Norcross High School
Encyclopedia
Norcross High School is located in Norcross, Georgia
. It is part of the Gwinnett County Public Schools
. It serves the cities of Norcross and Peachtree Corners
.
The current Norcross High School occupies a 440000 square feet (40,877.3 m²) facility at 5300 Spalding Drive, Norcross, Georgia that opened in August 2001. Jonathan Patterson has been school principal at Norcross since August 2006. Norcross is the only high school in the Gwinnett County school system to have the IB Diploma Programme
(1999).
s were issued for a new modern brick
schoolhouse
in 1903, and another bond issue approved an additional school in 1914. These buildings stood side by side on College Street for many years in the center of Norcross and were preceded by an old wooden building at the same site. Before this older wooden school was destroyed, it became very unsteady.
After the second red-brick building was constructed as a grammar school
, the first building became Norcross High School. Both of the brick schools were demolished several years ago, although the first building was in use until 1970.
According to a booklet compiled in 1923 and reprinted recently, the rural schools surrounding Norcross were Beaver Ruin with 60 students, Glover with 172, Mechanicsville with 87, and Pittman with 60. Crabapple School, which was located at Pinckneyville, had apparently closed earlier.
In 1933, a report printed in Flanigan's History, Volume I, stated, "Norcross has three buildings valued at $60,000, and used thirteen teachers. For many years this has been one of the best schools in the county and is accredited first class." A school for black children was located near Hopewell Baptist Church at that time, according to Clara Nesbit.
Norcross Elementary School was built in 1939, and the Board of Trustees of the Norcross Consolidated School System listed on the cornerstone were H. L. Sudderth, J. Howard Webb, B. F. Summerour, B. W. Westbrook and C. A. Garner. This school is still in use, although many additions have been built through the years. With the completion of the new elementary school, the two older buildings 'on the hill' became Norcross High School.
When West Gwinnett High School was built in 1957, parents of Duluth
students objected to consolidation and fought successfully to have a new high school built in Duluth. The citizens of Norcross later asked to have the name West Gwinnett changed back to Norcross High School.
The school colors, blue and white, and the school mascot, the Blue Devil, were chosen by the students in 1957 when football was played as a school sport for the first time.
, a grade 6-12 alternative school
.
is the Blue Devil
. The school competes in football, baseball
, softball
, track and field
, cross country
, swimming
and diving
, wrestling
, golf
, soccer, tennis
, volleyball
, competitive cheerleading
, and roller hockey
.
Norcross High's athletic program http://www.norcrosshigh.org/athletics/athletics_main.htm has received recognition in recent years for its boys' basketball
program, coached by Eddie Martin. Norcross varsity boys basketball team won the Class AAAAA Georgia state championship in 2006, 2007,2008, and 2011 after finishing as the state runner-up in 2005. The boy's basketball team has had press coverage in USA Today
, which ranked the Blue Devils as the #2 high school basketball program in the nation in a preseason poll, and through ESPN2
, which carried a national broadcast of the Blue Devils' game against #1 ranked Oak Hill Academy
(VA) in December 2006. The 2007-2008 team was featured on ESPN2
(in a victory against Helen Cox). On Friday, March 7, 2008, the team won their third consecutive state title. This has not been done in the AAAAA classification since the years of 1938-1940 by Lanier High School
. This "three-peat" was won against their 2004 rivals, Wheeler High School
. The team is currently ranked at #6 nationally.
In 2008, basketball coach Eddie Martin ended his six year run with Norcross High School. Martin now coaches basketball at Greater Atlanta Christian School
where he first began his coaching career. http://google.com/search?q=cache:Eig3QviLEW0J:www.ajc.com/hotjobs/content/sports/highschool/stories/2008/06/24/martin_0625.html+norcross+eddie+martin+gac&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Norcross's football team had some success in the early 1990s, including region championships in 1991 and 1994. However, the Blue Devils had their most successful season in 2006 under head coach Keith Maloof. The varsity football team went undefeated in the regular season, winning their region and earning a #1 state ranking at the end of the regular season by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They eventually lost in the third round of the state AAAAA playoffs to Warner Robins High School
.
In the 2006-2007 school year, Norcross became the only school in the nation to achieve an extraordinary trifecta
when the Norcross basketball team finished #12 in the final USA Today rankings, the football team appeared in the final regular season national rankings, and the Norcross Academic Team competed in the NAQT National Championships in Chicago, Illinois.
So far in the 2007-2008 school year, Norcross High School has won their region in football, volleyball, and basketball, and ranked top 10 in the state preseason for baseball and girls soccer.
The girls have also won the basketball state championship for the past two years 2010 and 2011. They have great players one being the famous USA national player Diamond Dashields.
Also, the Men's Cross Country team Placed third at the State meet in 2011. The third place finish beats the former best finish of 4th, which happened in the 80's.
In 2000, 2005 and 2010 the band was a guest performing ensemble at the University of Georgia
January Music Festival. The Wind Symphony also performed at the Georgia Music Educators Association Convention in January 2007.
The Wind Symphony has received the William D. Revelli Concert Band Award for first place in 2009 in New York and in 2007 in Chicago. The program was also awarded the Dr. Tim Lautzenheimer Esprit de Corps Award at the 2009 Festivals of Music in New York.
The Norcross High School Marching Band has grown from 110 members in 2002 to 170 members in 2006. The band consistently earns "superior" ratings and in 2004 came away Grand Champion of the Rome Marching Classic with the show "Movin' Out: the Music of Billy Joel
." In 2007 the marching band won 1st place at the Southern Invitational at Sprayberry High School. Awards and trophies included Best in Class Percussion, Best in Class Band, High Music Award, High Effect Award, and Gold Division Grand Champion.
The concert band program consists of four groups: the Concert Band, the Symphonic Band, Symphonic Winds, and the Wind Symphony. 34 members of the Norcross band earned seats in the District XIII Honor Bands in the 2006-2007 school year.
is made up of approximately 150 students and is directed by Juana Alzaga, the four orchestras (in order of performance level), the Chamber ensemble, the Philharmonic, and two Symphonic. All allow violin
ists, violist
s, cellist
s, and bassist
s to perform string music.
In 2005, while under the direction of Cathy Hudnall, the Norcross Philharmonic Orchestra was the featured performance group at the UGA Fall Orchestra Camp and received an invitation to perform at the GMEA Music Conference in Savannah, Georgia. The Philharmonic also finished as the top public school orchestra in the nation at the 2006 American String Teacher Association's National Orchestra Festival in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2007, Norcross High and it's feeder orchestra from Pinckneyville Middle
School, under the direction of Carol Kane, had more orchestra players qualify for the GMEA All-State Orchestra than any other high school in the state of Georgia. The school's Philharmonic Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall in New York in April 2007. Unfortunately, the orchestra program has declined in both size and quality under the direction of Juana Alzaga.
Norcross, Georgia
As of 2010 Norcross had a population of 9,116. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 40.8% white , 19.8% black or African American , 0.7% Native American, 2.1% Asian Indian, 10.7% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 21.5% from some other race and 4.3% reporting two or more races...
. It is part of the Gwinnett County Public Schools
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Gwinnett County Public Schools is a school district operating in Gwinnett County, Georgia, USA. GCPS is the largest school system in Georgia, with 123 schools and an estimated enrollment of 161,000 students for the 2010-2011 year. GCPS is estimated to be the 14th largest school district in the...
. It serves the cities of Norcross and Peachtree Corners
Peachtree Corners, Georgia
Peachtree Corners is a city in western Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a northern suburb of Atlanta, located east of Dunwoody and south of Johns Creek. Out of all of Atlanta's northern suburbs, Peachtree Corners is the only one that was developed as a planned community...
.
The current Norcross High School occupies a 440000 square feet (40,877.3 m²) facility at 5300 Spalding Drive, Norcross, Georgia that opened in August 2001. Jonathan Patterson has been school principal at Norcross since August 2006. Norcross is the only high school in the Gwinnett County school system to have the IB Diploma Programme
IB Diploma Programme
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a two-year educational programme for students aged 16–19that provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into higher education, and is recognised by universities worldwide. It was developed in the early to mid-1960s in Geneva by...
(1999).
The 1900s
Municipal bondMunicipal bond
A municipal bond is a bond issued by a city or other local government, or their agencies. Potential issuers of municipal bonds includes cities, counties, redevelopment agencies, special-purpose districts, school districts, public utility districts, publicly owned airports and seaports, and any...
s were issued for a new modern brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
schoolhouse
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
in 1903, and another bond issue approved an additional school in 1914. These buildings stood side by side on College Street for many years in the center of Norcross and were preceded by an old wooden building at the same site. Before this older wooden school was destroyed, it became very unsteady.
After the second red-brick building was constructed as a grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, the first building became Norcross High School. Both of the brick schools were demolished several years ago, although the first building was in use until 1970.
According to a booklet compiled in 1923 and reprinted recently, the rural schools surrounding Norcross were Beaver Ruin with 60 students, Glover with 172, Mechanicsville with 87, and Pittman with 60. Crabapple School, which was located at Pinckneyville, had apparently closed earlier.
In 1933, a report printed in Flanigan's History, Volume I, stated, "Norcross has three buildings valued at $60,000, and used thirteen teachers. For many years this has been one of the best schools in the county and is accredited first class." A school for black children was located near Hopewell Baptist Church at that time, according to Clara Nesbit.
Norcross Elementary School was built in 1939, and the Board of Trustees of the Norcross Consolidated School System listed on the cornerstone were H. L. Sudderth, J. Howard Webb, B. F. Summerour, B. W. Westbrook and C. A. Garner. This school is still in use, although many additions have been built through the years. With the completion of the new elementary school, the two older buildings 'on the hill' became Norcross High School.
When West Gwinnett High School was built in 1957, parents of Duluth
Duluth, Georgia
Duluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia and an increasingly more affluent and developed suburb of Atlanta. Unincorporated portions of Forsyth County also have Duluth as a mailing address, though this area is outside city limits...
students objected to consolidation and fought successfully to have a new high school built in Duluth. The citizens of Norcross later asked to have the name West Gwinnett changed back to Norcross High School.
The school colors, blue and white, and the school mascot, the Blue Devil, were chosen by the students in 1957 when football was played as a school sport for the first time.
Present-day
Norcross High School opened a 440000 square feet (40,877.3 m²) facility at 5300 Spalding Drive in Norcross in August 2001. This land was purchased by the Gwinnett County Public School System because the 1998 tornado cleared the land of trees. The new building opened with a student population of 2,400 students. Today the student body has an estimated 3,000 pupils. The former facility located at 2595 Beaver Ruin Road has been renamed Buchanan High School of Technology, which houses Gwinnett Online Campus and GIVE Center WestGIVE Center West
The Gwinnett InterVention Education Center West is one of two schools in Gwinnett County, Georgia to serve the needs of students with discipline issues that prevent them from attending their neighborhood school, located in Norcross, Georgia. The other is GIVE Center East in Lawrenceville. The...
, a grade 6-12 alternative school
Alternative school
Alternative school is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides part of alternative education. It is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional...
.
International Baccalaureate
In 1999, Norcross High School became the first high school in Gwinnett to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme to high school juniors and seniors. This program was implemented to offer a different curriculum for motivated students. IB Diploma students have classes independent of the majority of the student body. IB Certificate students can get a certification in some IB courses that they are interested in without having to complete the entire Diploma Programme. Norcross also offers a pre-IB program to underclassmen in order for them to take some state required courses that must be done before taking higher level IB courses. Norcross High School also offers a vast array of AP (Advanced Placement) courses.Relay for Life
Norcross High School is part of the Gwinnett County Relay for Life, the top fund-raising Relay event in the country. In 2006, under the leadership of Kirsten Mixter, NHS solidified their position as the top fundraising high school in the nation when they raised over $112,000 for Relay, and were the only high school to raise over $50,000. NHS raised most of the funds in honor of beloved math teacher Dorothy Lewis, who died of cancer in the February before Relay.Athletics
Norcross currently competes in Region 7-AAAAA and has since 2004. The school's mascotMascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
is the Blue Devil
Blue Devil
Blue Devil is a superhero featured in material published by DC Comics. He first appeared in a special insert published in Fury of Firestorm #24 . That story led directly into Blue Devil #1, also cover dated June 1984...
. The school competes in football, 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...
, 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...
, 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...
, 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...
, 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...
and 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...
, wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
, 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...
, 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...
, competitive 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...
, and roller hockey
Roller hockey
Roller Hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using skates with wheels. The term "Roller Hockey" is often used interchangeably to refer to two variant forms chiefly differentiated by the type of skate used. There is traditional "Roller Hockey," played with quad roller skates, and...
.
Norcross High's athletic program http://www.norcrosshigh.org/athletics/athletics_main.htm has received recognition in recent years for its boys' 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...
program, coached by Eddie Martin. Norcross varsity boys basketball team won the Class AAAAA Georgia state championship in 2006, 2007,2008, and 2011 after finishing as the state runner-up in 2005. The boy's basketball team has had press coverage in USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, which ranked the Blue Devils as the #2 high school basketball program in the nation in a preseason poll, and through ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
, which carried a national broadcast of the Blue Devils' game against #1 ranked Oak Hill Academy
Oak Hill Academy (Virginia)
Oak Hill Academy is a co-educational, private Baptist-affiliated secondary school in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, United States. Oak Hill's enrollment of approximately 150 students is 98% boarders, serving grades 8–12...
(VA) in December 2006. The 2007-2008 team was featured on ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
(in a victory against Helen Cox). On Friday, March 7, 2008, the team won their third consecutive state title. This has not been done in the AAAAA classification since the years of 1938-1940 by Lanier High School
Central High School (Macon, Georgia)
Central High School, also known as Central-Macon, Central-Bibb, and Central Fine Arts and International Baccalaureate Magnet High School is a high school in Macon, Georgia, USA, serving students in grades 9-12...
. This "three-peat" was won against their 2004 rivals, Wheeler High School
Joseph Wheeler High School
Wheeler High School is located in northeast Cobb County, Georgia, USA. It is near the city of Marietta, about northwest of downtown Atlanta. Wheeler has been in operation since 1965...
. The team is currently ranked at #6 nationally.
In 2008, basketball coach Eddie Martin ended his six year run with Norcross High School. Martin now coaches basketball at Greater Atlanta Christian School
Greater Atlanta Christian School
Greater Atlanta Christian School is a private school located in Norcross, Georgia.-History:Opening in 1967, Greater Atlanta Christian School was started by Jesse Long and had only 149 students on a two-lane rural road in Gwinnett County, Georgia, now known as Indian Trail Road. At first, buildings...
where he first began his coaching career. http://google.com/search?q=cache:Eig3QviLEW0J:www.ajc.com/hotjobs/content/sports/highschool/stories/2008/06/24/martin_0625.html+norcross+eddie+martin+gac&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Norcross's football team had some success in the early 1990s, including region championships in 1991 and 1994. However, the Blue Devils had their most successful season in 2006 under head coach Keith Maloof. The varsity football team went undefeated in the regular season, winning their region and earning a #1 state ranking at the end of the regular season by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They eventually lost in the third round of the state AAAAA playoffs to Warner Robins High School
Warner Robins High School
Warner Robins High School is a high school in Warner Robins, Georgia. It is located at 401 South Davis Drive.-Campus:In 2005, the nearby Bert Rumble Middle School was merged with WRHS as Rumble Academy, with most of its former faculty and students moved to the nearby Huntington Middle School...
.
In the 2006-2007 school year, Norcross became the only school in the nation to achieve an extraordinary trifecta
Trifecta
In horse racing terminology, a trifecta is a parimutuel bet in which the bettor must predict which horses will finish first, second, and third in exact order. The word comes from the related betting term, "perfecta". A trifecta is known as a tiercé in France and Hong Kong and as a tris in Italy.It...
when the Norcross basketball team finished #12 in the final USA Today rankings, the football team appeared in the final regular season national rankings, and the Norcross Academic Team competed in the NAQT National Championships in Chicago, Illinois.
So far in the 2007-2008 school year, Norcross High School has won their region in football, volleyball, and basketball, and ranked top 10 in the state preseason for baseball and girls soccer.
The girls have also won the basketball state championship for the past two years 2010 and 2011. They have great players one being the famous USA national player Diamond Dashields.
Also, the Men's Cross Country team Placed third at the State meet in 2011. The third place finish beats the former best finish of 4th, which happened in the 80's.
Band
The Norcross High School Band Program http://www.norcrosshigh.org/extra/band.htm has attained regional and national recognition. Under previous director William J. Pharris, the program earned the Sudler Flag of Honor, an award granted by the John Phillip Sousa Foundation for consistent superior musical performance. The current head director of bands is Lee Newman and the assistant director is Doug Maloney.In 2000, 2005 and 2010 the band was a guest performing ensemble at the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
January Music Festival. The Wind Symphony also performed at the Georgia Music Educators Association Convention in January 2007.
The Wind Symphony has received the William D. Revelli Concert Band Award for first place in 2009 in New York and in 2007 in Chicago. The program was also awarded the Dr. Tim Lautzenheimer Esprit de Corps Award at the 2009 Festivals of Music in New York.
The Norcross High School Marching Band has grown from 110 members in 2002 to 170 members in 2006. The band consistently earns "superior" ratings and in 2004 came away Grand Champion of the Rome Marching Classic with the show "Movin' Out: the Music of Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
." In 2007 the marching band won 1st place at the Southern Invitational at Sprayberry High School. Awards and trophies included Best in Class Percussion, Best in Class Band, High Music Award, High Effect Award, and Gold Division Grand Champion.
The concert band program consists of four groups: the Concert Band, the Symphonic Band, Symphonic Winds, and the Wind Symphony. 34 members of the Norcross band earned seats in the District XIII Honor Bands in the 2006-2007 school year.
Orchestra
The orchestraOrchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
is made up of approximately 150 students and is directed by Juana Alzaga, the four orchestras (in order of performance level), the Chamber ensemble, the Philharmonic, and two Symphonic. All allow violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ists, violist
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
s, cellist
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
s, and bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
s to perform string music.
In 2005, while under the direction of Cathy Hudnall, the Norcross Philharmonic Orchestra was the featured performance group at the UGA Fall Orchestra Camp and received an invitation to perform at the GMEA Music Conference in Savannah, Georgia. The Philharmonic also finished as the top public school orchestra in the nation at the 2006 American String Teacher Association's National Orchestra Festival in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2007, Norcross High and it's feeder orchestra from Pinckneyville Middle
School, under the direction of Carol Kane, had more orchestra players qualify for the GMEA All-State Orchestra than any other high school in the state of Georgia. The school's Philharmonic Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall in New York in April 2007. Unfortunately, the orchestra program has declined in both size and quality under the direction of Juana Alzaga.
Theatre arts
Led by Gina "Pev" Parrish, the Norcross Theater program has been very successful. They consistently rank high in the GHSA one-act play competition. In 2004, they won Region 7AAAAA and placed third in the state. In 2007, they performed "A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking" at the region level and earned a third place finish. Actresses Christina Jundt and Amanda Facemire both received awards for Best Actress in the Region, an award usually reserved for one person. The technical crew for "White Chicks" brought home the award for Best Tech Crew of the Region. The Theatre Arts Department produces a variety of shows every year with consistently sold out houses. Randy Kemper is the other theatre teacher who is responsible for the beginning classes. Mr. Kemper directs the children's' show, which enables hundreds of elementary students to see live theatre. Pev runs the advanced program consisting of classes ranging from Stage Craft to Musical Production Workshop. The NHS Theatre program is proud of the variety of theatre courses offered to the students. NHS Thespian are involved in community service projects as well as performing.Visual arts
The visual arts department is led by five different instructors, and is one of the most successful, and well-known fine art departments in the metro-Atlanta area. Although it is particularly famous for its excellence in ceramics, it is also imperative to note that Norcross visual arts department is one of the few that offer unique courses such as jewelry, printmaking, and computer graphics in the state of Georgia. The department is also responsible for th exposure of talented young artist, and has been awarded with various prizes over the years. In 2010 the norcross art department arose from a year of small success by receiving several awards at the prestigious Scholastics Art & Writing competition where student, the school was awarded with the only gold key award in the portfolio category, in Gwinnett county. Norcross also received best of show in the same competition as well as nine gold keys awards.Notable alumni
- Jodie MeeksJodie MeeksJodie Meeks is an American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA.Meeks played college basketball for the University of Kentucky Wildcats...
- NBA Shooting Guard, Philadelphia 76ers - Gani LawalGani LawalGani Oladimeji Lawal, Jr. is an American basketball player with the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. He played with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball team for 3 years. A junior, Lawal led the team in field-goal percentage and blocked shots in 2007–2008...
- NBA player, Phoenix Suns - Al-Farouq AminuAl-Farouq AminuAl-Farouq Ajiede Aminu is an American basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers. His parents are Aboubakar Aminu and Anjirlic Aminu. A descendant from a line of Nigerian kings, his name Al-Farouq means "the chief has arrived." His brother is former Georgia Tech forward Alade Aminu...
- NBA player, LA Clippers - Jeremy LambJeremy LambJeremy Emmanuel Lamb is an American college basketball player. He is a shooting guard for the Connecticut Huskies. As a freshman, he was a the second-leading scorer on the 2011 Huskies team that won the National Championship.-High school:...
- college basketball player for the Connecticut Huskies - Chandler MasseyChandler MasseyChandler Massey is an American actor. Since February 2010 he has played the role of Will Horton on NBC's Days of our Lives....
, a soap opera actor from NBC's Days of our LivesDays of our LivesDays of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...