Robbinsdale Armstrong High School

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Robbinsdale Armstrong High School
Location
Plymouth, Minnesota, United States of America
Information
Type	Public
Established	1970
Principal	David Dahl
Number of students	2,200[1]
Mascot	Falcon
Colors	Red, White, and Blue
Website	http://ahs.rdale.org

Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (full name Robbinsdale Neil A. Armstrong Senior High School) (abbr. RAHS or just AHS) is a High School located in Plymouth, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. It serves students from the cities of Robbinsdale, Crystal, New Hope, Plymouth and Golden Valley.

The school offers comprehensive secondary education, including core subjects, technology education, physical education, and the fine arts. Newsweek ranked the school #800 in their "List of the 1500 Top High Schools in America."^[2] In addition to this, Armstrong (along with the Robbinsdale Area School District) has been ranked as one of the "100 Best Communities for Music Education" by the American Music Conference.^[3]

The school's athletic programs have made it to state competitions on many occasions. School tradition maintains that the main rival to Robbinsdale Armstrong is Robbinsdale Cooper, the other sizable high school in Robbinsdale Area School District 281, located in the suburb of New Hope. Together, Robbinsdale Armstrong and Robbinsdale Cooper regularly serve the secondary school population of over 4000 traditional students in the district.

Contents 1 School Overview 2 Facilities 3 Athletics 4 Notable alumni 5 References 6 External links

[edit] School Overview

Armstrong is a four year public high school located in Plymouth, Minnesota and it is one of two public high schools in the district. Armstrong has a student population of 2259 and is 1% Native American, 5% Asian, 8% Hispanic, 17% Black, and 69% white as of the 2007-2008 school year and 25% of the student body takes advantage of low priced or free school lunches^[4].

The school has a large Advanced Placement program with numerous AP Scholars. It also routinely produces National Merit Scholarship award winners and semifinalists. Over 95% of graduating students go on to post-secondary educational institutions. Commonly attended institutions include Saint Cloud State University, University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, Hamline, NDSU, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Kansas, University of North Dakota,North Hennepin Community College, Gustavus Adolphus College and Normandale Community College.

[edit] Facilities

Robbinsdale Armstrong High School was built in 1970. It has undergone several renovations and upgrades since its construction, with a major recent renovation finished in 2003. The school comprises four multistory inter-connected buildings. Armstrong is fully wired for high speed internet in addition to wifi access points.

Armstrong has two lots for paid student parking and one for staff/faculty parking. The Plymouth, Minnesota police department provides a liaison officer for overall school security.

The grounds contain a varsity and a junior varsity football field. In addition, Armstrong has two baseball fields, several enclosed tennis courts, and a padded track. Swim teams utilize the Plymouth Middle School and Hosterman facilities for practices and matches.

[edit] Athletics

The Armstrong Falcons have a heated rivalry with the Cooper Hawks and the two high school's rivalry is like that of their neighboring high schools, the Wayzata Trojans and the Minnetonka Skippers. Armstrong Senior has had strong basketball teams and had a successful football team in the early 2000s. In 2007 Armstrong's boys basketball team made it to the class 4A state championship game, where they were defeated in a close match against the Buffalo Bison. In 1976 the Men's Gymnastic Team, led by Coach Harlow Beyer broke a Lake Conference all-sports record when they harvested their eightieth (80th) consecutive dual meet victory and collected its fifth (5th) State Title (1972 thru 1976).

Armstrong is currently a member of the Classic Lake Conference, however, it was voted out of the conference due to declining enrollment as of 2010 and has been admitted to the Northwest Suburban Conference effective 2010.^[5]

State Team Championships
Season	Sport	Number of Championships	Year
Fall	Soccer, Boys	2	1979 and 2003(AA)
	Cross country, Boys	1	1974
	Cross country, Girls	2	1976 and 1978
	Volleyball, Girls	7	80(AA), 81(AA), 82(AA), 83(AA), 84(AA), 00(AAA), 02(AAA)
Winter	Nordic skiing, Boys	1	1980
	Gymnastics, Girls	2	1976, 1983
	Gymnastics, Boys	7	1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1982
Spring	Softball, Girls	1	2001(AAA)
	Track and Field, Boys	2	1985(AA) and 2002(AA)
Total		25

[edit] Notable alumni

• Jordan Leopold, professional hockey player for Team USA^[6] and for the NHL Colorado Avalanche^[7]
• Mo Collins, comedian ^[8]
• Ember Reichgott Junge, former politician
• Actor-director Kevin Norberg ('71), ASCAP composer, recording artist, member of critically-acclaimed Dale Warland Singers including the Grammy award nominated project, and currently heads The Tevye Project based in Mpls, MN (http://www.TheTevyeProject.com)
• Todd Richards, former hockey player and coach of the Minnesota Wild
• Mark Daly, reporter for KARE-11
• Dennis Vaske, professional hockey player
• Chad Hartman, KFAN radio host and son of Star Tribune reporter Sid Hartman
• Tom Dooher, president, Education Minnesota, largest union in Minnesota
• Jeff Schuh, All-Big Ten First Team, University of Minnesota (1980), professional football player for Cincinnati Bengals (1981-1985), Green Bay Packers (1986), Minnesota Vikings (1986)
• Bee Vang, actor
• Derek Peltier, professional hockey player
• Everette Pedescleaux, professional football player for the Denver Broncos.
• Rick Rood, professional wrestler.
• Barry Darsow, professional wrestler.
• Nikita Koloff, professional wrestler.
• Curt Hennig, professional wrestler.
• Verne Gagne, professional wrestler.
• Tom Zenk, professional wrestler.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• Robbinsdale Area Schools Website

v • d • e Classic Lake Conference Teams Edina High School · Hopkins High School · Minnetonka High School · Robbinsdale Armstrong High School · Wayzata High School

v • d • e Northwest Suburban Conference teams Andover High School • Anoka High School • Blaine High School • Champlin Park High School • Coon Rapids High School • Centennial High School • Elk River High School • Maple Grove Senior High School • Osseo Senior High School • Park Center Senior High School • Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (2010)