Modesto High School is a public high school in Modesto, California, U.S.A. It offers the International Baccalaureate Program and the Avid program, Performing Arts Program and was the first public school to do so in the Central Valley of California.
Modesto High School is the oldest high school in Modesto and among the oldest in California. 2015 marks year 132.
In 1883, Ruliff Stephen Holway saw the need for a high school that could provide for needs extending beyond a primary grammar education. According to Sol P. Elias, member of the first graduating class of Modesto High School students, R.S. Holway was "a young schoolmaster... with the advantage of a charming character and a sympathetic mind... zeal and personality... (who) guided the pupils almost through the entire course until his departure... to accept a professorship at the University of California." This man, MHS' first principal, was responsible for the education of the entire student body, playing a role of both teacher and administrator before he left to teach in the UC system. Forty pupils comprised the first class organized at the first building located at 14th and I Streets; after four years, ten of these students remained to take part in the first graduation of MHS students. In the succeeding years, the number of seniors receiving diplomas fluctuated greatly; the lowest number occurred in 1893 when no one remained in school all four years to graduate.
The high school moved to its current location in 1918
Sports
Modesto High School offers a variety sports on a seasonal basis:
Fall (Male):
- Soccer
- Football
- Waterpolo
- Cross Country
Fall (Female):
- Golf
- Volleyball
- Waterpolo
- Tennis
- Cross Country
- Cheerleading
Soccer
Winter (Male & Female):
- Basketball
- Wrestling
Spring (Male):
- Baseball
- Swimming
- Tennis
- Golf
- Track
Spring (Female):
- Soccer
- Swimming
- Softball
- Track
Current Clubs
- Academic Decathlon
- 3 in 1 Club
- Art Club
- Asian Student Union
- ATGC Club
- Advancement Via Individual Determination
- Black Student Union
- Chess Club
- Choir Club
- Dance Production Club
- Entrepreneur
- Environmental Action Club
- Gaming Society
- Gay-Straight Alliance
- Human Relations
- Key Club
- MHETT
- Mock Trial
- Model UN
- Movie Makers Club
- Music is Medicine Club
- Otaku Club
- Panther Press Club
- Panthers Against Animal Cruelty
- Panthers for Christ
- Panthers for the Cure
- PHAST
- Ping Pong Panthers
- Project Hope
- Project Knope
- Project Nope
- Project Slope
- Speech/Debate
- Yearbook
Notable alumni
- Cy Young (athlete), won the gold medal for the javelin throw at the at 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, and is the only American to ever win the Olympic gold medal in the javelin throw. Graduated from Modesto High School in 1946.
- Erin Cafaro, 2008 Olympic gold medalist for women's eight crew; graduate of Modesto High School, Class of 2001.
- Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo, winemakers.
- Harve Presnell, Actor and Singer
References
