Alta High School is a secondary school in Sandy,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States which services students from the cities of Sandy and

Draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

. Founded in 1978, it is part of the

Canyons School District Canyons School District is a school district in the southeastern portion of Salt Lake County in Utah, United States. The district includes the cities of Cottonwood Heights, the Salt Lake County section of Draper, Midvale and Sandy and the townshi ...

History

The school opened in 1978. The modern, two-level brick building is situated on a site with an unobstructed view of both Oquirrh Mountain and Wasatch ranges. School is in session for 180 days per year on a traditional 9-month calendar. Students attend four 84-minute classes each day on an alternating

block schedule Block scheduling or blocking is a type of academic scheduling used in schools in the American K-12 system, in which each pupil has fewer classes per day. It is more common in middle and high schools than in primary schools. Each class is schedu ...

, beginning at 7:45 am and ending at 2:25 pm. The school operates a quarterly schedule. In November 2017 voters passed a bond that allowed Canyons School District to renovate several of their buildings, including Alta High School. The three-phase project will make the school more energy efficient and let in more natural sunlight as well as structural strengthening and aesthetic design improvements. The plans were designed by Salt Lake City based VCBO Architecture which oversaw a smaller renovation in 2014. The latter project's first phase was started with a groundbreaking on June 7, 2018. The first phase will include a new auditorium, updated electronic marquis replacing an electric light board, new north parking lot, new bus loading area, and a new greenhouse. An open house was held at the school for the general public on April 25, 2018 to review tentative construction schedules and introduce architectural renderings.

Athletics

The Alta Hawks football team won state championships in 1983, 1988, 2007, and 2008. Alta's boys' basketball team won the Utah State Championship in 1992, 1995, 2003, and 2010. Alta's girls' soccer team was ranked second in the nation in 2006, and is coached by Lee Mitchell, who was named national coach of the year. The team won state championships in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. The wrestling team won the 4A state championship in 1990. The Lady Hawks tennis team won back-to-back state championships in 2007 and 2008. The boys' cross country team won a state championship in 2008. Alta's women's basketball team took the 5A State Championship in 2002 and 2011. Alta's women's Track & Field team took the 5A State championship in 2003. Alta also offers

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, cross country,

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

dance company A dance troupe or dance company is a group of dancers and associated personnel who work together to perform dances as a sport, spectacle or entertainment. There are many different types of dance companies, often working in different styles of dan ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...

drill team A drill team can be one of four different entities: # A military drill team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military foot or exhibition drills. Military drill teams perform either armed or unarmed. # A dance drill team creat ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *''Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *''The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilatio ...

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

, and other athletic clubs. Alta Football Field

Performing arts

Alta High School has an award-winning performing arts program. The Theatre Department won the 5A State Championship in 2012 and in 2013. Alta's jazz band has consistently received high markings in state competitions. As part of the 2017 voter-approved bond, a new Performing Arts Center will replace the current auditorium. It is taller, not within the center of the building, and has twice as much seating as the former space. It is scheduled to open in March, 2020.

Clubs

Alta offers

Key Club Key Club International, also called Key Club, is an international service organization for high school students. As a student-led organization, Key Club's goal is to encourage leadership through serving others. Key Club International is the hig ...

, the largest international student leadership organization in the world. Alta also offers Art, Anime, Ultimate Frisbee, Polynesian, Latinos in Action, Improv, Drama, Nintendo, TableTop Gaming, Chess, Robotics, Medieval, and Hacker clubs.

Notable alumni

* Robert Adamson – actor * Ryon Bingham – retired NFL player; played for the San Diego Chargers 2004–2010 *

Kirby Heyborne Kirby Heyborne (born October 8, 1976) is an American actor, musician, singer, songwriter, narrator and comedian. He is known for his work in films centered around the culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Heyborn ...

– actor *

Julianne Hough Julianne Alexandra Hough (; born July 20, 1988) is an American dancer, actress, and singer. In 2007, she joined the cast of ABC's ''Dancing with the Stars'' as a professional dancer, winning two seasons with her celebrity partners. After leaving ...

– two-time winner of ABC's ''Dancing with the Stars''; star of '' Safe Haven'' *

Travis Knight Travis Andrew Knight (born September 13, 1973) is an American animator, producer, director, and former rapper who has worked as the lead animator and current CEO for the stop-motion animation studio Laika, and directed the films ''Kubo and the Tw ...

– member of the UConn Basketball All Century Team.; retired NBA player; won an NBA World Championship as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000 * Erin Mendenhall - former Salt Lake City Council Member and Incumbent Mayor of Salt Lake City. * Michele Vasconcelos – professional soccer player; currently plays for the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

team Portland Thorns. * Kealia Watt – professional soccer player; member of the United States

2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 6th edition of the tournament. The tournament was played in Japan from 19 August to 8 September, with sixteen national football soccer teams and mark the first hosting of a FIFA women's football tourna ...

winning team; currently plays for the

team

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

* Frank Maile - assistant head football coach Boise State University

References

External links

School website
{{Authority control Public high schools in Utah Educational institutions established in 1978 Schools in Salt Lake County, Utah 1978 establishments in Utah Buildings and structures in Sandy, Utah