Westmont High School (Campbell, California)

Westmont High School is located in Campbell, California

Campbell, California

Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, a suburb of San Jose, and part of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 39,349...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and is part of the Campbell Union High School District

Campbell Union High School District

The Campbell Union High School District, referred to as the CUHSD, is a school district in the greater San Jose, California, USA area, including Campbell and Saratoga. Its five main campuses, Branham, Del Mar, Leigh, Prospect, and Westmont, serve more than 7800 students, and employ 550 teachers and...

. First opened in the fall of 1964, Westmont drew students initially from both Blackford

Boynton High School

Boynton High School is a secondary school located in San Jose, California and is a continuation school for the Campbell Union High School District. Between 1991 and 2002 when Boynton High School continuation students attended what was then Blackford High School. Blackford had been a traditional...

and Campbell High Schools. The school retains many academic achievements including the 1996 California Distinguished School

California Distinguished School

A California Distinguished School is an award given by the California State Board of Education to public schools within the state that best represent exemplary and quality educational programs. Approximately five percent of California schools are awarded this honor each year following a selection...

and 1997 National Blue Ribbon School

Blue Ribbon Schools Program

The Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States government program created in 1981 to honor schools which have achieved high levels of performance or significant improvements with emphasis on schools serving disadvantaged students. The program centers around a self-assessment conducted by the...

. The student body is approximately 1600 students. As of 2006, the school principal is Michael Posey. (Westmont's first principal was C. Warren Conrad.)

The school sits at the Northwest corner of the 1839 Alta California

Alta California

Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...

land grant, Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos

Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos

El Rancho Rinconada de los Gatos was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California made in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Jose Maria Hernandez and Sebastian Fabian Peralta. Located in the southern San Francisco Bay Area, the grant included present day Los Gatos and Monte...

. San Tomas Aquino Creek

San Tomas Aquino Creek

San Tomas Aquinas Creek, known locally as San Tomas Aquino Creek, is a stream that heads on El Sereno mountain in El Sereno Open Space Preserve in Saratoga, California in Santa Clara County, California, United States...

wraps around the northern edge of the school and formed the land grant's boundary.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni at Westmont High School include:

Douglas Edmund Capilla
Doug Capilla
Douglas Edmund Capilla, born January 7, 1952 in Honolulu, Hawaii, was a Major League Baseball player drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1970....

, a Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

player
Lars Frederiksen
Lars Frederiksen
Lars Erik Frederiksen is an American guitarist and vocalist, most notably for the punk rock band Rancid, and as the frontman of Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards and The Old Firm Casuals. He was also briefly a member of the UK Subs in 1991...

, guitarist/vocalist for the Punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

bands Rancid
Rancid (band)
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...

and Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards
Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards
Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards were an American street punk band formed to release the songs that Lars had written. Their songs include subject matter consisting of drinking, fighting, drugs, sex, prostitutes, gangs, and street life...

(Dropout)
Kevin Croall, CEO of Toadstool Comics and former guitarist for The Shattered
The Shattered
The Shattered was a glam rock influenced band from the San Francisco Bay Area of California formed in 1988. The Shattered featured a pop punk style in the likes of Cheap Trick, The Ramones and Hanoi Rocks....
Dan Gladden
Dan Gladden
Clinton Daniel "Dan" Gladden III is an American former Major League Baseball player and current radio broadcaster.-Baseball career:Gladden is a graduate of Westmont High School in Campbell, California...

, former Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

player
Adam Antolin, Professional MMA Fighter
Joe Sib, singer for Wax (rock band)
Wax (rock band)
Wax is a Los Angeles, California based punk rock band that emerged during the pop punk resurgence of the early 1990s, and includes Joe Sib, Tom "Soda" Gardocki, Dave Georgeff, and Loomis Fall. The band is best known for their MTV buzz clip video "California," directed by Spike Jonze.-History:Wax...

, writers of hit song California (whose video was an early Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...

offering)
Richard Ferri (Ferrie), was an English Teacher at Westmont H.S. and author of the novels Bloodrock and Blossom River Drive.

Note that Frederiksen never graduated from Westmont (From the song "To Have and Have Not" (which was originally written by guitarist Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg

Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...

), "Dropped out of high school in Campbell, California/Got a guitar and I never looked back.")

Publications

The Myriad: The school's yearly literary magazine. It was published once a year under the advisory of Mr. Josh Hancock until his resignation before the 2007–08 school year. The Myriad was filled with artwork, prose, and poetry submitted by the students at Westmont High School.
The Shield: the school newspaper.
Yearbook: Published yearly. Was originally called "The Poniard," a reference to the sword carried by the Warrior school mascot.

Historical Trivia

Westmont's "Fight Song" melody is a variation on the theme from the movie "Around The World In Eighty Days." It and the school hymm were both arranged by Westmont's first Band Director, Mr. Gary Kenyon, in 1964 before the school opened.

External links

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Notable alumni

Publications

Historical Trivia

See also

External links