Mishawaka High School
Encyclopedia
Mishawaka High School is a public high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 located in Mishawaka
Mishawaka, Indiana
Mishawaka is a city on the St. Joseph River and a Twin city of South Bend in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States. The population was 48,252 as of the 2010 Census...

, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

. The school educates about 1,700 students and is part of the School City of Mishawaka district.

History

The first Mishawaka High School was proposed by the Mishawaka Town Board in May, 1873. It was a three-story building located on the corner of Hill Street and West Second Street (now Lincoln Way West) on the site of the Main Junior High School playground at 301 Lincoln Way West. On the third floor was Whitson Hall, used only for entertainment and graduation exercises. Five rooms on the second, including two grade rooms and three other rooms, were used for high school. On the first floor, there were five other class rooms.

The first school board consisted of W. W. Butterworth and J. Q. C. VanDenbosh. David Zook was the first principal and E. L. Hallock, the superintendent. The school had only six teachers, two of whom were students in attendance. The first class graduated in 1878.

The present Mishawaka High School was built by the Mishawaka Board of Education in 1924. It is a three story building on Lincoln Way East between Wenger and Gernhart Streets covering four square blocks including the track and football field. The auditorium and cafeteria were built after the main part of the high school was occupied. The auditorium was finished in 1925, just in time for the seniors to present their play, and the cafeteria was completed only a few weeks before the summer vacation. The original gym was remodeled in 1959 to accommodate two full-sized gymnasium floors and provide a total seating capacity of 4,000. An additional wing was added in 1963 providing nine classrooms, a reading laboratory, a foreign language laboratory, a music room, and a study hall. The grounds were carefully planned by landscape gardeners before the building was built. The present shrubbery in the foreground of the building was a joint effort in graduating classes and the student council contributions. The gold letters, Mishawaka High School, were put on the front of the building in 1931.

The building and equipping of Mishawaka High School originally cost $800,000. The gym was remodeled in 1959 at a cost of approximately $600,000. The classroom wing built in 1963 cost $650,000. To construct and equip. The building and equipping of the stadium completed in 1939, cost approximately $130,000. The Board of Control provided approximately $55,000. toward in its construction and equipment. The Baldwin electric organ in the auditorium was given to the school in 1950 by the Lion’s Club of Mishawaka, in memory of Mr. W. W. French. The entire school was rewired and fluorescent lighting added in 1953-1954 at a cost of $125,000.

A four-year renovation project (1976-1980) has resulted in an extensive modernization of the indoor and outdoor facilities of the high school. Major areas of improvement included the auditorium, the cafeteria, the gymnasium, the library, the administrative offices, the industrial education wing, the hallways, the classrooms, and the stadium. The total cost of the project was just under four million dollars.

In 1984, another phase of the Mishawaka High School remodeling and expansion was completed. Newly constructed and located between the cafeteria and the Industrial Education Department is a two-story addition that houses the Music Department on the first floor and classrooms on the second. The kitchen and cafeteria facilities were expanded in order to provide food service to Beiger School and to improve service to our own high school students. The media center (library) was more than doubled in size and affords our students with increased opportunities for research and study.

In January, 1988, a new gym/pool complex was completed. Included in this facility are a wrestling room, a weight room, an all purpose room, and a 1/10 mile running track.

In fall of 1999 the science and technology wing was completed along with a new television studio., The new addition features eleven bran new science labs equipped with all the amenities necessary for conducting science class in the year 2000 and beyond.

The industrial technology portion of the facility houses a manufacturing lab where students learn about hydraulics, pneumatics, C-N-C lathes, and milling machines. The industrial technology wing also features a CAD (computer-aided design) lab where students are taught drafting skills with the aid of a computer. In the engineering lab the students learn to design buildings and community facilities. There is also a transportation lab where students learn about transportation of people and things on land, air, water, and rail. In the construction lab, students learn about each aspect of construction including foundations, framing, roof systems, and the materials used for various reasons such as climate and other purposes. The integrated lab melds all of the technologies from the other labs. As a result of the new construction, Mishawaka High School now totals 319949 square feet (29,724.2 m²) and sits on 16.36 acres (66,206.6 m²).

The school district measures about five miles (8 km) from east to west by three miles from north to south.

Sports

Boys
, and 2010. The team was ranked 18th nationally in the Amateur Wrestling News Prep 40 rankings released on March 16, 2010.

Football - Three-time Indiana big school football champions since 1920, the Cavemen, in 2009 (after a 28-year drought), defeated perennial state power and arch-rival Penn High School
Penn High School
Penn High School is a public high school located just outside of Mishawaka, Indiana, USA, near South Bend. It is the one high school in the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation...

 twice, advancing to the "Elite Eight" in the state. The 2010 Cavemen responded with an undefeated season and successfully defended their sectional title by scoring with 5.6 seconds in the game to force a tie against.Penn and then winning in overtime, 14-7. The football team was ranked as high as #3 in Indiana (Associated Press 5A Poll) in 2010 before losing to Valparaiso 21-14 in the regional title game. Joe Herman, the varsity kicker, has never missed a point-after-touchdown conversion.

Girls

Volleyball - Mishawaka volleyball was a dominant force in IHSAA volleyball under the coaching of Steve Anderson with 16 appearances in the IHSAA state finals, winning state titles in 1980, 1983, and 1988. Mishawaka volleyball teams have also won a total of 12 semi-state titles (currently a state record), 18 regional titles, and 20 sectional titles.

The Mishawaka Poms squad were second runner up in the state champions in the kick dance division in the year 2000.

Rivals include Penn, Mishawaka Marian
Mishawaka Marian High School
Marian High School is a Roman Catholic secondary school in Mishawaka, Indiana in the United States, operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Marian was a top 50 school in 2005 noted on the Catholic High School Honor Roll...

, and South Bend Clay.

Notable Alumni

  • Sharon Versyp
    Sharon Versyp
    Sharon Versyp is a former American basketball player and current head coach of the Purdue University women’s basketball team.-References:...

    , 1984 Miss Basketball winner, and current head coach for the Purdue University
    Purdue University
    Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

    women's basketball team

External links

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