- Pascack Hills High School (PHHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school, one of two high schools that are part of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District in Bergen County, New Jersey. PHHS serves the residents of both Montvale, where the campus is located, and the neighboring community of Woodcliff Lake, The other high school in the district is Pascack Valley High School, which services the communities of Hillsdale and River Vale.
- As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 697 students and 63.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 11.0.
- History
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Pascack Hills came into being in the fall of 1965 because of growth of population in northern Bergen County in the early 1960s. The school spent its first five decades relatively unchanged in terms of architecture. In 2006, an extra gym was added. Most recently, the new science wing was opened as well as a new entrance building. This school is one of the first to provide every student with a laptop, which can be taken home, and be used in school everyday. Every classroom is fitted with a wireless router, which provides the students with internet. For the 2007-2008 school year, the school upgraded all the laptop computers to Apple MacBook.
- Awards and recognition
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The school was the 12th-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 8th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.
- In Newsweek's May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Pascack Hills High School was listed in 1194th place, the 40th-highest ranked school in New Jersey.
- Campus
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Pascack Hills High School's athletic facilities include a regulation size track, a turf football field named for long-time principal Bart DiPaola, four tennis courts, a combination softball and baseball field that can be utilized for soccer, and 2 gymnasiums, which houses basketball and volleyball.
- Athletics
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The Pascack Hills High School Cowboys compete in Division 2 of the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League (NBIL), which includes public high schools, all but one (Wayne Hills High School) in Bergen County.
- Sports offered include cheerleading, dance, cross-country, football, boys' and girls' soccer, tennis, volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, bowling, ice hockey, swimming, wrestling, Winter Track, baseball, softball, and lacrosse.
- In 1973, the Sprint Medley relay team captured the Indoor State Group 3 Championship with a state record time of 3:42.8 that broke the existing state record by 3.4 seconds.
- In 1979, the football completed an undefeated season and won the Group 3 state championship with a victory over Hoboken High School in the championship game, played at Giants Stadium. Ironically, that Hoboken team was coached by Ed Stinson, who would eventually become the Cowboys head coach during the 1980s. The 1979 team was led by all-state center Jim Gravalis, and the all-county backfield of Tony Durkin and Dave D'Amore.
- Pascack Hills was also the number one ranked wrestling team in the United States in 1977, and coach Bucky Rehain received numerous awards during his long successful career.
- In 1999 the Pascack Hills girls Volleyball team achieved their first all-state victory and was also ranked number one in the league.
- In the 2001-02 season, the Pascack Hills boys' basketball team accumulated their highest win total in school history and posted a 33-5 record. Nolan Leonard became the fourth Hills player to surpass 1,500 career points in a second half comeback victory at home versus Westwood Regional High School. The Cowboys posted an undefeated home record and suffered three losses on neutral courts. The season climaxed with a Group II State Sectional Championship over a much physically larger Manchester Regional High School squad at the Northern Highlands gym. The Cowboys' season ended with a 94-78 loss to Roselle Park in the opening round of the State Tournament.
- Citing lower enrollment, and the loss of Hillsdale and portions of River Vale to Pascack Valley in re-districting efforts, Pascack Hills left the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League (NBIL) for football only and played an independent schedule for two seasons. This was because PHHS was a Group 1 school (the smallest of 4 classifications) and all of the other schools in the league were Group 2 or Group 3 schools.
- In 2004, the football team joined the Bergen-Passaic Scholastic League (B-PSL), to play against other schools of similar enrollment size. PHHS continues to play as an NBIL member in all other sports.
- In 2005, under the leadership of Head Coach Brooks Alexander the football team reached the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons. In his six-year tenure, Alexander has become one of the winningest football coaches in school history and only the second football coach in school history to lead the Cowboys to the playoffs on two separate occasions, the first being Bill Lally in 1978 and 1979.
- In 2006, the football team again reached the playoffs for the second year in a row, this time being beaten 9-3 in a close defensive battle against the #4 seeded Hasbrouck Heights High School Aviators. The Cowboys finished 2006 with a 7-3 record. Senior defensive leaders Dan Avento (Monmouth) and Evan Lampert (Rutgers University) were recruited to numerous small Division I schools. Cowboys safety Matt Marini, voted Tri-State Defensive Player of the Week after a four-interception game, led all of North Jersey with nine interceptions.
- The tennis team won the 2006 Group I State Championship, defeating Florence Township Memorial High School 3-2 in the semifinals and Pennsville Memorial High School 4-1 in the finals.
- The 2006 baseball team took the North I, Group I sectional title, edging Emerson High School 3-2 in the tournament final.
- Also in 2006, the boys varsity basketball team reached the Final Four of the Bergen County Jamboree, which is the annual county tournament. It was only the second time in school history that the team reached the semifinals of this tournament which goes back 60 years.
- On March 5, 2007, the boys' basketball team won the North I, Group II state championship, edging Westwood Regional High School by 66-65 in overtime, in a game played at River Dell High School. Senior forward Evan Lampert was voted First Team All-County and finished his career with 1,000 points, the 1,000th point was scored in the Group II state championship.
- The softball team won the 2007 North I, Group II state sectional championship with a shutout victory over Pascack Valley High School (1-0) in the tournament final.
- In 2007, the girls soccer team, seeded 11th, won the North I, Group II state sectional championship with a 2-1 overtime win (4-2 on penalty kicks) over top-seeded River Dell Regional High School in the tournament final. The win was the team's first sectional title.
- The Boys Tennis Team won the North I, Group II state sectional championship with a 4-1 win in the tournament final over Dwight Morrow High School.
- Administration
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Core members of the school's administration are:
[
]- Sarah Van Gunten - Principal
- Glenn deMarrais - Assistant Principal
- Phil Paspalas - Assistant Principal/Athletic Director
- Notable alumni
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Notable alumni of Pascack Hills High School include:
- Dana Bash (born 1972), CNN White House correspondent.
[ 'MEDIA CHILD' ARRIVES, The Record , January 2, 2003. "Dana Bash grew up behind the scenes. And family members say it was just a matter of time before the Pascack Hills High School graduate and newest CNN White House correspondent was in front of them. "]
- Mary Dunleavy, soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and other leading opera houses worldwide.
[Walkowski, Paul Joseph. "For soprano Mary Dunleavy, her stylish, virtuosic, gleaming, supple, voice has earned her a place among the opera notables of her generation.", OperaOnline.us. Accessed October 15, 2007. "From grade school, on through Pascack Hills High in Montvale New Jersey, to Northwestern�s school of music, to the University of Texas in 1988..."]
- Kerri Green (born 1967), from films such as The Goonies and Lucas.
[Joyner, Will. "THE SUBTLE SHADE OF KERRI GREEN", The Record , March 28, 1986. Accessed August 2, 2007. "In the fall of 1984, though, a successful audition for Steven Spielberg's The Goonies allowed Kerri to stop speculating and to steal away from her senior year at Pascack Hills High School. One thing very quickly led to another."]
- Tom Papa (born 1968), comedian
- Rick Hurvitz, Executive Producer & Co-Creator, MTV's Pimp My Ride.
[Meisel, Melissa. "MTV's Tangerine-Flake, Streamline Baby, via New Jersey", The New York Times, June 26, 2005. Accessed August 2, 2007. " MTV's popular (and radical) car makeover show, which is just starting its second full season, was created by two Woodcliff Lake natives who never got over the culture of the high school parking lot. Besides, back in 1989, Bruce Beresford-Redman drove a Cadillac hearse, while his buddy Rick Hurvitz piloted a 1972 lime-green Oldsmobile Delta 88. 'As far as we know, everybody appreciated the irony,' Mr. Beresford-Redman said of his Pascack Hills classmates in a recent e-mail exchange."]
- Bill Maher (born 1956), of Real Time with Bill Maher, graduated in 1974.
[Rohan, Virginia. "North Jersey-bred and talented too", The Record , June 18, 2007. Accessed June 25, 2007. "Bill Maher: Class of 1974, Pascack Hills High School, Montvale"][ Bill Maher Biography (1956-), The Biography Channel. Accessed March 28, 2007.]
- Zac Moncrief Animation Director, formerly with Family Guy, currently with Phineas and Ferb.
[Ivry, Bob. "'TOON BOOM ANIMATES THEIR LIVES", The Record , October 14, 1996. Accessed August 2, 2007. "In his sparse spare time, Moncrief, a 1989 graduate of Pascack Hills High School, created the story of Godfrey & Zeek, two buddies a giraffe and a pig who accidentally flush away their most prized possession, the TV remote control, and retrieve it at the sewage treatment plant."]
- Matt Mulhern (born 1960), actor from the movie Biloxi Blues and the television series Major Dad.
[James, Michael S. "FINE TEACHING INSTRUMENT PASCACK STUDENTS USE A COMPUTER TO LEARN MUSIC", The Record , October 13, 1992. Accessed August 2, 2007. "The new programs are an important element at Pascack Hills, a highly rated public school that prides itself on its Related Arts Department, according to Principal Bart DiPaola. He proudly points to a number of talented young people who have come out of the school, including Matt Mulhern, an actor on the television show Major Dad. "]
- Bruce Beresford-Redman, Creator, MTV's Pimp My Ride.
- Shaun Weiss (born 1978), actor.
- Keith Fullerton Whitman, a.k.a. Hrvatski, electronic musician.
- External links
- Pascack Valley Regional High School District website
- Data for the Pascack Valley Regional High School District, National Center for Education Statistics
- 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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