- Morris Hills High School is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school serving students in grades 9 - 12 in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Morris Hills Regional High School District. The school, located in the borough of Rockaway, supports twenty-six varsity sports. The other high school in the district is Morris Knolls High School.
- The high school serves students from Rockaway Borough, Wharton, and parts of Rockaway Township. Most students come to Morris Hills from Copeland Middle School, Alfred C. MacKinnon Middle School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
- The school was first opened for classes on September 9, 1953. A 39 acre site that was the former Gunther Estate serves as campus for Morris Hills. The school has been nationally recognized in various activities including Forensics, Athletics, Music, Academics, and Staff Development.
- Additionally, the campus of Morris Hills houses the Morris County Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering.
- As of the 2006-07 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,132 students and 95 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 11.9.
- Awards and recognition
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For the 1996-97 school year, Morris Hills High School was named a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.
- The school was the 106th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools. The school was ranked 101st in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
- School media
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The Morris Hills Hilltopper has served as the only official paper of the school, and is published four times a year, in color. Students write all articles and take the majority of the photos, as well as set up the design and comics.
- Seed Magazine is the school's annual literary magazine. All students are allowed to submit prose or poetry, or visual works of art (though not all are put into the actual magazine).
- Extracurricular activities
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Morris Hills houses a large variety of extracurricular activities for its students, ranging from bible club (Velocity) to its very own DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) Club. Many have gained recognition or awards for their duties in the community or their overall excellence in their field, including the Morris Hills Stage Crew (part of drama club), which placed third in the ITS Statewide festival in the 2005-2006 year. Any student is permitted to join any club, a partial list of clubs include:
- Academic Decathlon (with honorable essay mention for the 2006-2007 year)
- E.R.A.S.E. (Eliminate Racism and Sexism Everywhere)
- G.S.A. (Gay-Straight Alliance)
- Interact (which hosts a benefit show every year)
- DDR Society (Dance Dance Revolution)
- Chess Club
- Leo Club
- DECA
- Mock Trial
- FCCLA
- Ecology Club
- Peer Listening
- International Thespian Society
- DRAMA Club
- Pit Band
- Marching Band
- Jazz Band
- Chorus
- Knights Templars Choir
- Women's Choir
- Madrigals
- Model Congress
- Yearbook Club
- Technology Student Association
- FBLA
- Key Club
- Junior State of America
- Athletics
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The Morris Hills High School Scarlet Knights participate in the twenty-member Iron Hills Conference. The Morris Hills Boys Basketball team made the state tournament for the first time in 10 years this year, though it lost in the first round to 6th-seeded Passaic Valley High School 67-45. Morris Hills also has a prestigious baseball program, winning 135 games in the last 6 years with 1 Morris County Tournament Championship (2002), 1 North I Group III State Sectional Title (2004), and 5 Iron Hills Conference (Hills Division) championships (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007).
- Sports offered at Morris Hills include Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Cross Country, Fencing, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball and Wrestling.
- Cross Country and Track and Field
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Perhaps the best known athletics program at Morris Hills is its men’s cross country and track and field teams, both of which have been very successful in the state the past seven years, due in very large part to the efforts of head cross country coach Sean Robinson, who took the position in 2002.
- Since becoming head coach, Robinson has led the Scarlet Knights to 20 of 28 major high school cross country championships (conference, county, state section and state group) in seven years. The team has been undefeated in dual meet competition in the Iron Hills Conference since 2002.
- Robinson took the head indoor track and field coaching position in 2006. In that year, the Scarlet Knights won every major championship they entered (conference, county, state group and state group relay), the first time that had happened in county history. The Scarlet Knights repeated the feat in 2008.
- Robinson was also coach during Morris Hills’ county championship victory in 2006, the first time the Scarlet Knights had won since 1977.
- Morris Hills has also had over twenty All-American honors distributed to its runners since 2005; a number boosted due to the highly successful 4 x mile relay and shuttle hurdle relay teams. Keith Lindsley, the 2007 NJSIAA Athletic Assistant Coach of the Year, is the current sprint/hurdles coach. Morris Hills was selected to participate in the inaugural Nike Team National Cross Country Championship in 2005, where they finished 13th.
- Marching Band
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In 1998, the Morris Hills High School Marching Band, under Director Michael Sopko, was recruited to film an MTV Commercial for the MTV Video Music Awards. The marching band was chosen after being spotted by MTV associates during their annual competition at Giants Stadium. In the commercial, the marching band played clips from nominated songs and ended in a human formation of the MTV symbol. The commercial was aired several times daily leading up to the awards ceremony.
- Administration
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Core members of the school's administration are:
- Joe Cacciaguida - Principal
- Bob Merle - Assistant Principal
- Jennifer Sisko - Assistant Principal
- Todd Toriello - Assistant Principal
- Robert Haraka - Supervisor of Student Services/Athletics
- Merle, Sisko, and Toriello are graduates of Morris Hills' sister high school, Morris Knolls.
- Notable alumni
- Bruce Bannon - played linebacker for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League in 1973 and 1974.
- Dr. Arthur Field - became Executive Director and conductor of the Carolina Pops Orchestra in South Carolina in 2005. [1]
- Clifford Meth, noted author and editor, graduated for Morris Hills in 1979.
- Dan McDonald - 2-time Player of the Year with Morris Hills, was drafted by the New York Mets in 2007.
- General Raymond T. Odierno - After graduating from Morris Hills in 1972, General Ordierno was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Continuing in his military career, he became commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas. It was during his time commanding this division in Iraq when troops under Odierno's command were given credit for capturing Saddam Hussein.
- Thomas Skutka - As a student, Skutka set the National High School record for the one mile (1.6 km) run with a time of 4.19.5 in 1955. After serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, Tom returned to Morris Hills as a teacher/librarian, where he also served as head track coach for many years.
- Tony Naclerio - Anthony Naclerio served as a guidance counselor and coach at Morris Hills High School for 30 years. His philosophy that education continues onto the athletic field and into all facets of extra curricular activities led him to coaching and leadership clubs. He is an author of a Track & Field book and has lectured all over the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe. He has coached countless high school national champions, collegiate All Americans and Olympic medalists. He was put in charge of the United States Development program for throwing athletes from 1975 to 1996. He coached on the world and Olympic levels. A high point of his career came when he led the USA team into the stadium at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta.
- Christopher Hernandez- Christopher Hernandez class of 2006, was chosen to play on the Emmy Award Winning Tv Show Jeopardy. As small town grown boy he was able to showcase his vast knowledge as he not only won large amounts of money he was able to clear a category, "Cities and Mayors," in double jeopardy. Although he didn't answer the final Jeopardy correctly he was able to secure a lead that none of his opponents would be able to catch up at the end. He was able to win his first day on the show with a total amount of 23,000 dollars. On the second day, the battle seemed epic as Chris challenged his opponents in various categories. Chris showed endurance, stamina, and intelligence as he made his way into final jeopardy. Although he was unable to win on the second day, he showed how strong of education he received at Morris Hills as he only lost by two dollars. In the end Chris represented his school and community proudly. Most importantly he was able to leave Alex Trebek wondering how one should handle a pregnant turtle.
- External links
- Official site of Morris Hills High School
- Official site of Morris Hills High School Regional District
- Data for the Morris Hills Regional High School District, National Center for Education Statistics
- MHRD District Hall of Fame
- 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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