Plymouth-Canton Educational Park

Todd Turfe High School: Cause Todd said so
Location
Salem High School 46181 Joy Rd Canton, Michigan 48187 Canton High School 8415 Canton Center Rd. Canton, Michigan 48187 Plymouth High School 8400 Beck Rd. Canton, Michigan 48187 United States
Information
Type	Public secondary
Established	1970: Salem High School 1972: Canton High School 1974: Phase III 2002: Plymouth High School
School district	Plymouth-Canton Community Schools
Grades	9–12
Color(s)	Red and White (Canton) Black and Silver (Plymouth) Blue and White (Salem)
Mascot	Chiefs (Canton) Wildcats (Plymouth) Rocks (Salem)
Accreditation	NCA
Website	http://web.pccs.k12.mi.us/pcep

The Plymouth-Canton Educational Park (commonly P-CEP, "The Park", or "P-sep") encompasses three public secondary schools—Salem High School, Canton High School, and Plymouth High School—in Canton Township, Michigan, United States. PCEP is located on a 305-acre (1.23 km²) campus in Wayne County. The schools operate a joint academic program and, for most sports, individual athletic programs. Certain extracurricular activities, such as choir, the Plymouth-Canton Marching Band, and cheerleading, are combined.

[3] - PCEP Website

PCEP is part of the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools District, serving the City of Plymouth, Plymouth Township, Canton Township, and parts of Salem Township, Superior Township, and Northville Township.

As of the 2006–07 school year, Salem High School had an enrollment of 1,945 students, Canton High School 1,942 students, and Plymouth High School 1,935 students. PCEP has over 50 clubs and organizations, including a radio station, WSDP-FM 88.1 'The Escape'.

History

The original Plymouth High School

The original Plymouth High School was built in the early 20th century on the northwest corner of Main Street and Church Street, opposite from present-day City Hall in present-day downtown Plymouth, Michigan. The district deemed the facility to be outdated by the 1960s for high school use. It was closed after the 1969-1970 school year.

When the first new high school opened in the present-day Plymouth-Canton Educational Park, the original Plymouth High School was converted into a middle school, dubbed Central Middle School (in conjunction with the more recently constructed East and West Middle Schools). Central Middle School remains a landmark in down town and is still in operation as a middle school as part of the Plymouth-Canton Community School District. When Plymouth opened it only let in Freshmen, and the next year Freshmen and Sophomores, etc.

Salem Rocks

In the early 1900s, Plymouth High School first opened its doors to the cities of Plymouth and Canton. The original building was located downtown Plymouth. The original high later became a middle school known as "Central". The school was self-contained, as it was constructed to contain all of the amenities its student body would require at the time. The main entrance to the newer high school, the North Mall, faces Joy Road. The North Mall provides access to a connecting corridor between the principal classrooms on the building's west side, and the athletic facilities and theater on the east side. The administrative offices and cafeteria are also located on the first floor on the west side, as is the school store.

Originally planned to simply remain Plymouth High School, the school's name was changed to Plymouth-Salem High School after Canton opened. Although the school district serves much of rural Salem Township, Salem residents were not necessarily exclusive to Plymouth-Salem.

Plymouth High's colors of red, white, and blue, were split up, with Plymouth-Salem retaining blue and white, and the eventual Canton High School teams taking the red with white. Plymouth-Salem retained their "Rocks" mascot; supposedly named for the large unmovable boulder that sits outside the school. It is tradition for students to spray paint this rock for school events and to celebrate important sports victories.

Salem is divided into two main sections, east and west. The east side contains the swimming pool and Logan Auditorium on the north side, and a two-level gymnasium on the south side, divided by a wide central hallway leading to the east entrance of the school. A staircase leads to the second-floor corridor near the entrance to the auditorium. The west side contains three floors of classrooms, as well as the cafeteria on the southeast side of the first floor. Administrative offices are located on the northeast side of the first two floors. The center of the second floor is dominated by the school library, and also features the studio for radio station WSDP. Stairwells on the north and south sides provide access to all three floors, and an elevator provides access for students unable to use the stairs.

One of the more distinctive features of the school building was its large ramp at the North Mall, which provided direct access to the second floor of classrooms. What made this ramp unusual were the three steps placed at the bottom of the ramp, purposely making vehicle access impractical. The ramp was demolished in the early 1990s, and the North Mall was revamped to provide a more appealing façade, while the South Mall was eliminated in favor of an expanded cafeteria. The school underwent renovations from 2006 to 2008.

In 2002, with the opening of the new Plymouth High School as part of the PCEP, "Plymouth" was dropped from Salem's name. Salem High School retained the "Rocks" nickname, logo, and colors of blue and white. The Salem Rocks logo is the same as Prudential Financial's Rock of Gibraltar logo, rendered in Salem's darker shade of blue, with an additional outer circle added featuring "Salem" on top and "Rocks" on bottom ("Plymouth-Salem" on top prior to 2002).

In addition to the formal online school resources, the school's parents, coaches and boosters proudly and voluntarily contribute content related to their group and team activities at [4].

Canton Chiefs

Opening as Plymouth-Canton High School in 1972, Canton has a strikingly darker appearance than its big brother school, Salem. Darker bricks and metallic protrusions provide a stark contrast to Salem's lighter bricks and rounded corners. Canton was built without any athletic facilities of its own supporting the idea of "The Park"; these came later, in the form of an independent building just north of the school, dubbed Phase III (currently identified as Canton North). Two parallel corridors run north-south through the building, with the library, cafeteria, and the DuBois Theater (formerly Little Theater) located between them. The administration offices are off the east corridor, near the main entrance. The bulk of the classrooms are located on the first and second floors on the north side of the building, with vocational classes located at the far south end.

In addition to Canton's sports, Phase III was home to the PCEP Marching Band, until the new Plymouth HS was built containing new band facilities. PCEP Orchestra remains in Canton North. Originally, Phase III was not directly accessible by car from Canton's parking lot, and had to be accessed from the Salem lot instead. When Canton's parking lot was renovated in the 1990s, a bridge over the creek separating Canton from Phase III was constructed, finally giving full access. The Canton football team has become a fierce competitor as a result of their "hide-the-ball" offense known as the Wing-T.

Canton High School's team name is the Chiefs. Their logo is an arrowhead, identical to the logo of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. Prior to dropping "Plymouth" from its name in 2002 when Plymouth High School opened, the logo featured the letters "PC" in front of the arrowhead, in the same font and arrangement as the NFL team's logo. Since 2002, a large italic "C" is superimposed over the arrowhead. Now in 2009 they changed their logo to a Red Block C. The school has also used a secondary logo of a Native American chief's head, but is usually unused. The school colors remain red and white. Canton provides many clubs and sports. In addition to the formal online school resources, the school's parents, coaches and boosters proudly and voluntarily contribute content related to their group and team activities at [5].

Plymouth Wildcats

Opened in August 2002, and constructed southwest of Salem High School, the new Plymouth High School was designed by the architecture firm French Associates . The students selected to be Plymouth High's first senior class, the Class of 2006, were polled to come up with a new nickname for the school. Their selection, the Predators (after the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League), was met with opposition from some parents, in the conservative community, who associated it with sexual predators. As a result, the school decided to use the generic "Wildcats" nickname, while still using the saber-toothed tiger logo of the Nashville Predators. Plymouth's school colors were to be black and purple, but were changed to black and silver. In addition to the formal online school resources, the school's parents, coaches and boosters proudly and voluntarily contribute content related to their group and team activities [6].

Campus

The campus is 305 acres (1.2 km²), although much of this is athletic fields. There are four academic buildings: Canton High School, Plymouth High School, Salem High School, and Phase III, also known as Canton North. Students may have classes in all four buildings, even though each student is assigned to one "home school" which he or she is to graduate from and play sports for. Students also get approximately 10 minutes to walk in-between their classes (rain, snow, sleet, or SHINE). There has been criticism that it is unsafe for students to walk though several inches of snow as many as six times a day, but the administration still gives snow days as rarely as possible. One advantage to the 3-in-1 idea is cost-cutting: there is only one auto shop (at Canton), one culinary arts facility (at Salem), one varsity football field (at Canton), two swimming pools (at Salem & Canton), one varsity soccer field (at Canton), and one junior varsity football field (at Plymouth).

The campus has gone through many changes throughout its history, from its early years with only Salem High School where the facility operated like the traditional high school it was. For most of its history, the campus has contained Canton High School and Salem High School, with a great rivalry built between the two neighbors. For many years the campus operated under block scheduling, seen as an innovative way to allow for longer periods of uninterrupted teaching time. This also gave students more downtime and freedom to decide what to do with it; with this freedom came responsibility to make good choices during non-class times. After many years of block scheduling The Park resorted back to a traditional schedule with 6 classes per day and 2 semesters of classes per year. Currently, The Park is considered a "Closed Campus," meaning no student may leave during the school day without a pass from the office to exit. The PCEP security squad makes sure this, as well as other policies are enforced strongly and will go to great lengths to apprehend a student they suspect of breaking a rule.

Prior to the summer of 2006, the Cady family barn was also a part of the campus. It has since been moved to the Canton Township Cherry Hill village area next to a historic home. Included on the campus grounds is also a small strip of forest that backs a nearby neighborhood. Various trails are scattered throughout the wooded area. An artesian well can also be found in the wooded area, and is visited by earth science and ecology classes yearly. A creek that is part of the Rouge River watershed runs through the campus, separating Salem and Phase III (originally named Canton North) which are north of the creek from Canton and Plymouth (south of the creek). Environmental science classes held at the park regularly take water samples to monitor water quality from this creek. It has been a long-standing tradition for upperclassmen to threaten Freshmen with "Freshmen Fridays," where they attempt to throw Freshmen in the creek.

Students and faculty

The Park currently has about 6,200 students with a racial makeup of 81% White, non-Hispanic, 10% Asian/Pacific Islander, 4% [African American], 2% Hispanic, and less than 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native[7] (figures are rounded and do not add to 100%). The faculty has 280 members.

Extracurricular activities

The Park has over 50 clubs and organizations, including a radio station. All three Science Olympiad teams qualified for the state level competition in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. Also, Plymouth's 2007 Novice and 2009 Varsity Quiz Bowl teams won the championship in the tri-county area.

There are also many clubs dedicated to different languages and cultures, such as the Spanish and Latino Students' Association (SALSA), Asian Pacific American Club (APAC), Indian-American Student Association (IASA), Muslim Student Association (MSA), Arab Student Association, Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), and the Diversity Council.

PCEP's radio station WSDP 88.1FM, has won numerous awards, including the Michigan Association of Broadcaster's annual 'Station of the Year' prize, which it has won nearly every year in the past decade.. The station was started in 1972 at 89.3FM. Bonny Dore, Mary Phyl Godfroy, John Seidelman and Jeff Cardinal were the first faculty advisors. Multiple radio air talents, program directors and even station managers started their careers at WSDP.

"The Park" also has a Debate Club, a Model United Nations Club, a three Mock Trial teams, a FIRST Robotics Team [8], a Distributive Education Clubs of American chapter, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) chapter, and an Investment Club, among other clubs geared towards educational incentives. The Park's National Honor Society was recognized by the American Cancer Society for its efforts in supporting and running the community fundraising walk for cancer cures, Relay for Life.

Performing arts

The theatrical side of the performing arts program at the park consists of two groups: The Park Players, based at Salem High School, and The Second Stage Players, based at Canton High School. Any student who attends PCEP can audition for shows produced by either group.

The performing arts program began with the formation of what is now the Park Players in 1970 by Gloria Logan, a drama teacher at Salem. The first three productions were staged at Central Middle School. The first production staged in Salem Auditorium was Fiddler on the Roof in 1971; as a tradition, a revival of Fiddler has been staged on the 10th and 20th anniversary years of the auditorium (1981 and 1991), while the most recent revival was staged in 2000, the 30th anniversary of the Park Players.

Both groups stage two fully produced, faculty-directed shows each school year. Each semester, there is usually one play and one musical. Two years ago the Second Stage Players produced two musicals, both Little Shop of Horrors and Into the Woods, in the same season, and are currently preparing the Musical Comedy, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee". The Park Players has produced Neil Simon's Proposals, Footloose the Musical, Hello Dolly!,Jekyll and Hyde, and "Smokey Joes Cafe". They are currently preparing for their fall play, "Noises Off Noises Off". The Park also has a Spoken Word Club, an Improv Club and a Puppetry Club.

Marching band

Main article: Plymouth-Canton Marching Band

The Plymouth-Canton Marching Band is under the direction of Director, Mr. David Armbruster and has placed in the top 12 marching bands in the country at the Bands of America Grand National Championships 17 out of the past 18 years. They have won the Grand National Championship there three times; 1990, 1991 and 1999. The group has won the Michigan Competing Band Association Flight or Division I title over 16 times and nine times in a row from (placing 7th in nationals in 2007). There are also various academic bands and two orchestras as classes to be taken during the regular school day. In April 2007, PCEP's Open Class Winter Guard placed 4th at the Winter Guard International World Championships in Dayton, OH. The marching band appeared in the 1973 Rose Bowl Parade as well as a nationally broadcast Battle of The Bands Show, hosted by Jerry Lewis, prior to the parade.

Orchestra

There are two orchestra classes. The lower orchestra is called Concert Orchestra, while the upper one is called Symphony Orchestra. Placement into either of these is determined by audition. Symphony Orchestra typically plays AA-rated musical pieces, often playing pieces with members of the Wind Ensemble. They have been ranked as one of the best performing high school symphony orchestras in the state, consistently earning a Division I rating at District Orchestra Festival. Both high school orchestras often perform for community events, and volunteers from orchestra classes and Wind Ensemble play in the orchestra pit for the musicals. There is also a middle school orchestra program which meets in the high school during first hour in the high school schedule. All orchestra classes are directed by Catherine DePentu. In April the orchestras performed together at the Duxbury Performing Arts Center in Massachusetts winning second place at the festivals of music.

Choirs

There are five choir classes at PCEP. The entry-level choir for ninth-grade girls, Park Singers, is the starting choir for most students. One step above Park Singers for girls, and the starting place for all male vocalists, is Allegro!. The only mixed choir class, Allegro! performs easy to moderately challenging selections. After Allegro!, the next highest choir for girls is Dulcissima. Dulcissima is a group of roughly 65 select female voices who perform moderate to challenging pieces for competitions, earning high marks. The highest choir for girls is the Madrigal Singers. The Madrigals perform extremely challenging selections, and have earned highest honors at state and national competitions. Equal with the Madrigals is the male select choir, Chamber Choir, which has also earned highest honors at state and national competitions. Although Chambers and Madrigals have separate classes, the two choirs rehearse together after school every week, and practice pieces that they do together. This combined choir is called the Festival Singers and is nicknamed by its members "Chambrigals". The Festival Singers travel around throughout the school year and perform for various competitions and community events. The five, award-winning choirs have a total of about 300 members (and growing), and are directed by Jennifer Kopp and co-directed by Valerie Said.

Other clubs dedicated to varying student interests at "The Park" include, Food Club, Association for the Advancement of Table Tennis (AATT), and Photography Club.

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Athletics

SALEM HIGH SCHOOL (formerly Plymouth-Salem High School) The "ROCKS"

Boys Soccer Salem won its only State Championship in 1995 by beating Portage Northern H.S. 1-0 in the finals and finishing the season 23-3-3. They have also appeared in the Finals and finished Runner-Up in 1989, 1992, 1997, 1999 & 2002.

Girls Soccer Salem's girls soccer team won its only State Championship in 1987 by beating Livonia Churchill 2-1 in the finals. They also appeared in the Finals and finished Runner-Up in 1995.

Cross Country Salem Cross Country has the least amount of state athletes at the park.

Football Salem remains the only school out of the three to win a State Football Championship, doing so in 1974.

Baseball They won the state baseball championship in 1975 and 1991.

Boys Swimming/Diving Salem boys swimming won the WLAA conference championship for 11 straight years

Girls Swimming/Diving Salem girls swimming continues to close the gap between itself and Stevenson High School at the Conference Finals.

Boys Ice Hockey The Salem boys ice hockey team has also been a strong contender for the state championship for several years.

Boys Tennis Salem's boys tennis team won both conferences and regionals, and took first in states.

CANTON HIGH SCHOOL (formerly Plymouth-Canton High School) The "Chiefs"

Football In recent years, Canton High School's football team has finished high in regional rankings. On November 12, 2005, Canton won its first-ever regional title by defeating Detroit King. They made an appearance in the state finals against Rockford High but lost 21-31. They made it back to regionals in 2006, but then lost in the semi-finals to Rockford. In 2008, the Chiefs defeated Saline for the district title. They went on to lose to Stevenson in the regional finals.

Girls Soccer Canton's girls soccer team, under former coach Don Smith, won the state championship in 1988, 1996, and 2001. In 2001 the Chiefs were led by four time all-state and three time Parade All-American Anne Morrell. Morrell went on to play at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her number 7 is the only number to have been retired in Canton High School history.

Wrestling Canton High School's wrestling team won its sixth straight district title in 2010, and made it to the Team State tournament in Battle Creek in 2006 and 2008. In 2007, Canton's Corey Phillips won the State Championship at 140 pounds in Division 1.

Softball The softball team was runner-up in the 1992 state championship game losing 1-0 in 9 innings. The Chiefs won five straight District Titles from 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007. They won the Regional Title in 2004 and made it to the regional championship game in 2005. In the 2005 season they finished with a 36-2 record which included a division, conference, and district championship and two tournament championships while breaking 11 school records before the season ended including a perfect game by senior pitcher Molly Conlon in a 9-0 win against their long time rivals the Salem Rocks. Six players from the 2005 team went on to play college ball.

PLYMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL (opened Fall 2002) The "Wildcats"

Tennis Plymouth High School boys tennis team won their first divisional championship in 2009-10.

Volleyball The volleyball team was first to win the division.

Boys Track & Field The boys track and field team joined the volleyball team in being the first to win the division.

Football In 2005, their first year of having a full graduating class, the Plymouth football team made the state playoffs, losing their first ever playoff game. The team again made the playoffs in 2007 and 2008, again losing their first games in the Pre-District round.

Plymouth-Canton-Salem Unified Teams

PCS UNITED CHEER TEAM In 2005, the PCS United Cheer team was formed, composed of cheerleaders from all three schools and is also a nationally ranked team.

PCS GIRLS ICE HOCKEY The Plymouth-Canton-Salem Penguins girls ice hockey team won the 2006 and 2007 State Championships.

PCS BOYS LACROSSE When unified, the lacrosse team was called the PCS Warriors. Starting in , the Plymouth Wildcats, the Salem Rocks, and the Canton Chiefs started their own lacrosse teams.

PCEP FIGURE SKATING The Plymouth-Canton-Salem figure skating team competes annually in district competitions as well as state-wide championships.

Curriculum

PCEP, with its large size, offers a wide range of classes. Students have the opportunity to run a restaurant (the Rock Cafe in Salem), work in a preschool, produce a news program that airs three times a week, work in an auto shop, be involved in either of the two theatre groups, and work in one of the Park's three school stores. The Park offers numerous band, orchestra, and choir courses, ranging from beginners to pre-professional. Within each of the schools is a writing center, and a math lab, which offers free tutoring service for students' writing, and additional help for students' math respectively.

Notable alumni

• Devin Thomas (Canton, 2004) - Wide receiver for the Washington Redskins
• Jason Stollsteimer (Canton, 1996) - Lead singer and guitarist in The Von Bondies
• Margaret Dunning (Salem, 1929) - Philanthropist; attended Plymouth High School before PCEP existed
• Dennis Cockrum (Salem, 1973) - Character Actor 'Uncle Buck', 'West Wing' 'NCIS', 'JAG'.
• Tom Hulce (Salem, 1972) - Actor
• Allison Schmitt (Canton, 2008) - U.S. Olympic Swimmer, 2008 Beijing Bronze Medalist
• Todd Turfe (Canton, 2009) - Professional wrestler and actor. Dubbed the "Legend Killer" (Jr.)
• James Wisniewski (Canton, 2002) - Anaheim Ducks Defenseman
• Rob Milford (Salem, 1973) Radio Newsman/Correspondent. 1st embedded newsman in Iraq '03
• Neb Eric (Canton, 1988) Poet
• Ryan M. Place (Canton, 2003) writer and filmmaker
• Dena Head (Salem, 1988) - First player ever drafted in the WNBA.
• Arul Chinnaiyan (Salem, 1988) - Multi-award winning cancer researcher at the University of Michigan Medical School.
• David Dameron (Salem, 1987) - 1987 Junior World Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion, 136.5 lbs [9].

Todd Turfe

As a means to raise money for breast cancer, Turfe became one of the countable high school alumni to be awarded a Pink varsity sweater. It is decorated with the conspicuous pink color, a varsity letter, white stripes on the arm to signify the amount of money he helped raise, and the engraved "Entertainment Wrestling" on the back (requested by Turfe himself). Junior year of high school, classmates claim that he received a phone call from a local wrestler interested in training Turfe, from then on he has been inspired by wrestlers like Dwayne Johnson, Randy Orton, and Paul Levesque. Todd Turfe has become a popular Google search figure tagging along the WWE, which he claims is his biggest inspiration and goal. If successful, he will become the first professional wrestler to have graduated from PCEP.

External links

• http://web.pccs.k12.mi.us/pcep/default.asp
• http://www.wildcatstennis.com/
• http://www.parkplayers.org
• http://www.secondstageplayers.org
• http://881theescape.com
• http://www.pcmb.net
• http://www.pcepchoirs.org
• http://www.pcepnews.com
• http://www.pcsladywarriors.com
• http://www.cantonswimming.com
• http://www.lightningrobotics.com
• http://pcepmatholympiad.org
• http://www.pccsorchestras.com
• http://pcepnhs.org

Supporter- and Booster-run sites:

• http://www.PlymouthWildcats.com
• http://www.SalemRocks.com
• http://www.CantonChiefs.com