- Wyoming Park High School (also referred to as 'The Park') is a comprehensive secondary public high school in the Wyoming Public Schools district in Wyoming, Michigan. It is one of two high schools in the Wyoming Public Schools district, with just over 824 students, and is known for providing a comprehensive curriculum, creating a very strong student body and a heavily diverse community of volunteers and support staff.
- Arts and Entertainment
- Wyoming Park Theater Company
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In addition to the diverse amount of courses to choose from, Wyoming Park also offers various extracurricular programs such as theater, which they teach as a "closed company" (known as the Wyoming Park Theater Company) led by director and English teacher Jeremy Schnotala. The Wyoming Park Theater Company is often praised upon for delivering such professional performances in their plays, more so than other local high school drama clubs in the area. Unlike most other plays in the area, almost all performances done by the WPTC are typically sold out, drawing nearly 600 people per a 640 capacity limit in Wyoming Park's Dan Heitzleman Fine Arts Center. Previous productions include George Kaufman's You Can't Take It With You, George Orwell's Animal Farm, and Betty MacDonald's The Egg and I. The company has also taken a noticeable role in the Theatre of the Absurd, staging several absurdist plays, such as Samuel Beckett's one-act, zero-dialogue show Breath.
- In September 2006, the company kicked off the new double-production season pairing a play and a musical back-to-back. The play Schnotala announced was Romulus Linney's adaption of Charles Dickens' classic Christmas tale A Christmas Carol.
- On December 12, 2006, Schnotala announced that the theater company will be staging Andrew Lloyd Webber's famous musical CATS in early spring of 2007, making Wyoming Park one of the few high schools in the nation (and the second in the state of Michigan) to stage such a high profile musical. Because Wyoming Park is a public high school, there are various financial issues that Schnotala had to deal with. The rights to the musical were well over $5,000, which also did not include the rental of special effects and other materials (costumes, makeup accessories, etc.) needed to successfully produce the show.
- After gaining state-wide and national publicity, the production of CATS proved to be yet another huge success for the company. Three of the four performance nights were completely sold out.
- In late September 2007, Schnotala announced the long-awaited new play that the company will be staging in November. I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Celeste Raspanti, tells the tale of a young girl telling the story of her account during the holocaust. The company staged the production the last two days of November and the first Saturday of December 2007.
- In January 2008, the theater company held auditions for a tightly-knit group of actors and crew members under the moniker, "The Wyoming Park Theater Company Troupe." Only a dozen were chosen to be a part of this group. Afterward, Schnotala announced that the new show for the spring season would be titled Trunks, a collection of four comical shorts, and will be staged on March 27 and 28, 2008, as well as mounted in competitions and festivals across the state of Michigan.
- In December of 2008, the theater company performed the original version of 'Pinocchio', and in the spring, also performed Agatha Christie's murder-mystery 'And Then There Were None'.
- Wyoming Park Marching Band, Concert Ensemble, and Jazz Ensemble
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The school is also known for its award-winning bands, which proudly display between 100-200 awards outside of the band room. On March 22, 2007, the jazz band received praise for their performances at the Central Michigan University Jazz Festival, as well as the MSBOA District 10 Jazz Festival and Clinic. The concert ensemble has earned high marks at MSBOA Band/Orchestra Festival, as well as the Portage Northern Festival and Clinic. For the 2008-2009 school year, Wyoming Park's Concert Band received a 2nd Division Rating at the MSBOA District 10 Concert Festival, held for the third year at The Park. The Jazz Band received a 1st Division Rating at the MSBOA District 10 Jazz Festival at Lowell High School, and the Marching Band earned its 30th consecutive 1st Division Rating at the MSBOA District 10 Marching Festival at Zeeland High School.
- In mid-August of the 2007–2008 season, head director Bill Bier announced to the band members that he was leaving the district and would instead be teaching at Grand Rapids High School] in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. Shortly after, assistant band director Shawn Gurk (who joined Wyoming Public Schools in August of 2003) was named the director of bands, and the district hired new co-director of bands, Laura Hyler. During the 2007-2008 marching band season, the band won numerous competitions, including placing first at the East Kentwood High School Invitational in October 2007, along with receiving awards of excellence in marching, music, percussion, and colorguard. The marching band has additionally competed at the Wolverine Worldwide, Cedar Springs, Jenison, the Kenowa Hills 'Knight-Time Classic', Gull Lake, Rockford, and East Kentwood.
- Between April 6th-11th in 2009, 59 band members, 11 chaperones, and Mr. Gurk traveled to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida to participate in the Celebration of Dreams Parade at Magic Kingdom for roughly 30,000 guests, as part of a band trip taken once every four years.
- During the winter and spring, members have the opportunity to participate in the pep band for all at-home Varsity Boys and Girls basketball games.
- Wyoming Park students represent the Park Band in many performance experiences outside of school, including the Calvin College Honor Band, the Michigan School Band And Orchestra Association (MSBOA) All-State band, St. Cecilia Youth Orchestra, St. Cecilia Youth Band, the Grand Valley State University Honors Band, the Blue Lake Europe International Tour, and at the Solo/Ensemble Festival.
- Academics
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Wyoming Park High School participates in the Advanced Placement Program (AP), a College Board-approved program that offers college-level courses in the high school environment. During the 2006–2007 school year saw a significant increase in scores from exiting seniors who have taken the Advanced Placement exams. The class of 2007 participants in the Advanced Placement program had the second highest Advanced Placement exit exam scores in Kent County, Wyoming Park's residing county, which includes all of Greater Grand Rapids.
- Students who have a minimum of a 3.5 grade point average (GPA) are invited to participate in the school's National Honor Society, or NHS. Members who are a part of the National Honor Society participate in volunteer activities, such as building homes for Habitat for Humanity and running the Michigan Community Blood Center's Biannual School Blood Drive.
- Athletics
- Conference
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Wyoming Park competes within the Ottawa-Kent Conference GREEN Division The school has won numerous championships, ranging from track, football, and basketball.
- In the 2005–2006 school year, the varsity basketball team shared the O.K. Blue title championship with Cedar Springs High School.
- Most recently, the boys varsity basketball team won the outright title of champion in the O.K. Blue conference in the 2007–2008 and the 2008-2009 school years.
- Girls Basketball Program
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The 2006–2007 school year saw a major advancement in Wyoming Park's girls basketball program (the "Lady Vikings"). The team lead the team to an undefeated rein in the O.K. Blue conference . Although they have remained undefeated in their conference, the girls basketball team lost in the first stage in the state district championships.
- MHSAA State Championships
- 1947 Boys Tennis – Lower Peninsula Class C–D
- 1952 Boys Tennis – Lower Peninsula Class C–D
- 1961 Boys Cross Country – Lower Peninsula Class B
- 1976 Boys Baseball – Class B
- 1984 Boys Football – Class B
- 1996 Girls Softball – Class B
- MHSAA State Runners-up
- 1945 Boys Tennis – Lower Peninsula Class C–D
- 1951 Boys Tennis – Lower Peninsula Class C–D
- 1975 Boys Track and Field – Lower Peninsula Class B
- 1984 Boys Baseball – Class B
- 1985 Boys Football – Class B
- 1989 Girls Track and Field – Lower Peninsula Class B
- 1992 Boys Baseball – Class B
- 1995 Boys Golf – Lower Peninsula Class B
- 2001 Boys Baseball – Division 2
- Notable alumni
- Drew Neitzel, Michigan State University men's basketball player and 2004's "Mr. Basketball"
- External links
- Wyoming Park High School Official Site
- Wyoming Public Schools District
- Great Schools Listing on WPHS
- Lady Vikings Basketball Official 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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