Warren Hills Regional High School

Warren Hills Regional High School is a four-year public high school located on Jackson Valley Road in Washington Township in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Warren Hills Regional School District.[5] The school offers a comprehensive education for students in ninth through twelfth grades. The student population includes students from Franklin Township, Mansfield Township, Oxford Township, Washington Borough and Washington Township.[6][7][8] The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 2014.[3]

Warren Hills Regional High School
Address
41 Jackson Valley Road

Washington
,
Warren County, New Jersey
,
New Jersey
07882

United States
Coordinates40.771889°N 74.983459°W / 40.771889; -74.983459
Information
TypePublic high school
EstablishedSeptember 1967 (1967-09)
School districtWarren Hills Regional School District
NCES School ID341697005878[1]
PrincipalChris Kavcak
Faculty97.6 FTEs[1]
Grades9-12
Enrollment1,126 (as of 2021–22)[1]
Student to teacher ratio11.5:1[1]
Campus typeTown: Fringe[1]
Color(s)  Royal blue
  white and
  black[2]
Team nameBlue Streaks[2]
RivalsHackettstown High School
Phillipsburg High School
AccreditationMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools[3]
NewspaperThe Streak[4]
AffiliationSkyland Conference (general)
Big Central Football Conference (football)
Websitewww.warrenhills.org/highschool

As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,126 students and 97.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.5:1. There were 83 students (7.4% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

History

The present high school building located on Jackson Valley Road in Washington Township opened in September 1967. Before the opening of the school, students had attended Washington High School, which was repurposed as the new district's junior high school. An expansion of the high school building was completed in 1992, which included a new library and gym to accommodate the addition of students in ninth grade. A second expansion at the high school during the first decade of the 21st century added more classrooms, office space, gym/weight rooms, and conversion of the original gym to a new library to meet growing enrollment in the district. Recently, the district added an all-purpose athletic field, tennis courts, and practice field on an acquired tract of land on Jackson Valley Road.[6][9]

Student publications

The school has two newspapers and a Literary Magazine or "litmag" The official school paper The Streak has been publishing for 26 consecutive years and is published four times a year. The Renegade debuted in mid-June 2014 and is entirely run by students.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 172nd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology.[10] The school had been ranked 168th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 202nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[11] The magazine ranked the school 179th in the magazine's September 2008 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[12] Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 173rd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (an increase of 54 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (79.6%) and language arts literacy (94.2%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).[13]

Controversy

A court case in 2002 was filed by a student for wearing a shirt the school deemed inappropriate. The student was suspended after refusing to turn his shirt inside out. The student eventually filed a case that led to a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.[14]

On June 21, 2013, during the graduation ceremony for the class of 2013, a former student streaked across the field. The former student managed to outrun both a police officer and man dressed in military uniform. He was later caught 100 yards (91 m) into the woods behind the stadium and arrested.[15]

Athletics

The Warren Hills High School Blue Streaks[2] compete in the Skyland Conference which is comprised of public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren counties, and operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[16] The Blue Streaks nickname dates back to at least 1932. With 901 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 761 to 1,058 students in that grade range.[17] The football team competes in Division 3 of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location.[18] The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group III North for football for 2022–2024, which included schools with 680 to 884 students.[19] The school's traditional rival is Hackettstown High School, formerly of the Skyland Conference and now Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference, and the wrestling/football rival is Phillipsburg High School.

Wrestling

The Warren Hills wrestling program was started in 1936 by Frank Bennett, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum who also started the program at Fair Lawn High School in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.[20] Warren Hills wrestling ranks second all-time in the number of individual State Champions crowned. It has produced such notables as Dan Slack, who beat future Olympian Bruce Baumgartner on the way to the State Heavyweight crown in 1977, and Ben Oberly who was a two-time State Champion (and placed 3rd his sophomore year) and ranked #1 at his weight in the nation in 1986.[21] The 1990 state championship team went undefeated and is one of only a handful of teams in the state to have ever beaten rival Phillipsburg High School twice in one year.[22]

Warren Hills holds one of the state's oldest wrestling tournaments, the John Goles Tournament, which honors one of the school's greatest coaches, and includes several wrestling programs from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. At the conclusion of the winter break tournament, there is a tourney champion and outstanding wrestler trophy presentation. Every year the wrestling team honors the record holders from previous events.

The wrestling team won the North II Group III state sectional championship in 1982, 1990, 1997, 1998 and 2007; the team won the Group III state championship in both 1990 and 1997.[23] The team won the 2007 North II, Group III state sectional championship with a 33-29 victory against Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.[24]

Football

The football program is a member of the Big Central Football Conference, which was created through a merger of the Mid-State 38 Football Conference and the Greater Middlesex Conference, and is comprised of 61 schools from Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties.[25][26]

The 2000 football team (11-1) won the North II Group III state sectional title, with a 21-14 win against West Morris Central High School.[27][28]

The program was awarded the 1973 NJSIAA Central Group title and the undefeated 1945 team was recognized with the North Group I title.

The program had an annual Thanksgiving game with rival Hackettstown until the 1940s. Flemington (now Hunterdon Central Regional High School) became the Thanksgiving rival until that school switched to challenge North Hunterdon High School in the late 1960s. From late 1960s until the game ended in the mid-1980s, the annual Thanksgiving opponent was Belvidere High School in Belvidere.

Field hockey

Since 1970, the field hockey program has won over 500 matches, and they have taken home numerous conference titles and several district titles. The girls field hockey team won the North II Group III state sectional title in 1984, 1996, 1997, 1999-2003, 2009 and 2012-2014 and won the North I Group III state sectional championship in 2015-2019. The team won the Group III championship in 2014 (defeating runner-up Ocean City High School in the final game of the tournament) and in 2015 (vs. Ocean City).[29]

Between 2000 and 2014, the team had a record of 264-71-12 under coach Laurie Kerr, winning nine sectional titles.[30] In 2014, after nine unsuccessful title-game appearances, the team won the program's first Group III state championship with a 5-4 win in overtime against Ocean City High School, a team that had beaten them six previous times in the championship game.[31] The 2015 team repeated as Group III champion with a 1-0 win in the championship game, defeating Ocean City for the second year in a row.[32]

Other sports

The girls' bowling team won the Group III state title in 2017 and 2018.[33] In 2017, the team won the Tournament of Champions, the first team from the northern part of the state to take the overall title.[34]

In 2013, the school's varsity cheerleading team won the 2013 Skyland Conference, overall and Raritan. The cheerleading team won the NJCDCA Group III state championship title in 2017.[35]

In 2016, the boys' basketball team won the North II Group III sectional championship. They came back from a 10-0 deficit at the start of the game and defeated the 19th-ranked team in the state Chatham High School by a final score of 52-46 to earn the program's first ever sectional championship.[36]

Administration

The school's principal is Chris Kavcak. His administration team includes two assistant principals.[37]

Notable alumni
  • Halsey (born 1994 as Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, class of 2012), singer-songwriter[38]
  • Anthony Veneziano (born 1997, class of 2016), professional baseball player[39]

References
  1. School data for Warren Hills Regional High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 1, 2022.
  2. Warren Hills Regional High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  3. Warren Hills High School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Accessed February 8, 2018.
  4. Newspaper Staff, Warren Hills Regional High School. Accessed July 14, 2022. "The Streak newspaper staff is comprised of student-editors and student-reporters enrolled in the Journalism I, Journalism II, and Journalism III courses of study, where students learn and practice all styles of news writing."
  5. Public School Directory 2021-2022, Warren County, New Jersey. Accessed July 12, 2022.
  6. History, Warren Hills Regional School District. Accessed August 18, 2014.
  7. Schools & Education, Washington Township. Accessed August 18, 2014. "Students in grades 7 and up attend the schools of the Warren Hills Regional School District. Warren Hills is a Grade 7-12 district in Warren County that serves approximately 2,100 students from the municipalities of Washington Borough, Washington Township, Mansfield Township, Franklin Township and Oxford Township (for 9-12 only). Students in grades 7 and 8 attend Warren Hills Regional Middle School (745 students) and students in grades 9 - 12 attend Warren Hills Regional High School (1,377 students)."
  8. Warren Hills Regional School District 2014 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed June 7, 2016. "From the receiving districts of Franklin Township, Mansfield Township, Oxford (high school tuition students), Washington Borough and Washington Township, students progress along the academic continuum led by a faculty committed to planning and implementing a variety of instructional strategies and activities that facilitate the preparation of our students for the challenge of mastering the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and the Common Core State Standards."
  9. "Fifty is Nifty", The Streak, November 17, 2017. Accessed July 12, 2022. "The story of Warren Hills actually started with the erection of the Washington High School in 1932. Later, due to higher enrollment, the Warren Hills Regional High School was opened on September 21, 1967, two weeks after the anticipated end of construction. At that time, Washington High School reopened as the Warren Hills Regional Junior High School. At that time, the high school taught grades 10 through 12, and the junior high school taught grades six through nine."
  10. Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  11. Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed December 2, 2012.
  12. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, September 2010, posted August 16, 2010. Accessed April, 2011.
  13. New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2010-2011, Schooldigger.com. Accessed March 6, 2012.
  14. Thomas Sypniewski Jr.; Matthew Sypniewski; Brian Sypniewski v. Warren Hills Regional Board Of Education, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, October 3, 2002. Accessed May 23, 2008.
  15. Olanoff, Lynn. "Streaker disrupts Warren Hills Regional High School graduation - Update", The Express-Times, June 21, 2013. Accessed October 20, 2014. "About halfway through graduation, shortly before diplomas were awarded, a naked man entered the high school football field, where the graduation was being held, by hopping a 4-foot fence, according to an Express-Times freelance photographer at the event."
  16. League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  17. NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020.
  18. Kinney, Mike. "Big Central revises 2020 football schedule for its shortened inaugural season", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, August 12, 2020. Accessed April 18, 2021. "The newly formed Big Central Football Conference has released a revised 2020 schedule for its inaugural season.... the BCFC is comprised of schools from Middlesex, Union, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties."
  19. NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2022–2024, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed May 1, 2023.
  20. Frank Bennett, National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. Accessed March 6, 2012. "He was instrumental in starting wrestling at Liberty High School in Pennsylvania in 1928, Washington High School in New Jersey in 1936 and Fair Lawn in 1946."
  21. State Champions, New Jersey Wrestling. Accessed March 6, 2012.
  22. Michael Lamb, Rutgers Preparatory School. Accessed June 10, 2015. "As a wrestler, Coach Lamb wrestled for Warren Hills. He was a member of the 1990 undefeated team that went on to become the #1 ranked team in the state."
  23. NJSIAA Wrestling Team Championship History, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed April 1, 2021.
  24. 2007 Team Wrestling Tournament - North II, Group III, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed June 1, 2007.
  25. "Big Central revises 2020 football schedule for its shortened inaugural season", NJ Adavance Media for NJ.com, August 12, 2020. Accessed September 21, 2020. "The newly formed Big Central Football Conference has released a revised 2020 schedule for its inaugural season. The BCFC - the merged product of the Mid-State and Greater Middlesex conferences - has devised a six-game regular season... The BCFC is comprised of schools from Middlesex, Union, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties."
  26. Kinney, Mike. "The latest football super-conference proves there really is a Central Jersey", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, November 25, 2019. Accessed September 21, 2020. "The newly formed Big Central Football Conference - the merged product of the Greater Middlesex Conference and Mid-State 38 - has released its division alignments for the inaugural 2020 season and for 2021, as well. In all, 61 members make up this newest super-conference which encompasses Union, Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties."
  27. Bierman, Fred. "High School Football; For Warren Hills and Coach, the Long Wait Pays Off in a State Title", The New York Times, December 3, 2000. Accessed March 6, 2012. "When Bob Lockhart was a player at Warren Hills in the mid-1970s, the Patriots had never won a state championship. When he signed on as an assistant coach 18 years ago, they had still never won a title. In his eighth year as head coach, and with his son as the starting quarterback, Lockhart led Warren Hills to a 21-14 victory over West Morris yesterday to win the Section II, Group III title in New Jersey."
  28. NJSIAA Football History, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed January 1, 2022.
  29. History of NJSIAA Field Hockey Championships, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed January 1, 2022.
  30. Hinkel, Tom. "Laurie Kerr resigns as field hockey, girls lacrosse coach at Warren Hills", The Express-Times, June 11, 2015. Accessed July 15, 2016. "She replaced Luanne Ferenci as head coach of her alma mater in 2000, and has fashioned an extraordinary record of 264-71-12 over the past 15 seasons. Kerr won nine sectional titles during her tenure and last season captured the school's first NJSIAA Group 3 crown with a dramatic 5-4 overtime win over Ocean City."
  31. Hinkel, Tom. "Warren Hills field hockey team captures first NJSIAA Group 3 title with dramatic overtime win over Ocean City", The Express-Times, November 15, 2014. Accessed July 15, 2016. "Crampton scored on an assist from Nikki Profita with 4:38 left in overtime to lift Warren Hills to a dramatic 5-4 victory over Ocean City in the NJSIAA Group 3 title game at Bordentown High School. It's the first state title for Warren Hills (22-3) after falling short in its previous eight title game appearances. Six of those losses, including the last two, were to Ocean City (22-2)."
  32. "Ocean City loses to Warren Hills, 1-0", Courier-Post, November 15, 2015. Accessed February 25, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "The Ocean City High School field hockey team fell short of its quest for a state title, falling to defending champion Warren Hills 1-0 in the state Group 3 championship game on Saturday at Bordentown High School. It was the fourth straight year, and eighth time overall, the two clubs met."
  33. History of NJSIAA Girls Bowling Championships, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020.
  34. Bove, Matt. "Girls Bowling: Warren Hills wins first Tournament of Champions in program history", NJ Advance Media, February 10, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2017. "After two years of falling just short of its state championship aspirations, the Warren Hills girls bowling team was not about to let another opportunity slip away. Warren Hills won the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions, 192-138, 183-198, 185-153, 185-175, in a best-of-five Baker series over Group 2 champion Holy Angels. In the morning, Warren Hills won the first state championship in program history by rolling a team total of 2,949 in the Group 3 finals, which was the best mark of any team across all four groups to earn the top seed in the T of C."
  35. 2017 NJCDCA Cheerleading State Champions, New Jersey Cheerleading and Dance Coaches Association, March 5, 2017. Accessed October 15, 2017.
  36. Hinkel, Tom. "Warren Hills basketball overcame difficult odds to win 1st sectional title", The Express-Times, March 8, 2016. Accessed July 14, 2022. "The Warren Hills Regional High School boys basketball team seemed to have everything stacked against them on Tuesday night. The Blue Streaks fell behind top-seed and 19th ranked Chatham 10-0 in the NJSIAA North 2 Group 3 title game on the Cougars' home floor.... Then Funot Woldetnsai and Johnny Bamford combined for nine points in the second overtime to lead the Blue Streaks to an improbable 52-46 victory.... It was Warren Hills’ first sectional title in school history."
  37. Main Office, Warren Hills Regional High School. Accessed July 14, 2022.
  38. Olivier, Bobby. "N.J. pop star Halsey was magnetic in her largest home-state concert yet", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, November 28, 2017. Accessed February 8, 2018. "Ashley was a Pop Warner cheerleader in Clark, and before she graduated from Warren Hills Regional High School in 2012, Frangipane and her boyfriend used to sit in the Garden State Plaza mall parking lot, listening to burned CDs in his car."
  39. Loigu, Andy. Anthony Veneziano Stats, Fantasy & News Kansas City Royals, MLB.com, Accessed May 18, 2023. Accessed October 5, 2023. "After a brilliant amateur career as a lefty pitcher with a blazing and overpowering fastball at Warren Hills High School and Coastal Carolina University, Veneziano was drafted in the tenth round by the Kansas City Royals and assigned to the team's Rookie League affiliate at Idaho Falls in the Summer of 2019."
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