La Joya High School

La Joya High School
Address
604 N. Coyote Blvd. La Joya , Texas 78560
Information
School type	Public, High School
Founded	1926?
School district	La Joya ISD
Principal	Melinda Flores
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	2,379 (2010 UIL Realignment)
Language	English
Campus	Suburban
Color(s)	Red and White
Mascot	Coyotes
Feeder schools	Lorenzo De Zavala Middle School Cesar E. Chavez Middle School Dr. Javier Saenz Middle School
Rival schools	[[Palmview High School Juarez-Lincoln High School]]
Website	http://srhighsch.ljisd.com/home.aspx

La Joya High School is a Texas UIL Division 5A high school in the La Joya Independent School District named after the city it resides in, La Joya. The school is home to students that live on the west and south areas of La Joya ISD.

La Joya High School: Past to Present

La Joya ISD has been home to a single high school entity since the district (then known as Tabasco ISD) erected Nellie Schunior Memorial High School in 1926, six years after the death of Nellie Leo Schunior, the first education pioneer in the district's current boundaries.
La Joya High School was later created, in order to house the growing number of students that Nellie Schunior Memorial High School could not accommodate. As the years rapidly passed, the communities within the district boundaries began to flourish, and the district population exploded. La Joya High School, being the sole high school within the 226 square miles of land, grew to enormous proportions. For a long time, La Joya High School housed 9-12 grades. Eventually, the student population grew too much and a separate Ninth Grade Campus was built adjacent to La Joya High School. This new Ninth Grade Campus proved to be too small by the year 1999, so a larger and brand new Ninth Grade Campus was built, opening its doors to students in October 2000.
As the Freshman Class of 2000 was housed at the brand new Ninth Grade Campus, the remodeling project to expand the old Ninth Grade Campus went underway. By the year 2002, La Joya ISD was home to three high schools, but still only had one senior class, as all three campuses (conveniently located next to each other) shared students. La Joya High School became known as La Joya Senior High School (housing only 11th and 12th graders), the 2000 Ninth Grade Campus changed its name to Juarez-Lincoln High School (housing half of the 9th and 10th grade students), and the newly-remodeled old Ninth Grade Campus became Jimmy Carter High School (housing the other half of the 9th and 10th grade students).
Once again, population spurts in western Hidalgo County helped to overcrowd all three high schools. La Joya ISD had no choice but to split the district into three separate high schools, and for the first time ever, have multiple senior classes, multiple sports teams, and multiple mascots. The 2008-2009 school year became the inaugural year for both the Juarez-Lincoln Huskies, and the Palmview Lobos. With a much smaller student population, Juarez-Lincoln High School was classified as a 4A school, but Palmview High School, with a student population parallel with La Joya High School, was classified as a 5A school.

Past principals

Principal	Years Served
Melinda Flores	2009-Present

Athletics

Coyote Football

La Joya really hadn't been a sports icon in the valley for long. Not until the late 1990s was it that the team started making some noise. Simply known as "Los Coyotes", the Coyotes remained favorites in the Rio Grande Valley's 5A school from 2001-2005. Accumulating four district titles in that span, they were involved in the biggest game in 2004 between La Joya and Converse Judson despite losing in a lopsided affair. No team in the valley had made it past the third round of the playoffs in the 5A level. The reputation La Joya has in South Texas was created by its unwavering fan support. Thousands of residents attended Friday Night Football at La Joya ISD Stadium (often regarded the best football stadium south of San Antonio). Attendance to games easily surpassed the 12,500 capacity of the stadium. More times than not, fans of the La Joya Coyotes would have to be seated on the visitors side if there was space available.

The 2008-2009 school year split La Joya into three high schools; evidently, the Coyotes took damage in athletics with none of the three schools making it to the postseason in the 2008 campaign.

La Joya ISD suffered a tremendous hit with the division of one high school into three. The La Joya Coyotes, which had been setting new records for the district (advancing to higher playoff games than ever before), suddenly saw themselves playing against their past teammates, now the Palmview Lobos and the Juarez-Lincoln Huskies. Unfortunately, the Palmview Lobos had a less-than-stellar inaugural season in District 30-5A, winning none of ten total games in the 2008 season, but that was not the case for Juarez-Lincoln. Despite being the underdogs in a different classification, Juarez-Lincoln beat BOTH La Joya High School and Palmview High School during the inaugural season. In 2009, La Joya High School decided not to play against Juarez-Lincoln High School, but Palmview did. Once again, Juarez-Lincoln Huskies proved to be the "Kings of the Kennel" by beating them a second year in a row.

The La Joya Coyotes share their home turf with Juarez-Lincoln Huskies and Palmview Lobos at La Joya ISD Stadium, a 12,500-seating capacity stadium which opened in 2000. It is often referred to as the best-looking stadium in South Texas, and has been home to international soccer games, BOA Regional marching band contests, and many more events.

Other Sports

Baseball
Golf
Softball
Soccer
Track and Field
Volleyball
Weightlifting
CrossCountry
Wrestling

Fine Arts

La Joya High School Coyote Band

La Joya High School has earned an outstanding number of accolades in the past decade. Concert Bands have consistently received UIL Sweepstakes Awards (given to bands that perform a "Superior" rating on their concert portion of the contest, where they perform three prepared contrasting pieces of music for three judges, and a "Superior" rating on their sight-reading portion of the contest, where they learn a brand new piece of music never-before seen or played by anyone in just seven minutes, then perform it for three additional judges).

LJHS has also had great success on the marching field. In 1998, La Joya High School Marching Band and their show "Firebird Suite" made history by marking its first appearance at the coveted UIL 5A State Marching Band Contest at Baylor University, akin to the State Championships of Football. Roughly 25-35 of the best bands in the entire State of Texas compete to see who is crowned the best band in the state. Because there are many different classifications in UIL, 5A and 3A bands compete only on EVEN years, and 4A, 2A and 1A schools compete on ODD years. Two years later, La Joya HS made history again in 2000 with their show "By Air, By Sea, and By Land", earning a second consecutive appearance at the UIL 5A State Marching Band Contest at Baylor University. In 2002, La Joya HS advanced to the UIL 5A State Marching Band Contest at Baylor University yet again with their show "Stravinky's Uproar". Harlingen High School also advanced to State for its second consecutive time, sparking an unofficial rivalry between the two schools. This would also mark the last time Baylor University would host the UIL contest due to the unnaturally cold weather that year. Bands were not able to compete to their fullest due to the rain and sleet that created BU's football field into a muddy mess. The "Finals" portion of the contest was cancelled due to the many injuries on the field and the unsafe conditions for marching. A consensus was made by UIL officials to leave the Preliminary rankings as the official Finals ranking.

In 2004, UIL decided to move the enormous contest indoors, and since then, UIL 5A State Marching Contest is held at San Antonio's Alamodome. La Joya High School once again made history by marking its fourth consecutive appearance at the contest. The only other 5A school in the Rio Grande Valley to have the same amount of consecutive appearances was Harlingen High School, which also advanced to the State contests in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. La Joya High School performed what many call today their "best performance ever" with their show "Midnight at the Louvre". It was a spectacle like no other, and this marked La Joya High School's last appearance. In 2006, La Joya HS failed to advance to the State Marching Contest, after failing to advance to Finals at Area G Contest. This was a very hard moment in the history of the program, and Harlingen High School was able to finally best La Joya by advancing to State yet again. In 2008, the split hurt the program, and it is now working to return to the spotlight where it belongs. Despite this, the marching band has yet to get anything less than a Division I "Superior" rating at the annual UIL "Pigskin Jubilee" since 1997.

Choir

They have excellent singers

Folklorico

Grupo Folklorico "Tabasco"

The year the group was formed Grupo Folklorico "Tabasco" was formed in the year of 1982.

Reason for creating the group Since its inception, the philosophy for the folklorico program has been to perform and preserve the folklore and culture of Mexico through its music, and to dedicate ourselves to develop the unique gifts and talents of all our students. Originally, Grupo Folklorico "Tabasco" was formed to curb the dropout rate. Our student artists have received many honors throughout the years.

Places Visited They have entertained audiences throughout our school district, the Rio Grande Valley and have received state, national, and international recognition. At the state level, they have performed for Governors Mark White and Ann Richards. At the national level, they have performed at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans and in Washington D.C. at the White House for President Bush Senior in 1990. They have also performed for a number of senators and congressman as well as President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore on several occasions. In 1987 and in 1994 our students were honored twice with an invitation to perform at the annual Carnaval in Nice, France.

Other Stuff Most of our students have continued their education at colleges and universities that offer cultural scholarships. Other students have their own performing folklorico group as a result of the training they received at La Joya High School.

Current Leaders Director: Esthela Mendoza
Principal Dancers: Ricardo Flores & Cindy Trevino

Dance

La Joya Jewelettes

Other Clubs/Organizations

LJHS National Honor Society
LJHS Jewelettes(Dance/Drill Team)
H.O.S.A. (Health Occupations Students of America)
S.W.A.T. (Students With A Testimony)
Gear Up
F.F.A. (Future Farmers of America)
LJHS Student Council
Hispanic National Honor Society

New Traditions

Alma Mater

La Joya High School has an original song names "Alma Mater", written by one of the band directors decades ago. The words to the song are from an annonymous source as of yet.

"Down by the Rio Grande
is a school that helps us stand.
Through it we learn to love,
honor and obey.
We strive to bring glory to
our Alma Mater ever true.
We praise the school that we love so well:
Dear Old La Joya High!"

JALISCO

La Joya's fight song, "Jalisco", is an original song written by one of its band directors that uses the tune of "Jalisco", a popular song in Mexico.