Benton High School is a school in
St. Joseph, Missouri
St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includ ...
, United States. The public school teaches grades 9 through 12.
History
In 1905, the St. Joseph, Missouri Board of Education charged J. A. Bell with establishing a high school in South St. Joseph. In September of that year, Benton High School opened its doors for the first time as the BOE rented a hall at the corner of King Hill and Colorado Avenues until a new building was to be completed.
In November, students moved into those new buildings on the corner of Cumberland and Yale Streets. The school had four rooms that held grades one through 12.
In 1929, Benton became a junior-senior high school that offered courses from the 7th through the 12th grade.
In 1938, the BOE purchased a tract of land on 4th Street, overlooking the Saint Joseph, Missouri parkway system and built a new building there on March 21, 1940. The new building contained 37 classrooms, an auditorium, gymnasium, and cafeteria and was three stories high.
In 1961, a non-pillared dome gymnasium was constructed on the north side of the school and named in honor of P.B. "Pop" Springer, longtime coach and teacher at Benton. The dome collapsed from heavy snow in 1971 and was replaced.
Many additions were made after 1969, including a two-story, twelve room wing with a spacious library and rooms for the math and social studies departments as well as an athletic field which was constructed in 1974 with an asphalt track and grandstands. Three years later the field was renamed "James Sparks Memorial Field" in honor of a Benton football player who lost his life during a game on the field earlier that season.
Benton currently enrolls between 700 and 900 students annually.
Athletics
Football
The football team won the Class 4 District 16 championship from 20042007. They have made the quarterfinals in 2005 and 2006 and the semifinals in 2004. They also have made one appearance in the Missouri state championship in 1991 after defeating Webb City 140 in a game now known as the mud bowl.
Basketball
The girls basketball team won the Class 4 District 16 Title in 2006. The boys basketball team made it to the quarterfinals. The girls basketball team won the state championship going undefeated throughout the '06 season, compiling a 300 record. The 20152016 Lady Cardinals had a record of 310 and won the Missouri 4A state championship, and are now ranked #1 in 4A and in the state.
Baseball
The Benton Baseball team has been successful over the past few years. From 20052007, the Benton squad, under the coaching of Mike Musser, has composed a 617 record. These teams include a 233 4th place team in 2005, a 241 2006 team who went undefeated during the regular season, however falling in the district championship game, and in 2007 a 243 state championship team. In the same stretch, Benton produced multiple division 1 baseball prospects, such as Kyle Heim (Iowa), Ryan Hook (Western Kentucky), Wes Miller (Missouri State), and Johnny Coy (Arizona State and Wichita State)
Tennis
The Benton tennis team also experienced success from 20072009. The Benton team posted a 101 record in 2008. They became the first Benton team to win districts in over 15 years, finally losing in the quarterfinals of state to
St. Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
.
Theatre
![Benton-High-School-Theatre-And-A-Child-Shall-Lead](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Benton-High-School-Theatre-And-A-Child-Shall-Lead.jpg)
Benton's theatre department performs two plays each school year, one in the fall and one in the spring. In the past some plays have been ''And A Child Shall Lead'', ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'', ''
Our Town
''Our Town'' is a 1938 metatheatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 throug ...
'', ''The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood'', and ''Big Boys Don't Cry''. In November 2010, Benton performed its first musical in eleven years, ''The Drowsy Chaperone''. Since then the theatre has produced many musicals such as ''The Phantom of the Opera'', ''Disney's The Little Mermaid'', ''Bring It On!'', ''Disney's Tarzan'', and ''The Wizard of Oz''. Benton has participated in Starlight Theatre's ''Blue Star Awards'' and has been nominated for several categories and won their costume nomination for their 2015 production of ''Glitz: The Little Miss Christmas Pageant Musical''. The Theatre Department held a one-act festival each year, with the shows being directed by students and allowing both students and teachers to be involved as actors in the productions, to raise money for scholarships for students involved in theatre.
Choir
The Benton Choir has received 1 ratings at the All State Music Festival for the last 11 years in all 3 choirs (Benton Singers, Concert Choir, and Bel Canto Women's Choir).
Notable alumni
*
Wes Barnett '88 -
Olympic weightlifter
Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...
for the United States
*
Mike Rucker
Mike may refer to:
Animals
* Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum
* Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off
* Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documen ...
'94 -Former
Defensive end
Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football.
This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...
for the
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...
*
Martin Rucker '03 -
Tight end
The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...
for the
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...
*
Jim Wright
James Claude Wright Jr. (December 22, 1922 – May 6, 2015) was an American politician who served as the 48th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1989. He represented Texas's 12th congressional district as a ...
- Pitcher for the
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...
Statistics
*Total Students: 827
*Student/Teacher Ratio: 14.34 Students : 1 Teacher
*Graduation Rate - 92%
*Average
ACT Score - 19.4
*Suspensions of Ten or More Consecutive Days: 20
*Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch - 544 Students/66%
*Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity (Number/Percent)
**American Indian/Alaskan: 6 Students
**Asian/Pacific Islander: 2 Students
**Black: 61 Students
**Hispanic: 47 Students
**White: 704 Students
**Two or More Races: 7 Students
*Enrollment by Grade
**9th Grade: 205 Students
**10th Grade: 236 Students
**11th Grade: 224 Students
**12th Grade: 162 Students
*Enrollment by Gender
**Male: 437 Students
**Female: 390 Students
References
{{Reflist
Buildings and structures in St. Joseph, Missouri
Educational institutions established in 1905
Midland Empire Conference
High schools in Buchanan County, Missouri
Public high schools in Missouri
1905 establishments in Missouri