Apollo High School (St. Cloud, Minnesota)
Encyclopedia
Apollo Senior High School is a 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 at 1000 44th Ave N. in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Apollo is one of St. Cloud's two public high schools, the other being Technical Senior High School
Technical Senior School
Technical Senior High School is located at 233 12th Avenue South in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. It is one of St. Cloud's two major public high schools, the other being Apollo. The school's first building was built in 1917, with another building added in the 1970s to handle the student population. There...

.

Meaning of name

Apollo received its name from the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 Apollo space program. In front of the school there is a NASA space capsule that navy frogmen used for training, usually for hooking up to a helicopter after splashdown.

Academics

Apollo has seen its graduates accepted by Ivy League and other high-caliber schools including Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, Macalester College
Macalester College
Macalester College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 as a Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian college. Its first class entered September 15, 1885. The college is located on a campus in a historic residential neighborhood...

, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, MIT, Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, Grinnell College
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....

, Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

, Carleton College
Carleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...

, Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

, and Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. Apollo offers a wide variety of Advanced Placement classes, including the following (as of the 2009-2010 school year).
  • Biology
  • Calculus AB
  • Chemistry
  • English Literature and Composition
  • Human Geography
  • Physics B
  • Psychology
  • Spanish Language
  • Statistics
  • Studio Art
  • United States History
  • World History

Sports

The men's soccer program has a history of success. Recent highlights include a state tournament appearance in the 2006–07 school year.

The adaptive hockey team, the Slapshots, won the state championship during the 2006–07 school year.

The boys' basketball team has enjoyed success as well in the past decade, making the Section finals in 2006-07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009-10. and 2010-11.

The boys' basketball team has made two state tournament appearances (1973 and, 2011).

The school's football team has had a poor record for several years now, garnering infamy for their seemingly uncharacteristic bad luck. From the 1999-2000 school year through the 2002-2003 school year, the varsity football team did not win a single game. The next year the team managed a 4-4 record, a relatively incredible feat compared to their previous half decade of play.

In the 2009–10 season the men's swim team was 4-6.

Extra-curricular Activities

Apollo's wealth of activities have enjoyed a relatively large degree of success in recent years. In 2008 and 2009, the mock trial
Mock trial
A Mock Trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting of volunteers as role players to test theories or...

 team qualified and participated in the state competition, receiving 3rd place overall the latter of the two years. The mock trial team went on to qualify for the state competition in 2010, but was unable to attend because of the numerous other commitments by many team members, sending 2nd place Brainerd high school in their stead. In 2011, the team returned to state and placed 7th overall. Additionally, Apollo's Future Problem Solving Program International team competed at the national competition after qualifying in the state competition in 2009.

In June 2010, both Senators selected to represent the State of Minnesota at American Legion Boys Nation attended Apollo High School: John Reichl and Adam Logeman. Boys Nation convenes each July in Washington, D.C.. Only two young men from each state are selected to attend, and this was the first time in the history of Minnesota that both senators attended the same high school.

The Apollo Book Club is an extra-curricular activity that meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:35 a.m. during the school year. A book is discussed during a continental breakfast in the school library. New members are always welcome. Students interested should contact the media specialist.

Apollo is also well known for their plays, having been lucky to work with a talented bunch such as Megan Potter and Howard Vreeland. Apollo is a great place for those interested in theater and performing arts.

Notable Alumni

Stephen Sommers
Stephen Sommers
Stephen Sommers is an American screenwriter and film director, best known for The Mummy and its sequel, The Mummy Returns. He also directed Disney's live action version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, the action/horror film Van Helsing, and the 2009 film G.I...

-Screenwriter and film director, best known for The Mummy
The Mummy (1999 film)
The Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken...

 and G.I. Joe.
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