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Bexley High School

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Bexley High School
Address
Map
326 South Cassingham Road

Bexley
,
Ohio

USA
Information
TypePublic high school
School districtBexley City School District
SuperintendentDr. Michael L. Johnson
PrincipalJohn Kellogg
Grades9-12
Enrollment806
Color(s)Royal Blue and White
MascotLion
NewspaperThe Torch
YearbookBexleo
Websitehttp://www.bexley.k12.oh.us/hs1/index.htm

Bexley High School is a public high school located in Bexley, Ohio, an affluent suburb of Columbus, Ohio. It is in the Bexley City School District. Currently there are 44 teachers that teach at least one class. The graduation rate for the 2004-05 school year was 98.6%. Its current acting principal is John Kellogg.

Performance

The Bexley City School District is one of the top 5% in the nation based on test scores[1]. Bexley High School is one of only 26 Ohio High Performing Districts[2], was rated the best public High School in Ohio in 2006.[citation needed], and was ranked in the top 2% of Ohio high schools (regardless of size) for the Ohio Proficiency test.

Awards

  • Bexley achieved an excellent rating from the Ohio Department of Education for the 2005-2006 school year, meeting 23 of 23 indicators based on proficiency test scores, attendance and other figures.

Athletics

Bexley runs a comprehensive athletics program, including teams in the following areas: Basketball, Baseball, Cheerleading, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Tennis, Track, Volleyball and Wrestling. Bexley purchased artificial grass instead of regular graas for athletes to preform on in the winter of 2003. Teams have won Ohio High School Athletic Association State Championships[3] in:

Athletic director

As of 2006, John Morgan is entering his fourth year as the Athletic Director at Bexley City Schools. Mr. Morgan holds a master's degree in sport management from Cleveland State University, and an administrative certification in education from Xavier University. Formerly a Social Studies teacher for 15 years at Mentor High School and served in Athletic Director positions at several Ohio schools.

Football program

File:Fbbexley.jpg
2006 Varsity Football Team

The Bexley Lions football team is going through some major changes during the summer of 2007. After the 8-2 season of 2006, the head coach, Tom Phillips, left his job at Bexley to coach and be the assistant principal at Pickerington High School North. The weightlifting and conditioning coach, Mike Knapp, and the Quarterback coach, former Ohio State Quarterback, Coach Frye, have joined Phillips at Pickerington North. Bexley has hired John Smith, former assistant at Springfield High School in Springfield, Ohio. It is unclear at this time whether Coach Smith is an interim coach or a permanent coach. More changes include that the Bexley colors are slowly changing from Blue and White to Blue and Black because the football team wears black when they are weight-lifting.

  • 2007 Football Staff
    • John Smith, Head Football Coach
    • Chad Spickler, Offensive Coordinator
    • Chris Farbizo, Defensive Coordinator
    • Tom Beck, Assistant Coach
    • Raleigh Mitchell, Assistant Coach
    • Wes Harkins, Strength & Conditioning Coach
    • Demetrius Stanley, Assistant Coach
    • Henry Kamuela Lee, Offensive/Defensive Line Coach
    • Kareen "Chode" Neal, Head Freshman Coach
    • Jason Ryan, Assistant Freshman Coach
    • Sandy Rosen, Stats/Media Contact/Team Photos
    • Shelby Cheses, Videographer
    • John Sheets, Athletic Trainer
    • K. William Kumler, M.D., Team Physician

Soccer program

Both boy's and girl's soccer programs are outstanding, but only the boy's have won a state championship. The boy's have won the state championships twice, 2003 and 2005. The boy's have also been the league champions since 1995. The girl's have been state finalists in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006. They were State Runner-Ups in 1999.

Girl's lacrosse program

The girls lacrosse team was started in 2001 by Benjamin Kaltenecker. They didn't win any games that year. The Bexley High School refused to make the team a varsity sport until the second year.Bexley has one of the worst Girls' lacrosse programs in Central Ohio. The team has not won a game in more than 2 seasons, and the future does not look bright. After losing to their arch-rivals, Columbus School for Girls 0-19 head coach Melissa Taylor of the Bexley Lions told several major news groups that she was quiting her job as Head Coach. After the season ended Bexley hired Matt Saracen as the head coach and the assistant coach would be Ray “Voodoo” Tatum. Both couches come from Dillon High School in Dillon, Texas. They left the school because they said it was too football oriented. Their first season at Bexley will start in the Spring of 2008.

Rivals

Bexley's most hated opponent across the school is the Columbus Academy Vikings. Columbus Academy is just eight miles apart from Bexley High School. More rivals of Bexley include the Licking Valley Panthers, the Bishop Hartley Hawks, West Columbus Cowboys, The Chris Eldridge Unicorns, and the St. Charles Cardinals.

Clubs

  • Art Club
  • Bexleo
  • ISO
  • Ski Club
  • Environmental Club
  • Book Club
  • The Lamplight
  • In The Know
  • Latin Club
  • Student Council
  • Debate Club
  • Lion eNews
  • Band
  • Choirs: Men's Glee, Women's Glee, Symphonic Choir, Women's Chorale, and Vocal Ensemble
  • Orchestra
  • Drama Club


Choral Program

The Choral program at Bexley High School has been extremely successful for the past decade. The Choral department is broken up into 5 separate choirs. Each choir has a distinct difference from the next, and each focus on different things. All five choirs are directed by Amy Blosser and accompanied on the piano by Casey Cook-Westfall.

Men's/Women's Glee

Men's and Women's glee are the "entry" choirs of the five. These two choirs focus on basic music theory and sight-reading of short, simple pieces of music. Another focus of Men and Women's Glee is tone quality, as in earlier choirs this was not stressed and in cases, not mentioned at all. The members of the two Glee choirs are mostly first year freshman, unless an older student is trying out choir for the first time. Also, rare exceptions have been made where participants are "held back" in Men's or Women's Glee as they are not ready to progress.

Symphonic Choir

The Symphonic Choir is considered to be the only mid-level choir of the five. (Men's and Women's glee being the lowest, and Women's Chorale and Vocal Ensemble being the elite.) The main focus while in Symphonic Choir is leaving the lower level music and progressing to tougher music to sight-read. Symphonic Choir is usually the student's first opportunity to be in a mixed choir, and the learning curve of this task is also stressed. The majority of Symphonic members are second year choral members, with exceptions of first year members who are either selected because of a schedule conflict, or the feeling by the director that they are too talented to begin in Men's or Women's Glee.

Women's Chorale

Women's Chorale is the first of the two elite choirs in Bexley High School. An all women's group, Women's Chorale preforms music in the SSAA (Two Soprano groups along with two Alto groups) format. There are students who participate in both the Vocal Ensemble, and Women's Chorale. This is usually very rare, with only four students attempting this in the 2006-2007 school year. Women's Chorale has preformed very well recently at the OMEA District and State competitions in the A category, most recently receiving a "Superior" rating, the highest rating. Members of Women's Chorale tend to either be third year students just coming out of the Symphonic Choir, or second year members who preformed very well in Women's Glee.

The Vocal Ensemble

The most prestigious choir in the Bexley High School choral program, it is the goal of most members of the choral program to make in into the Vocal Ensemble. Vocal Ensemble preforms in the SSAATTBB (Two Soprano, two Alto, two Tenor, and two Bass sections) format. The Vocal Ensemble has been fairly dominant in the recent years in the OMEA competitions since Amy Blosser became the choral director. Competing in the AA category, the highest category, they have received a "Superior" rating the last 4 years at the competitions. Members of The Vocal Ensemble are well known for their dedication to the choir, as most of the members also participate in the Autumn play and the Spring musical. Every year the choir travels on tour to either a place in the country, or as in every three years, they tour overseas. The 2007 tour was to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The most recent overseas tour was in the summer of 2006 where the choir traveled to various nations in Europe. The next overseas trip is planned for the summer of 2009.The Vocal Ensemble is not unlike a high school varsity football team in that, after every year they lose a significant amount of members because of graduation. The Men's section of the group has lost a significant amount of their members after the 2006-2007 school year as only one member of both Bass sections remains. Because of this, a large amount of men who were either first or second year members in the 2006-2007 year were accepted as members of The Vocal Ensemble for the upcoming year. Members of the Vocal Ensemble can range from a second year member who was outstanding in their first year, to third and fourth year choral members. The posting of the members of Vocal Ensemble for the upcoming year is very anticipated by most choir members, and has the possibility of being the highlight of a student's high school career.

Bexley traditions

Bexley alma mater

To Alma Mater Bexley
To Thee our praise we bring
To thee whose hallowed walls we tread
Our toast to thee we sing
Tho' friends and hopes may fade away
Our blue and white will live forever
And as the season swiftly go,
Thy name and praise shall ring.

Bexley honor

Go Bexley Lions down the field
Bring honor to your name
And fight the battle for us all
It's ever onward in the game.
We'll back our team with rousing cheers.
Sound glories to the sky
And win or lose we'll always stay Loyal to Bexley High.
B-E-X-L-E-Y.

Onward Bexley

Onward Bexley, Onward Bexley, fight on for our fame
Send the ball right down the field, a victory every time.
Rah! Rah! Rah! Onward Bexley, Onward Bexley fight on for our fame.
Fight the lions, fight, and win this game today.

Current Issues

Race issues

Bexley High School is 94% white and 2% African-American and 4% other. Bexley City Schools is currently under a lawsuit of $500,000 for expelling African-Americans for no reason. John Kellogg, the principal told Columbus Dispatch, "...all of the African-Americans expelled were because they did not live in Bexley city limits. They do not pay taxes for the district so they should not belong in Bexley City Schools". A total of seven African-Americans have been expelled out of a total of thirty-two---one for theft and the other 6 because they were found not to be living within the confines of the Bexley City Schools district (as of the 2003-2004 school year).

Another issue is that many people in the school, either student or teachers, are frivolously being accused of being racists. This issue is slowly being worked out.

Drug/alcohol issue

Despite being one of the better schools in the area, Bexley has had major problems with drugs and alcohol. In a anonymous poll taken in 2006, it shows 83% of students smoke marijuana or cigarettes, and 77% drink alcohol. 64% of the student population do both.

Notable alumni


Notes and references

  1. ^ SchoolMatch, an independent school rating service
  2. ^ Ohio Department of Education
  3. ^ OHSAA. "Ohio High School Athletic Association Web site". Retrieved 2006-12-31.
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