Phoenixville Area High School
Encyclopedia
Phoenixville Area High School is a senior 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 on 1200 Gay St, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Phoenixville is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Philadelphia, at the junction of French Creek with the Schuylkill River. The population is 16,440 as of the 2010 Census.- History :...

. It is a member of the Phoenixville Area School District
Phoenixville Area School District
The Phoenixville AreaSchool District is a public school district serving the portions of Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is centered on the borough of Phoenixville and also incorporates East Pikeland and Schuylkill Townships...

 and teaches students from grades nine through twelve. There are currently 964 members of the student body and the principal is Craig Parkinson (2011). The school’s mascot are the Phantoms and have been since the 1960's. The Phantoms colors are purple and white. Their mission statement is, “to prepare, inspire, and graduate students to meet the challenges of the future.”

Sports

The Phoenixville Area High School has been a member of the PAC-10 conference for 25 years. The other high schools within this conference are Boyertown, Pottstown, Methacton, Pottsgrove, St. Pius, Perkiomen Valley, Upper Perkiomen, Springford, and Owen J. Roberts. A multitude of sports are offered such as boys and girls soccer, track, tennis, golf, lacrosse, cheerleading and swimming. Also for girls only sports, there is field hockey and 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...

 and for boys there is football and wrestling. Many of the teams and individuals from Phoenixville have been PAC-10 champions. A select few in recent years, such as Kyriq Williams, Courtney Kedra, Kyle MacLelland, Tom McAvoy, and Lauren Terstappen, have gone on to be state champions as well. Mike Piazza
Mike Piazza
Michael Joseph "Mike" Piazza ; born September 4, 1968) is an American former Major League Baseball catcher. He played in his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, San Diego Padres and the Oakland Athletics....

, Andre Thornton
Andre Thornton
André Thornton , nicknamed "Thunder," is a former first baseman and designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs, Montreal Expos and Cleveland Indians during a 14-year career...

, and Creighton Gubanich
Creighton Gubanich
Creighton Wade Gubanich is a retired baseball player who played briefly in the major leagues in 1999 for the Boston Red Sox...

 were all on major league baseball teams are also Phoenixville High School alumni.

Senior Project

In order to graduate from any school in Pennsylvania a ‘graduation project’ must be completed. For Phoenixville High School this project consists of completing a fifteen hour community service project as well as writing updates reporting progress along the way. Each project must have a project adviser that the student chooses to sign off that the project was completed. The most common projects are typically coaching sports teams. Once the project is completed a paper must be written outlining the entire project and a five minute presentation done in meetings at the end of the student’s senior year in front of two faculty members.

Music

The Phoenixville Area High School offers a multitude of opportunities when it comes to music. Classes such as choir, symphonic band, and wind ensemble are offered during the school day. Anyone can be in choir or symphonic band but they must go through an audition process to be accepted into the wind ensemble. Outside of school the vocal ensemble, jazz band, and marching band meet as well. In this scenario anyone can be in the marching band but they must audition and be a member of the regular choir or symphonic band, respectively, to be admitted into the vocal ensemble or jazz band. The school's music progam is regarded as being one of the best in the PAC-10.

F.O.C.U.S.

“For Our Children’s Uncompromised Safety Post Prom Parent Organization”
Project F.O.C.U.S. is a parent run organization to ensure their children’s safety after prom. They do this starting in September every year by meeting and brainstorming a theme for that year’s post prom celebration at the Phoenixville Area High School. The program works hard meeting once a month until the month of prom to get activities, food, and shows together to entertain the students. They get donations from local businesses and churches to help cover the expenses. In the year 2010 the F.O.C.U.S. theme was “An Evening in the Orient”
. With this theme, the entire inside of the high school was decorated to look like an oriental town complete with lanterns and a sushi bar. There are no students involved in this program, the only information students know is the theme before they enter.

Clubs

There are many clubs offered at the Phoenixville Area High School. Some are nationally run such as Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), National Honor Society
National Honor Society
The National Honor Society is a recognition program for high school students in grades 10-12 in the United States and in several other countries...

 (NHS), Key Club, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), and Modern Music Masters (Tri-M). There are also student originated clubs such as Green Club, Art Club, Latin Club, Robotics Club and Varsity Club. Out of all of the clubs listed there are only prerequisites that must be met for admittance to NHS, Tri-M, and Varsity Club. The majority of the clubs at Phoenixville High School are sustained financially by themselves. The most common types of fundraising for clubs are bake sales and dances. If a club needs a substantial amount of money they can request donations from the Phoenixville Community Education Foundation, an organization instated to help cover funding that was cut by the Phoenixville School District.

Phantoms

The school's mascot, The Phantom, came as a result of a 1934 football match between Lower Merion and Phoenixville. Both teams were very good, although Lower Merion was regarded as the better of the two. After Phoenixville soundly defeated Lower Merion, a sportswriter for a Philadelphia newspaper wrote that "Phoenixville ran through their (Lower Merion's) lines like a bunch of Phantoms." This nickname stuck, and eventually became the team's official name.

Notable alumni

  • Mike Piazza
    Mike Piazza
    Michael Joseph "Mike" Piazza ; born September 4, 1968) is an American former Major League Baseball catcher. He played in his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, San Diego Padres and the Oakland Athletics....

    , former catcher and designated hitter for 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...

    .
  • André Thornton
    Andre Thornton
    André Thornton , nicknamed "Thunder," is a former first baseman and designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs, Montreal Expos and Cleveland Indians during a 14-year career...

    , 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.
  • Creighton Gubanich
    Creighton Gubanich
    Creighton Wade Gubanich is a retired baseball player who played briefly in the major leagues in 1999 for the Boston Red Sox...

    , 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 with Boston Red Sox
    Boston Red Sox
    The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

    .
  • John-Paul Lavoisier
    John-Paul Lavoisier
    -Career:Lavoisier is known for his role as Rex Balsom on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live. He has portrayed this character since 2002. During that same year, he also appeared in the horror movie Wolves of Wall Street....

    , soap opera actor on "One Life to Live".
  • David White
    David White (actor)
    David White was an American stage, film and television actor best known for playing Darrin's boss Larry Tate in the 1964-72 sitcom Bewitched.-Early life:...

     (Daniel David White). Although born in Colorado, the actor who portrayed Larry Tate in the TV series Bewitched
    Bewitched
    Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...

    was a 1933 graduate of Phoenixville High School.
  • Kevin Negandhi
    Kevin Negandhi
    Kevin Negandhi is a current ESPN SportsCenter anchor. He also hosts Baseball Tonight, College Football Live and Outside the Lines on ESPN and is a fill-in Anchor on NFL Live and Cold Pizza. He's the first Anchor of Indian-American descent to be on a national sports network in American Television...

    , ESPN Anchor.
  • Olcewitz and Kraynak were football players for the Eagles.

External links

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