Joliet West High School
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| Joliet West High School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| 401 N. Larkin Avenue Joliet, Illinois, USA |
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| Information | |
| Type | Public secondary |
| Established | 1964 |
| Principal | Teresa Gibson |
| Faculty | 322 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 2392 |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Color(s) | black gold white |
| Mascot | Tiger |
| Newspaper | Tiger Tales |
| Yearbook | Alpha Omega |
| Website | http://www.jths.org/west/default.aspx |
Joliet West High School, along with Joliet Central, makes up district 204 Joliet Township High School district in Joliet, Illinois. West's mascot is the Tiger. Central and West have recently split, so none of the sports or clubs are joint.
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[edit] Building
The school was originally constructed in 1964, one year after its identical sister school Joliet East, and has since been added on to 4 times. The first addition, completed in the early 1980s, added a bookstore to the cafeteria, additional space around the maintenance area, a multi-purpose room by the gymnasiums (primarily used for dance and wrestling), six additional classrooms, and a greenhouse.
The second and third additions (not shown in the picture) were completed as two consecutive projects, adding several additional classrooms, a new band room, cafetorium, conference room, dean's offices, and student commons area. The first phase broke ground on November 4, 2001 and was completed the following school year. The second phase began during the 2002-2003 year and was open for fall 2003 classes.
An additional building housing science classes was constructed in 2011.
[edit] Separation of Schools
The most recent construction added a field house in late 2007. During the 2008 - 2009 school year, Central and West began to again divide the schools' athletic programs, allowing the West mascot to become the Tiger once again, leaving Central as the Steelmen. The split began with Joliet's Freshmen football team dividing. As of the 2010 - 2011 school year, Joliet Central and Joliet West have their own, entirely independent sports programs.
[edit] Music tradition
Joliet West has been known for its outstanding music programs for half a century. Many alums continue on in music as a career, including Charlie Adams, John Barrowman, Jimmy Chamberlain, Doug Pinnick, Anthony Rapp, and Janina Gavankar. The Marching Tigers, Joliet West's marching band, is one of the few groups that held the Tiger name throughout the adoption and relinquishment of the Steelman mascot. There have been five band directors at Joliet West: Arthur D. Katterjohn, 1964-1967; Dean H. Sayles, 1967-1990; I. V. Foster, 1990-1992; Ted Lega, 1992-1993, and Kevin T. Carroll, 1993-present. The band program has consistently received high scores at competitions and has been invited to the Superstate band festival multiple times.
In April 2008, Joliet West High School was the first high school to perform a comic opera of Edwin Penhorwood entitled "Too Many Sopranos".
Recently, Joliet West High School's music program has come to note by being one of only a handful of high schools to have an "Opera Scenes" program. The music department has performed scenes ranging from "La Boheme" to "Die Fledermaus" to "Dialogues of the Carmelites". September 25, 2009's Scenes of Murder, featuring "Don Giovanni", "Hänsel and Gretel", "Dido and Aeneas", and the aforementioned "Dialogues of the Carmelites", surpassed the attendance of the 2008 spring play; 338 people attended the event. A 13-foot guillotine was built specifically for 2009's Opera Scenes.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Charlie Adams, drummer/percussionist (Chameleon, Yanni)
- John Barrowman, Broadway actor (Doctor Who, Torchwood)
- Jimmy Chamberlin, drummer (The Smashing Pumpkins)
- Adrianne Curry - model, tv personality (Dropped out in 11th grade)
- Andy Dick - actor-comedian (The Andy Dick Show)
- Randall Kleck - martial artist
- Doug Pinnick - musician
- Anthony Rapp - actor (Rent)
- Eric Parker - former NFL player (San Diego Chargers)
- Janina Gavankar - actress, musician (The L Word, The Gates (TV series), True Blood)
[edit] External links
