Boulder High School is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

, United States. It is part of the Boulder Valley School District. Boulder High School was founded in 1875 as a preparatory school to the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

. In 1876, it was the first high school in Colorado to graduate a class. The school is located in downtown Boulder, adjacent to the university’s campus and four blocks from the

Pearl Street Mall The Pearl Street Mall (also referred to as Pearl Street, or Downtown Boulder) is a four-block pedestrian mall in Boulder, Colorado. The pedestrian area stretches from 11th Street to 15th Street along Pearl Street and is home to a number of busines ...

Construction

Boulder High School's building at 1604 Arapahoe Avenue was constructed in 1933 by the

Works Project Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...

. The facade is classic

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

. The school's art deco auditorium has also been preserved. The building was constructed with "Colorado Red" flagstone and limestone, the same materials from which the University of Colorado is built. With funding from a Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) bond program, parts of the school were renovated or expanded in 2008. The changes include a remodeled ESL wing and counseling office, a new gymnasium, a larger administrative wing, and a bigger auditorium backstage. Most of the school's recent additions also have flagstone facades, but none retain the original art deco design.

Stadium

Boulder High football, soccer, lacrosse, and track teams compete at Christian Recht Field, accessed via a bridge spanning Boulder Creek. Recht Field received a multimillion-dollar upgrade in 2003, which included artificial turf installation to conserve water and reduce injuries caused by frozen turf during the winter. As part of the BVSD bond program, a visitors' field house was constructed at the west end of the field. Fairview High School shares Recht Field for a number of varsity-level events. When Boulder and Fairview football compete against each other in the annual Boulder-Fairview duel, the schools' fans alternate use of the visitor and home stands each year.

Flood danger

Boulder High School is in the Boulder Creek flood zone. The school's adjacent soccer fields were the site of housing as late as the 1980s, but the houses were removed due to the flash-flood risk. The City of Boulder continues to remove residential buildings in the path of the most dangerous portions of the creek, replacing them with parks and fields. The Boulder Creek

100-year flood A 100-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance (1% probability) of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The 100-year flood is also referred to as the 1% flood, since its annual exceedance probability is 1%.Holmes, R.R., Jr. ...

took place in 1894, destroying all buildings in the area. The 2013 Colorado floods caused the school to be closed for several days. The soccer fields flooded, as did the softball field, which was the most damaged.

Attendance zone

The neighborhood attendance zone for Boulder High School includes the North and central portions of Boulder and the mountain communities to the West of Boulder.

Demographics

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Boulder High School is a 5A member of the

Colorado High School Activities Association The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) is the governing body for all high school activities throughout the state of Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United Stat ...

's (CHSAA) Front Range league and a former member of CHSAA's Centennial League (1964–2008). Boulder High School won a 6A state title in football in 1992, and also had state titles in 1943 and 1963. Boulder High School baseball has had some success as well winning a state title in 1991. In 2012, Boulder High School's varsity boys' soccer team won the Colorado 5A Soccer Championship, beating Smoky Hill in the final game at

Dick's Sporting Goods Park Dick's Sporting Goods Park, also known as DSG Park, is a soccer-specific stadium located in Commerce City, Colorado that is home to the Colorado Rapids men's professional soccer team. The stadium seats up to 18,061 people for soccer matches, bu ...

. After 14 rounds of penalty kicks, Boulder High earned its second Boys Soccer 5A State Championship in 2016 with a win over Broomfield High School and a perfect 20-0 season. The 2016 Panthers finished the season ranked second in the nation by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' on its Super 25 Expert Rankings.

History

In October 2007, to make competition locations more convenient for athletes and parents, BHS and crosstown rival Fairview petitioned to leave for the more accessible Front Range League. The request was approved in January 2008 and took effect at the start of the 2008–2009 school year.

Varsity sports

Boulder High fields eighteen different varsity sports teams each year across three seasons. ;Fall * Cross country *

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 ...

* Boys'

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 ...

* Boys'

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 ...

* Girls'

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 ...

* Boys'

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 ...

* Girls'

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 ...

;Winter * Boys'

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 ...

* Girls' basketball * Girls'

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 ...

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 ...

;Spring *

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 ...

* Girls' golf * Boys'

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 ...

* Girls' lacrosse * Girls' soccer * Boys' swimming * Girls' tennis *

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 ...

Intramural and club sports

In addition to its varsity sports, Boulder High School has a vibrant array of intramural and club sports. *

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

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 ...

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 ...

Cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

Dodgeball Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two teams try to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, cat ...

Kickball Kickball (also known as soccer baseball in most of Canada and football rounders in the United Kingdom) is a team sport and league game, similar to baseball. As in baseball, one team tries to score by having its players return a ball from home ...

Mountain bike racing Mountain bike racing (shortened MTB or ATB racing) is the competitive cycle sport discipline of mountain biking held on off-road terrain. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recognised the discipline relatively late in 1990, when it sanction ...

Pom squad A dance squad or dance team, sometimes called a pom squad or song team, is a team of participants that participates in competitive dance. A dance squad can also include: a jazz squad, ballet squad, or any kind of religion dance squad. Dance squads ...

* Smash Club *

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 ...

State championships

Panther TV

Boulder High students create a weekly broadcast, showing announcements and student-made content to the entire school.

The Owl

The Owl is Boulder High's student-run newspaper. Started primarily as a club, the newspaper became a year length class in the 2019-2020 school year.

Student Worker

In 1999, Boulder High students founded the political activist group Student Worker, which has carried out a number of demonstrations, including the January 2005 "sleep-in" protesting the war in Iraq and the May 2001 "kiss-in" supporting alternative sexuality. In May 2005, Student Worker, in a partnership with Peace Jam, erected 1,650 miniature American flags in memory of soldiers killed in Iraq. In September 2007, the group protested the Pledge of Allegiance, citing an objection to the "one nation, under God" clause. They instead recited a revised version.

Scares and controversies

Safety scares

On May 10, 2007, a cafeteria worker reported seeing two masked men enter the school before class hours wearing camouflage and ski masks. Classes were subsequently canceled while the school was locked down and searched by police. After multiple inspections, nothing suspicious was found, and school returned to normal the next day. Rumors that a song performed at a school talent show would include death threats to the president also garnered national attention, although a subsequent investigation indicated that the rumors were false. Boulder High School has endured multiple scam bomb threats in the past several years, prompting a moderate increase in school security.

Conference on World Affairs: 2007

Each year, Boulder High hosts several panels of the

University Of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

Conference on World Affairs The Conference on World Affairs (CWA) is an annual conference, open to the public, featuring panel discussions among experts in international affairs and other areas, hosted since 1948 by the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado, U ...

(CWA). The panels have been well attended by BHS students, have typically been supported by the faculty, and despite a focus on politically sensitive issues, have caused little public controversy with the exception of one on April 10, 2007. The panel, entitled "STDs: Sex, Teens, and Drugs," was to debate the merits of teens' different attitudes toward sex and drugs. According to some, the views presented by panel member Dr. Joel Becker, an associate clinical professor of psychology at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, were too extreme. Becker allegedly encouraged students to have sex and use illegal drugs, told them where to easily find

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

, and poked fun at condom use. Others argue that the objections were unfounded, and he was taken out of context. A transcript of the panel is available fro
BVSDWatch.org
A Boulder High sophomore and her mother, Priscilla White, complained to the school board and protested some teachers' mandatory panel attendance policy. The board reviewed the case, but meanwhile, the complaint attracted the national media's attention. The panel was covered most prominently by

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

commentator Bill O'Reilly and radio talk show hosts Don Caplis and Craig Silverman. In an attempt to refute O'Reilly's views, a group of students publicly demanded an apology and organized to defend the CWA panel and BHS administration. The school board concluded on May 22 that the comments in question had been generally taken out of context and that the overall panel was appropriate for high school students. The school board also recognized that several statements were unnecessarily crude and recommended that, in the future, student attendance at the Conference on World Affairs be optional. Today, the CWA at Boulder High School is overseen by a committee to assure the school board's recommendations are carried out and to prevent a similar conflict from occurring again.

Notable alumni

Dick Anderson Richard Paul Anderson (born February 10, 1946) is an American former professional football player who was a safety for the Miami Dolphins of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 196 ...

(born 1946, class of 1963), former NFL

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

and former

NFLPA The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director DeM ...

president; All-American at

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

* Bobby Anderson (born 1947), former NFL halfback, All-American at

(brother of Dick Anderson) *

Jello Biafra Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), known professionally as Jello Biafra, is an American singer, spoken word artist and politician. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys. Initially ac ...

(born 1958 as Eric Boucher, class of 1976), lead singer of 70s punk-rock band

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk rock, punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, sa ...

Mike Bohn Michael Robert Bohn (born November 16, 1960) is the athletic director at the University of Southern California. He was hired on November 11, 2019, following the resignation of Lynn Swann. He previously held the same position at the University of C ...

(born 1960), former athletic director at the

* Brian Bonsall (born 1981, class of 2000), actor and musician most best known for ''

Family Ties ''Family Ties'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created by Gary David Goldberg, reflected the move in the United States f ...

'' *

Scott Carpenter Malcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013) was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut, and aquanaut. He was one of the Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury ...

(1925–2013, class of 1943),

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

SEALAB SEALAB I, II, and III were experimental underwater habitats developed by the United States Navy in the 1960s to prove the viability of saturation diving and humans living in isolation for extended periods of time. The knowledge gained from the ...

aquanaut An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as satura ...

, test pilotStaff
"CU astronaut-alumnus Scott Carpenter looks back at 50th anniversary of Aurora 7 mission"

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

, May 21, 2012. Accessed May 2, 2017. "Born in Boulder on May 1, 1925, Carpenter grew up in a house at Seventh Street and Aurora Avenue, and graduated from Boulder High School in 1943." * Morgan Carroll (born 1971, class of 1990), Colorado State Senate 2008–present; Colorado House from 2005–2008 *

Steve Ells Steve Ells (born September 12, 1966) is an American businessman. He is the founder, former CEO, and former Executive Chairman of Chipotle Mexican Grill. Ells founded Chipotle in 1992, and under his direction, the chain serves what it describes as ...

(born 1966), founder and CEO of the Chipotle restaurant chain *

Michael Goldenberg Michael Goldenberg (born January 18, 1965) is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director. He graduated from the Carnegie Mellon College of Drama in 1986 with a B.F.A. Goldenberg is best known for writing the screenplay for the film '' ...

(born 1965), screenwriter and director *

Glen Gondrezick Glen Michael 'Gondo' Gondrezick (August 30, 1955 – April 27, 2009) was an American basketball player who operated as either a shooting guard or a small forward ( swingman). Basketball career Born in Boulder, Colorado, he attended Boulder Hig ...

(August 30, 1955 – April 27, 2009), graduated 1973;

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

(1973–1977) *

Hale Irwin Hale S. Irwin (born June 3, 1945) is an American professional golfer. He was one of the world's leading golfers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He is one of the few players in history to win three U.S. Opens, becoming the oldest ever U.S. Op ...

(born 1945), former PGA golfer and current

golf course architect A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

; college football safety at

Heath Irwin Heath Spencer Irwin (born June 27, 1973) is a former American football guard in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the New England Patriots, the Miami Dolphins, and the St. Louis Rams. He played college football for the Colorado ...

(born 1973), former NFL

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

for the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

, All-American at

, (nephew of Hale Irwin) * Nathaniel Motte (born 1984), singer in

3OH!3 3OH!3 (pronounced "three oh three") is an American electronic music duo from Boulder, Colorado, made up of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte. They are best known for their single "DONTTRUSTME" from their album ''Want'', which reached number sev ...

Davis Phinney Davis Phinney (born July 10, 1959) is a retired professional road bicycle racer from the United States. He won 328 races in the 1980s and 1990s, a record for an American, including two Tour de France stages. He has worked in media since retiring ...

(born 1959), professional cyclist *

Taylor Phinney Taylor Carpenter-Phinney (born June 27, 1990) is an American retired professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2009 and 2019 for the , and teams. Phinney specialized in time trials on the road as well as the individual ...

(born 1990), professional cyclist (son of

) *

Rick Reilly Richard Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958) is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for ''Sports Illustrated'', Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008, where he was a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote t ...

(born 1958), columnist for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, previously''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' * Chris Wood (born 1969), musician and member of Blue Note Records recording artists

Medeski, Martin and Wood Medeski Martin & Wood (or MMW) is an American jazz fusion band formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass. The band is influenced by musical traditions including funk and hip hop and ...

Francesca Woodman Francesca Stern Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. Many of her photographs show women, naked or clothed, blurred (due to ...

(1958–1981), photographer

References

External links

* {{authority control Public high schools in Colorado Educational institutions established in 1875 Streamline Moderne architecture in Colorado Schools in Boulder County, Colorado 1875 establishments in Colorado Territory