- North Scott High School is a is a four-year comprehensive high school located in Eldridge, Iowa. The school is part of the North Scott Community School District, and has an enrollment of approximately 1,000 students in grades nine through 12.
- Located at 200 South First Street in Eldridge (approximately one mile west of U.S. Highway 61), North Scott High School draws students from several communities in northern Scott County, Iowa, including Eldridge, Dixon, Donahue, Long Grove, Maysville, McCausland, Park View, Princeton and surrounding rural areas.
- History
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North Scott High School was completed in 1958 at a cost of $1.2 million, and originally conceived as a junior-senior high facility. Prior to the school's opening, students living in what is now the North Scott School District completed their high school education at one of a number of area high schools – which included Clinton, Davenport (now Davenport Central), LeClaire (now part of the Pleasant Valley Community School District), Wheatland (née Calamus-Wheatland) or DeWitt.
- Junior high students continued to attend the high school until 1975, when they were moved into the newly built North Scott Junior High School. The junior high building is located approximately one-quarter mile southwest of the high school campus.
- The high school has undergone many renovations and additions during its 51-year history. One of the most notable projects was the multi-million dollar fine arts auditorium, a 900-seat venue that was opened in 1982. The auditorium has served as the hub for the school's drama productions, music concerts and other meetings.
- The most recent additions included a new science and music wing to the school's west end, which were completed in 2000. Other additions have included an auxiliary gymnasium, a special education wing, and a modern media center with computer labs.
- In August 2005, North Scott High School received an $800,000 Smaller Learning Communities Grant, which is aimed at assisting students during their high school years. Principal Dr. Terry Sherer worked with staff to help secure the grant.
- Dr. Sherer resigned as principal in July 2006 and was succeeded by Mike Zimmer, a graduate of North Scott. Zimmer served until 2008 until Shane Knoche relieved him of his duties as Principal.
- Facilities
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The high school has many fine facilities, including its small gymnasium, which is described at length below.
- The Pit
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The school's main gymnasium is fondly referred to by locals as "The Pit," in part due to its horseshoe arena-type shape. Although by far one of the smaller facilities among Iowa's largest high schools – the gym seats only about 1,500 people, whereas other schools its size have more than double that capacity – coaches, players and fans from both North Scott and opposing high schools often cite The Pit as one of Iowa's most exciting high school venues, owing to the atmosphere whenever fans fill the gym to capacity and both teams are cheering heartily for their team.
- The Pit underwent a major renovation in 2006, as part of a larger project to expand the girls' locker rooms.
- Athletics
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North Scott sports teams are known as the Lancers; their uniforms display the school's colors of scarlet and silver.
- The school fields athletic teams in 17 sports, including:
- Summer: Baseball and softball.
- Fall: Football, volleyball, boys' cross country, girls' cross country and boys' golf.
- Winter: Boys' basketball, girls' basketball and wrestling.
- Spring: Boys' track and field, girls' track and field, boys' soccer, girls' soccer, girls' golf, boys' tennis and girls' tennis.
- North Scott does not field its own swimming program; however, swimmers from North Scott participate in a cooperative with neighboring Pleasant Valley. The school also has a cheerleading squad and a competitive dance team named the Silver Shakers.
- North Scott is classified as a 4A school (Iowa's largest 48 schools), according to the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union; in sports where there are fewer divisions, the Lancers are always in the largest class (e.g., Class 3A for wrestling, boys soccer, and Class 2A for golf, tennis and girls soccer). The school is a member of the 10-team Mississippi Athletic Conference (known to locals as the MAC), which comprises schools from the Iowa Quad Cities, along with Burlington, Clinton and Muscatine high schools.
- North Scott's enjoys its biggest rivalries with MAC schools Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley.
- Successes
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Throughout the school's history, North Scott has enjoyed great success in many of its sports, earning many MAC conference titles and producing all-state athletes that have enjoyed success at the collegiate level and in their careers.
- To date, North Scott's most successful teams have been in softball, where several athletes have gone onto outstanding careers at NCAA Division I schools. Lancer softball teams have been to the IGHSAU-sponsored state tournament 11 times between 1987-2003, and just missing on those occasions when they didn't make the tournament.
- In recent years, Lancer football teams have become a formidable force on the gridiron. The 1999 was one of the most successful in school history, obtaining an 8-1 regular season record, qualifying for the state playoffs for the first time, and producing two eventual all-American athletes at the collegiate level. The school won its first outright MAC championship in 2006, going undefeated during the nine-game regular season and being ranked number 1 in the state by beating Bettendorf 17-0 in the final game of the regular season. Since 2002, the Lancers have gone 34-12, and continue to produce all-state performers.
- The wrestling team is also traditionally good. Since the late 90's the wrestling team has consistently been ranked in the top 5 in the state. In 2006 the lancer wrestlers finished 6th as a team at the state tournament (breaking a school record) The lancers graduated and sent an outstanding 4 seniors on to collegiate programs. This record was again matched the following year. The lancers are also a force in the MAC conference, winning titles in 2004 and 2006, and finishing 2nd in 2005. Also the wrestling team recently had national hall of fame coach Dan Mashek (originally coaching for Gilbertville Don Bosco) retire who had an outstanding coaching career, with more than five hundred dual meet wins (most in state history) Dan Mashek put the Lancer wrestling program on the map.
- In addition to football, North Scott is currently enjoying most of its success in boys' basketball, wrestling, girls' soccer and baseball. Boys Soccer had a brief stint of success with s program high 10 wins in 2008 and the first winning MAC season in 19 years.
- The girls soccer program has also recently grown into one of the best in the region, thanks to Coach Dion Ayers and his all his effort and time. In 2007 the team made its first appearance at State after many years of losing in the regional championship match. Most recently in the 2009 season, the girls shared the MAC title for the first time in North Scott history with rival Pleasant Valley. With one of the nicest fields in the state, North Scott will continue to have success on the Pitch for years to come with a large fan base behind them.
- In addition to individual state championships in track (both boys and girls), girls' cross country and wrestling, the following teams have won either state titles or runner-up trophies:
- Wrestling: Three individual state champions, including Division 1 all-American wrestler Sean Stender and current University of Iowa wrestlers Stew Gillmor, and high school all-American Brodie Ambrose
- Boys' basketball: State runner-up – 2003 (Class 4A).
- Girls' basketball: State runner-up – 1986 and 1987 (five-player)1.
- Indoor boys' track: State championship – 1962.
- Softball: State champions – 1987, 1993 and 2002; the first two championships were in a single-class tournament, while the third was in Class 3A. State runner-up trophies were awarded in 2000, 2001 and 2003. National records: Lindsay Wood: career hits (420), and career runs (344). Longtime softball coach Dennis Johnson was elected to the National Softball Hall of Fame in 1998.
- Girls' cross country: State team championship in 1988, and state runner-up in 1984. State individual champion: Wendy Bare in 1984.
- Girls' track and field: State runner up 1985. State individual champions: Wendy Bare (3000 meters) 1985, Kim Schneckloth (800 meters and 1500 meters) 1985.
- Volleyball: State championship – 1985. State runner-up – 1986.
- Silver Shakers - Dance Team: State Championship - 1996, 2006, state runner-up jazz -2008, state runner-up pom - 2008
- 1The Lancers' state runner-up trophies in basketball came in an era where the IGHSAU staged separate five- and six-player tournaments.
- Fine arts
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Another major success at North Scott is the music and theatre departments. Lancer Productions offers at least three shows a year with chances for students to participate on and off stage. Troupe 739 in the International Theatre Society. Lancer Productions have performed too many productions to count at State and International Thespian Festival. Major productions performed at these events are Schoolhouse Rock Live, The Music Man, A Piece of My Heart, Dark of the Moon and the most recent Godspell.
- The music department has multiple choirs (including the jazz choir), two jazz bands and a marching band. North Scott's Jazz band has been the winner of many state contests, and its participants winners of many individual honors. On February 25, 2009, it was announced that Jazz I was one of fifteen high school jazz band finalists for the 14th annual Essentially Ellington competition and festival held at Lincoln Center in New York City each May.
- North Scott also has a state-honored speech team. Most recently in 2008, the North Scott Speech Team had two performances for IHSSA's All-State competition in Ames, Iowa. A Reader's Theatre piece (for one more day) and an Ensemble Acting received straight ones at the state competition as well as receiving nominations to perform at the All-State competition, one of the highest honors. The Reader's Theater was one of the top 12 from the state of Iowa.
- Extracurriculars
- National History Day
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The National History Day program at North Scott High School is relatively new, but very successful. Within the past four years, participation from students in this program has grown exponentially. This effect is also shown in the junior high, most likely due to the new teacher, Mrs. Chris Green, for the program. North Scott is very successful in the regional competitions held at St. Ambrose University. From there, many students advance to the State competition held in Des Moines in early May of each year. North Scott has been very lucky with many opportunities each year to send many projects to compete nationally in Washington, D.C. of each year in mid-June.
- Famous Alumni
- Beth Bader (class of 1992), member of the LPGA since 2002. link
- Mike Busch (class of 1986), former Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman.
- External links
- NSHS Webpage – The Web page for North Scott High School.
- North Scott School District Web site
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
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