Morris Hills High School

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Morris Hills High School
Location
520 West Main Street
Rockaway, NJ 07866
Information
Type Public high school
Established 1953
Principal Joe Cacciaguida
Asst. Principal Robert Merle, Jr.
Jennifer Sisko
Todd Toriello
Faculty 95.0 (on FTE basis)[1]
Enrollment 1,132 (as of 2006-07)[1]
Student:teacher ratio 11.9[1]
Color(s) Scarlet      and White     
Athletics conference Iron Hills Conference
Team name Scarlet Knights
Newspaper The Morris Hills Hilltopper
Yearbook Morris Hills Torch Yearbook
Information 973-664-2300
Website School website

Morris Hills High School is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school serving students in grades 9 - 12 in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Morris Hills Regional High School District. The school, located in the borough of Rockaway, supports twenty-six varsity sports. The other high school in the district is Morris Knolls High School.

The high school serves students from Rockaway Borough, Wharton, and parts of Rockaway Township.[2] Most students come to Morris Hills from Copeland Middle School, Alfred C. MacKinnon Middle School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

The school was first opened for classes on September 9, 1953. A 39 acre site that was the former Gunther Estate serves as campus for Morris Hills. The school has been nationally recognized in various activities including Forensics, Athletics, Music, Academics, and Staff Development.

Additionally, the campus of Morris Hills houses the Morris County Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering.

As of the 2006-07 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,132 students and 95 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 11.9.[1]

Contents

[edit] Awards and recognition

For the 1996-97 school year, Morris Hills High School was named a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.[3]

The school was the 106th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools. The school was ranked 101st in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[4]

[edit] School media

The Morris Hills Hilltopper has served as the only official paper of the school, and is published four times a year, in color. Students write all articles and take the majority of the photos, as well as set up the design and comics.

Seed Magazine is the school's annual literary magazine. All students are allowed to submit prose or poetry, or visual works of art (though not all are put into the actual magazine).

[edit] Extracurricular activities

Morris Hills houses a large variety of extracurricular activities for its students, ranging from bible club (Velocity) to its very own DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) Club. Many have gained recognition or awards for their duties in the community or their overall excellence in their field, including the Morris Hills Stage Crew (part of drama club), which placed third in the ITS Statewide festival in the 2005-2006 year. Any student is permitted to join any club, a partial list of clubs include:

[edit] Athletics

The Morris Hills High School Scarlet Knights participate in the twenty-member Iron Hills Conference. The Morris Hills Boys Basketball team made the state tournament for the first time in 10 years this year, though it lost in the first round to 6th-seeded Passaic Valley High School 67-45.[5] Morris Hills also has a prestigious baseball program, winning 135 games in the last 6 years with 1 Morris County Tournament Championship (2002), 1 North I Group III State Sectional Title (2004), and 5 Iron Hills Conference (Hills Division) championships (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007).

Sports offered at Morris Hills include Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Cross Country, Fencing, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball and Wrestling.

[edit] Cross Country and Track and Field

Perhaps the best known athletics program at Morris Hills is its men’s cross country and track and field teams, both of which have been very successful in the state the past seven years, due in very large part to the efforts of head cross country coach Sean Robinson, who took the position in 2002.

Since becoming head coach, Robinson has led the Scarlet Knights to 20 of 28 major high school cross country championships (conference, county, state section and state group) in seven years. The team has been undefeated in dual meet competition in the Iron Hills Conference since 2002.

Robinson took the head indoor track and field coaching position in 2006. In that year, the Scarlet Knights won every major championship they entered (conference, county, state group and state group relay), the first time that had happened in county history. The Scarlet Knights repeated the feat in 2008.

Robinson was also coach during Morris Hills’ county championship victory in 2006, the first time the Scarlet Knights had won since 1977.

Morris Hills has also had over twenty All-American honors distributed to its runners since 2005; a number boosted due to the highly successful 4 x mile relay and shuttle hurdle relay teams. Keith Lindsley, the 2007 NJSIAA Athletic Assistant Coach of the Year, is the current sprint/hurdles coach. Morris Hills was selected to participate in the inaugural Nike Team National Cross Country Championship in 2005, where they finished 13th.

[edit] Marching Band

In 1998, the Morris Hills High School Marching Band, under Director Michael Sopko, was recruited to film an MTV Commercial for the MTV Video Music Awards. The marching band was chosen after being spotted by MTV associates during their annual competition at Giants Stadium. In the commercial, the marching band played clips from nominated songs and ended in a human formation of the MTV symbol. The commercial was aired several times daily leading up to the awards ceremony.

[edit] Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:[6]

  • Joe Cacciaguida - Principal
  • Bob Merle - Assistant Principal
  • Jennifer Sisko - Assistant Principal
  • Todd Toriello - Assistant Principal
  • Robert Haraka - Supervisor of Student Services/Athletics

Merle, Sisko, and Toriello are graduates of Morris Hills' sister high school, Morris Knolls.

[edit] Notable alumni

  • Bruce Bannon - played linebacker for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League in 1973 and 1974.[7]
  • Dr. Arthur Field - became Executive Director and conductor of the Carolina Pops Orchestra in South Carolina in 2005. [1]
  • Dan McDonald - 2-time Player of the Year with Morris Hills, was drafted by the New York Mets in 2007.
  • Lieutenant General Raymond T. Odierno - After graduating from Morris Hills in 1972, General Ordierno was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Continuing in his military career, he became commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas. It was during his time commanding this division in Iraq when troops under Odierno's command were given credit for capturing Saddam Hussein.[8]
  • Thomas Skutka - As a student, Skutka set the National High School record for the one mile (1.6 km) run with a time of 4.19.5 in 1955. After serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, Tom returned to Morris Hills as a teacher/librarian, where he also served as head track coach for many years.
  • Tony Naclerio - Anthony Naclerio served as a guidance counselor and coach at Morris Hills High School for 30 years. His philosophy that education continues onto the athletic field and into all facets of extra curricular activities led him to coaching and leadership clubs. He is an author of a Track & Field book and has lectured all over the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe. He has coached countless high school national champions, collegiate All Americans and Olympic medalists. He was put in charge of the United States Development program for throwing athletes from 1975 to 1996. He coached on the world and Olympic levels. A high point of his career came when he led the USA team into the stadium at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Morris Hills High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 1, 2007.
  2. ^ Morris Hils High School Report Card Narrative 2006, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed January 28, 2008.
  3. ^ Star School Award recipient detail 1996-97 school year, Morris Hills High School, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed May 29, 2006.
  4. ^ "Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
  5. ^ 2006 Boys Basketball - North I, Group III, NJSIAA. Accessed June 23, 2006.
  6. ^ Administration, Morris Hills High School. Accessed August 21, 2008.
  7. ^ Was part of the 1974 Super Bowl winning team.Bruce Bannon player profile, accessed May 2, 2007.
  8. ^ Manochio, Matt. "Morris general oversaw capture", Daily Record (Morristown), December 14, 2003. Accessed May 2, 2007. "Raymond T. Odierno, 48, is a 1972 graduate of Morris Hills High School."

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 40°53′23″N 74°31′37″W / 40.889606°N 74.527059°W / 40.889606; -74.527059

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