Archie Manning
  Archie Manning
  Elisha Archibald "Archie" Manning III is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League, playing for the New Orleans Saints from 1971 to 1982, then for the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings...
  
  
• 2003 – Jim Morris
  Jim Morris
  James "Jimmy" Samuel Morris, JR is a former American professional baseball player known for his brief Major League Baseball career....
  
  
• 2004 - Richard Picciotto
• 2005 – Dave Dravecky
  Dave Dravecky
  David Francis Dravecky is a Christian motivational speaker, author, and former Major League Baseball player for the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants...
  
  
• 2006 – Truett Cathy
• 2008 - Rece Davis
  Rece Davis
  Rece Davis is a sports television journalist for ESPN. Davis works as an anchor on SportsCenter, and host of various other programs on the network.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• 2010 - Don Meyer
  Don Meyer
  Don Meyer is a retired American college basketball coach who completed his career in 2010 as head coach of the men's team at Northern State University...
  
  

External links

• http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/tblarimore/marshill/Page.html
• http://www.privateschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/170
• http://www.nflonline.org/points_application/schoolprofile.php?id=3734
• http://www.mhbook.com/
• http://www.lambertbookhouse.com/index.html
• http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061112/NEWS/611120333/1011