Bay City Western High School (colloquially referred to as BCW or WHS) is a high school located at 500 Midland Road,
Auburn, Michigan
Auburn is a city in Bay County, Michigan, United States. The city's population was 2,087 at the 2010 Census. It is included in the Saginaw, Midland, and Bay City metropolitan area.
History
It was first settled in 1854. On February 26, 1869, the ...
, and a part of
Bay City Public Schools
Bay City Public Schools is a school district headquartered in Bay City, Michigan.
It serves sections of Bay, Midland, and Saginaw counties.[Warrior
A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste.
History
Warriors seem to have been p ...]
, and its colors are brown and gold. The school fight song consists of music from the march ''Winchester'' (from Winchester High School, Winchester, Virginia), with original words written for Western High. The entrance roads to the school are Bryant Boulevard, named after the original principal, and Noell Way, named in honor of the school district administrator and head of the school board at the time.
History
Western High School opened its doors in September 1973 after two years of construction. It was built due to overcrowding at
Bay City Central
Bay City Central High School (BCC) is a high school located at 1624 Columbus Avenue, Bay City, Michigan, United States, and a part of Bay City Public Schools. Its mascot is the wolf, and its colors are purple and gold.
Building history
The build ...
and T. L. Handy High School. During this time the students who lived in
Bay City would go to school in the morning from 7:00 AM to 12:00 Noon; and those outside of the city would go in the afternoon, from 12:00 Noon through 5:00 PM. In 1973, new boundaries were established, with mostly everyone west of Two Mile Road attending Western High School. Seniors (and some juniors) were given the option to complete their education at Handy or Central. On the first day of school there were Handy kids on one side of the room and Central kids on the other side. By the end of the year they were all Western High Students. When the building opened, construction on some parts of the facility had not yet been completed, including the main hallway, the
swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
, the football
stadium
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
, and the
commons
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
. There were student desks still in boxes in some parts of the building. In some cases students ate their lunches on top of
carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester hav ...
rolls in the commons that had not yet been installed. It has been claimed that, after Handy High School was converted back to T.L Handy middle school (having been Handy High school since 1940) in 1990, two of its former students, now being forced to attend Western, went to their old school's parking lot and danced their own personal Homecoming, rather than attending Western's. At commencement that year former Handy students were permitted to wear their traditional red caps and gowns while Western students wore brown and gold.
In the 1980s it was announced that Western Middle School would be created and would share a building with Western High School. To this day, Western Middle School occupies half of the building that was originally designed for the high school. The two schools are able to operate simultaneously because of different schedules. In addition, classrooms are physically separated into different areas of the building. The two schools share the building's swimming pool, gymnasium, and commons.
In the 1980s, some portions of the school's
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
systems collapsed due to water damage and was fixed with wooden beams and to prevent future damage.
Bay City Western has earned athletic state championships in 1999 in Michigan Division I Boys' Golf,
and in 2013 and 2014
in Division 1 Baseball. In 2006 the Pompon team earned a state championship at the Highkick competition.
Building
Western High School has the usual number of academic
departments. These include
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
math
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
,
social studies,
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
,
computers
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs ...
,
arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
,
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
and
communication
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
s, human services,
physical education
Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...
and
industrial arts
Industrial arts is an educational program that features the fabrication of objects in wood or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. Industrial Arts are commonly referred to as Technology Education. It may include small engine rep ...
, all of which are separated into wings.
There is a
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
in between the high school and middle school sides; they are connected as one room, but students are restricted from the other school's library.
![Western High School](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Western_High_School.png)
There is also a second floor which consists mostly of math, human services, social studies, and computers as of which a middle school portion is connected in the east wing.
The lower portion of the first floor on the south side of school consists of science, social studies, and English. The library entrance is also in this area as well as a
locker
A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as locker rooms, workplaces, elementary schools, middle and high schools, trans ...
bay. The south portion also consists of most of the classrooms in middle school.
Heading north are the
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
offices which are halfway between the lower level and the second floor which leads to the main entrances, commons, gym on the west side. To the east are Bryant
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
and the Arts Department.
The Arts Department offers classes such as art,
auto-mechanics, industrial drawing,
welding
Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...
, wood shop, video and radio, drama, choir and band. There is a backside and backstage entrance to Bryant Auditorium as well as a locker bay and entrances to the school's tunnel system.
Bryant Auditorium seats about 1200 people and is used for various activities including school plays and presentations. Beneath the stage is a
rehearsal
A rehearsal is an activity in the performing arts that occurs as preparation for a performance in music, theatre, dance and related arts, such as opera, musical theatre and film production. It is undertaken as a form of practising, to ensure t ...
/
dressing room
A changing-room, locker-room, (usually in a sports, theater, or staff context) or changeroom (regional use) is a room or area designated for changing one's clothes. Changing-rooms are provided in a semi-public situation to enable people to ch ...
and behind the stage contains the part of the
Sound system and access stairs to the technical aspects of the
lighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...
system. There is also a loading dock behind the stage. In the upper portion of the auditorium there is a lounge and spot light access.
The Commons is the area in which students of Western High and Middle school eat, although is separated into areas for them. It consists of a small vending area a corner store that students can buy school supplies and snacks from. There are also two lunch lines on each end of the common which are shared by the Western High and middle school students which sometimes can cause problems with shared lunch periods between the schools. A
trophy
A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medals (or, in ...
case is in the hallway at the front of the commons. High school students have an open
campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...
lunch due to the sharing of the commons with the middle school.
The upper and lower
gym
A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...
are located next to the commons as of which there are two entrances from the commons. Access to the locker rooms are also provided. Through the locker rooms there is a pool that can be reached from other points in the building such as the "190's hallway" above the gym.
The "190's hallway" consists of middle school and the
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
class. There are access points to the pool, gym, and school grounds in this hallway. The "190's hallway" has lockers against its walls and are used by high school and middle school students. Some students think the "190's hallway" can be used to skip classes due to its distance away from the main classes and little student traffic. There is also a set of bathrooms that are always locked due to little traffic and
vandalism
Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.
The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term f ...
.
The Bay City Western Football Stadium is commonly referred to as "The Cornfield" due to its close proximity to various farm fields around Auburn.
The Bay City Western Marching Band also performs a "train" routine where they begin in concentric circles, and slowly rotate before speeding up and spreading out, while playing the sound of a moving train. This is due to a set of train tracks running directly behind the north end of the field that are visible from all around the stadium. It is believed that the most attended game at the stadium was between Bay City Western and Midland High on November 4, 2005, in a district championship playoff game, which Western won 35–21.
Grounds
The grounds consist of
tennis courts
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be u ...
, practice fields,
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 ...
fields, and
track
Track or Tracks may refer to:
Routes or imprints
* Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity
* Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across
* Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
surrounding the
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 ...
field. Also the student parking lot which is placed next to the baseball and football fields, there are also some old, unused
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 ...
hoops in the center of the
parking lot
A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...
. There is a visitors and staff parking lot on the other side of the building which is not accessible through the student parking lot nor can students park in this lot. Sidewalks are surrounding the building guiding to Midland Road. The
courtyard
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky.
Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...
is located at the main entrance in which some students eat during lunch.
Demographics
The demographic breakdown of the 1,256 students enrolled in 2015-16 was:
* Male – 53.5%
* Female – 46.4%
* Native American/Alaskan – .32%
* Asian – .80%
* Black – .48%
* Hispanic – 2.9%
* Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander – 0%
* White – 93.6%
* Multiracial – 1.9%
23.2% of the students were eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch.
Notable alumni
*
Betsy Brandt
Betsy Brandt (born March 14, 1973) is an American actress. She portrayed Marie Schrader in ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spinoff show, ''Better Call Saul'' (2022) and played Heather Hughes in the CBS sitcom ''Life in Pieces'' (2015– ...
– actress
*
Matt Costello
Matthew Tyler Costello (born August 5, 1993) is an American-born naturalized Ivorian professional basketball player for Baskonia of the Spanish Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for Michigan State.
High school career
Co ...
– professional basketball player
*
Matt Mieske
Matthew Todd Mieske (born February 13, 1968) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played from to for the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros and Arizona Diamondbacks.
In 663 games over eight ...
– professional baseball player
* Robert Rechsteiner a.k.a.
Rick Steiner
Robert Rechsteiner (born March 9, 1961) is an American real estate broker and retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Rick Steiner.
Steiner is best known for his tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he was ...
– professional wrestler
* Scott Rechsteiner a.k.a.
Scott Steiner
Scott Rechsteiner (born July 29, 1962), better known by the ring name Scott Steiner, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Steiner is perhaps best known for his time in World Championshi ...
– professional wrestler
* Dan Ruff a.k.a
ne Star - professional dentist
References
External links
Bay City Public Schools HomepageWestern High School Homepage
{{authority control
Public high schools in Michigan
Schools in Bay County, Michigan
Educational institutions established in 1973
1973 establishments in Michigan