Catalina Foothills High School

Catalina Foothills High School
Address
4300 E. Sunrise Drive Tucson, Arizona, 85718 United States
Coordinates	32°18′28.96″N 110°53′55.55″W
Information
Type	Public
Founded	1992
School district	Catalina Foothills School District
Principal	Loren Rathert
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	1,890 students
Campus type	Suburban
Color(s)	Blue and silver
Mascot	Falcons
Website	http://www.cfsd16.org/schools/foothillshigh/

Catalina Foothills High School is a public high school, located in the suburban community of Catalina Foothills, just north of Tucson, Arizona, USA. Catalina Foothills is the only high school in the Catalina Foothills School District, located in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Founded in 1992, Foothills now serves approximately 1,890 students in grades nine through twelve. The school mascot is the peregrine falcon, and the school colors are blue and silver. Based on the percentage of students passing or exceeding the AIMS, Catalina Foothills is one of the best high schools in the state. In 2006, Catalina Foothills had the state's second highest percentage of students exceeding math, the third highest percentage of students exceeding reading standards, and the ninth highest percentage of student exceeding writing standards.

School history

Prior to the establishment of Catalina Foothills, some district students attended high school in Tucson Unified School District and the rest primarily in Amphitheater Public Schools. The establishment of Catalina Foothills was postponed several decades due to the ability of district students to attend high school in neighboring school districts.

As the population grew in the Catalina Foothills area, a large core of Catalina Foothills students attended Amphitheater High School in North Tucson, as the closer Canyon del Oro High School in Oro Valley was virtually closed to out-of-district students. The need for a high school in the Catalina Foothills School District became apparent, as the Amphi district was nearing an era of overcrowding not relieved until 2001.

Construction began in 1991 on a 40-acre (160,000 m²) site centrally located in the district. The Catalina Foothills School Board had acquired the site in the late 1970s. The school opened to the ninth grade in 1992 when classes met at a district middle school. In 1993 campus was opened to ninth and tenth graders, and the first graduating class of Foothills High walked in late spring 1996.

The Catalina Foothills School District was also involved in a 1993 Supreme Court decision entitled Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District. In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the district must pay for an interpreter for a deaf child wishing to attend a private Catholic school. The vote was a 5-4 decision.

Located in one of the Tucson area's most affluent communities, Foothills students are regarded as a highly economically privileged population. Parents of Foothills students often locate to the community specifically so their children can attend the school.

Activities

Catalina Foothills is accredited by the North Central Association.

The chess team is a national power, having won a total of seven national team championships; it is coached by FIDE International Master (-elect) Robby Adamson, who is an attorney in Tucson, Arizona. Catalina Foothills has won the High School National Championship three times (2008, 2007, 2005) and in 2006 placed second overall.

Below is a list of the team's accomplishments: 2008 National High School Champion; 2007 National High School Champion; 2005 National High School Champion; 2004 National K-9 Champion; 2006 National 12th Grade Champs; 2006 National 11th Grade Champs; 2005 National 11th Grade Champs; State AIA Team Champion 2005-2010, finishing with a record total of 19 out of a possible 20 points in 2007 and 17 out of 20 points in 2008, and 18.5/20 in 2009).

The Catalina Foothills Academic Decathlon team usually finishes near the top in the Region, with the greatest competition from University High School and Canyon del Oro High School (which has won the last eleven region titles).^{[citation needed]}. The Science Olympiad Team has done increasingly well in the past few years, winning the state championship in 2006 and 2008 and finishing a close second place in 2007.

• The Lincoln-Douglas debate team won 4A States more than five years in a row before their defeat in 2007. In addition, their Public Forum debate teams, as well as Policy debate teams, were the 2010 and 2011 state champions.

Science Olympiad

The Catalina Foothills Science Olympiad team won the state championship in 2006 and placed a close second in 2007.

With their most recent state championship, they have now won the state championships from 2008–2011, and will have represented Arizona at the Science Olympiad National Tournament for four years in a row.

They set a record at the 2011 state competition when their two teams, blue and silver, swept the floor, taking 1st and 2nd place, respectively. Out of the thirty some members from both blue and silver, 15 will be selected to represent Arizona in May for the 2011 National Tournament in Wisconsin.

Athletics

Catalina Foothills participates in the 4A Conference, Sonoran Region of the Arizona Interscholastic Association. The following titles are referenced from the AIA website.

• The girls' cross country team won the 2005 Arizona state championship race, as well as individual champion honors.
• The boys' Cross country team won the 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010 Arizona state championship races.
• The girls' Soccer team won the 2006 Arizona state championship 4-0 over Pinnacle High School, which makes 3 state titles in the past 4 years.
• The boys' soccer team won the 2006 Arizona State Championships 2-0 over Sabino High School.
• The boys' tennis team won the 2009 Arizona State Championships 5-0 over Millennium High School, which is their 5th consecutive win.
• The boys' tennis team won the 2011 Arizona State Championships, their 7th consecutive win.
• The girls' tennis team won the 2007 Arizona State Championships, which is their 8th consecutive win.
• The girls' swim team won the 4A state swimming and diving championships for eight consecutive years, were runners-up in 2008, and won again in 2009 and 2010.
• The boys' swim team has won the 4A state swimming and diving championships for eleven consecutive years.
• The boys' volleyball team won the 2006, 2007, and 2008 championships, the first team in Arizona boys volleyball history to ever win three consecutive championships.
• The girls' Track and field team won the 2005 Arizona state championship
• The boys' track and field team won the 2002 Arizona state championship

Additionally, its boys lacrosse team won the 2010 Arizona Youth Lacrosse League state championship. Lacrosse is not sanctioned by the AIA.

Foothills Falcon Marching Band

The Foothills Falcon Marching Band is the largest in the state, consisting of around 250 students annually. Previous marching shows include West Side Story, The Blues Brothers, Dancer in the Dark, Africa, The Music of James Bond, Echoes of Camelot, The Who, La Fiesta Mexicana, When Worlds Collide (music from Danny Elfman), Adventure Calling, and A Kaleidoscope of Dreams. Their 2011 show was entitled "Synethesia: The Color of Sound", which won a superior with distinction and the prestigious Milton B. Nunamaker award, as well as numerous captions at the 2011 UofA Band Day. The long time band director, Renee Shane-Boyd, has worked as the Catalina Foothills High School band director, since the school's open.

In 2006, the band marched in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. In the summer of 2008, the band was invited to participate in the pre-Olympic Festivals in Beijing, China, where they performed several times on the Great Wall, in the Forbidden City and other monuments. In the 2009-2010 school year, they participated in the Fiesta Bowl parade and competition, placing 4th out of 7 competing bands in the country. The band has marched numerous times in the Walt Disney Land "Ears for the Arts" parade in California, as well the Prescott Holiday Parade and the Tucson Rodeo Parade annually. Their next upcoming large trip is a tour around Australia in the summer of 2012.

Outside of marching season, the bands split into several groups and perform as separate ensembles during concert season. The band splits into Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band and Concert Band, while the Drumline and Colorguard continue into a winter auxiliary show. The drumline splits into each of the three bands, according to skill level and schedule. Several groups not affiliated with the marching band are Jazz Band, Jazz Combo, Flute Choir, Clarinet Choir and Steel Drums.

Falcon Theatre Production Company

Catalina Foothills also has a fairly extensive and well known theatre program. They perform five or six shows a year involving two all school shows that are auditioned for (one of those being a musical), two (or three or four) Advanced Theatre Arts shows which are student directed and created, and a summer musical open to all ages. These shows are performed in the Little theatre which seats 213 people (without overflow seating). All of the classes on the Arts side are taught by Terry Erbe, while the Productions side is taught by Norm "Kung-Fu Grip" Testa and Clint Bryson.

In years past the school has also hosted a series of student written one-act plays as part of the One-Act Play Festival. All being student written, directed, and acted. Since 2008 though this has been abandoned so that the school could participate in the International Thespian Society, a theatre competition up in Phoenix, and the Southern Arizona Acting Festival in Tucson. The FTP Co. consistently places well in the technical theatre events.

Former shows include: Look Homeward Angel, All in the Timing, Cyrano De Bergerac, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Uninvited, Beauty and the Beast, Rimers of Eldritch, Little Shop of Horrors (twice), Into the Woods, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cabaret, A Chorus Line, A Few Good Men, Lend Me a Tenor, Metamorphosis, The Odyssey, The Rivals, The Revenger's Comedies, Chicago, Annie Get Your Gun, High School Musical, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Fame, This Humour Out of Breath (written by director Terry Erbe), The Insect Play, The Producers, Brave New World, and You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, among others. The productions that will take place this 2011-12 theatre season at Catalina Foothills will be: Macbeth (The Fall Play), The Drowsy Chaperone (The Spring Musical) And 4 student directed shows: Medea (Directed by Anasofia Gallegos), Proof (Directed by Brian Erickson), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Directed by Ashley Henderson), and The Good Doctor(Directed by Kellen Avender). The 2011 Summer show was "All Shook Up."

Choir

There are four choirs at the high school: Falconaires, a mixed entry level choir; Women's Choir, an audition women's choir; Concert Chorale, an audition choir with mixed voices; and Change of Pace, an audition, mixed jazz choir. Women's Choir and Concert Chorale have both received scores of superior at the Regional Choir Festival. Concert Chorale, Change of Pace, and Women's Choir seniors went during Rodeo Break in 2008 on a tour, ending up in San Francisco. In January 2008, Concert Chorale, Change of Pace, and Women's Choir seniors went to New York to sing the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Christopher Jackson. Concert Chorale is to sing the Schubert Mass in G in 2010, under the direction of Count von Count.

Notable alumni

• Professional IndyCar driver Sean Boyan attended the school from 2001-2005. He went on to attend the University of Arizona prior to becoming one of the most promising stars in racing today. Boyan is expected to compete full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2012.
• Ben Flajnik: star of season 16 of The Bachelor

External links

• Catalina Foothills School District