Dothan Preparatory Academy is located in
Dothan, Alabama
Dothan () is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties and the Houston county seat in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is Alabama's eighth-largest city, with a population of 71,072 at the 2020 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner, ...
, USA. It is located on
U.S. Highway 231
U.S. Route 231 (US 231) is a north-south United States Numbered Highway System, U.S highway that is a parallel route of U.S. Route 31, US 31. It runs for from St. John, Indiana, St. John, Indiana, at U.S. Route 41 in Indiana, US 41 ...
inside
Ross Clark Circle
State Route 210 (SR 210), also known as Ross Clark Circle or simply "The Circle" to locals, is a route overlaid by US 84, US 231, and US 431 encircling Dothan, Alabama in Houston County. For many years, the SR 210 designation appeared on state ...
, about north of the southern tip of Ross Clark Circle. The high school district roughly runs down
U.S. Highway 84, which runs east to west through the heart of Dothan.
History
Dothan High School was built in 1911 for the education of white students and was originally located on Burdeshaw Street. It was one of the most modern high schools in the state. When this school opened, the state required only three years of high school, but Dothan High went to a four-year curriculum in 1912. The
George S. Houston Memorial Library is now on the former site of the Burdeshaw Street building. In 1942 this building was torn down and an elementary school was built on the site and named for Minnie T. Heard. The central section of the existing Dothan High facility on South Oates Street was built in 1939. Numerous additions have been made at various points through the years since, such that DHS has a full cafeteria, separate auditorium, and two full gymnasiums, with an additional gymnasium at the adjacent Doug Tew Recreation Center.
For most of the school's history, only whites were allowed to attend. Some black students were admitted under a choice program started in 1963.
In the summer of 1969 a federal court ordered immediate integration of the schools. In the fall of 1969, students from the black school,
Carver, were transferred to Dothan.
A judge removed the segregation consent decree in 2008, although it was noted that only 7 percent of teachers were black, a decrease from 11 percent when the decree was implemented and less than the 18 percent blacks made of the total population.
Sports
Dothan High fields 11
varsity team
In most English-speaking countries, varsity is an abbreviation of the word ''university''. In the United States and Canada, the term is mostly used in relation to sports teams.
Varsity in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, varsity team ...
s, including
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
cross country,
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 ...
,
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 ...
and
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 ...
teams. In addition, Dothan High club teams include boys' varsity and junior varsity, as well as girls' varsity and junior varsity teams.
Clubs and extracurriculars
*Spanish Club
*SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions)
*Club HOPE (Helping Our Personal Environment)
*Key Club
*National Honor Society
*Drama Club
*Marching Band
*FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America)
*Diamond Dolls
*Ultimate Frisbee
*Yearbook
* Literary Guild
Advanced placement courses
Dothan High School currently offers a variety of Advanced Placement courses available to students. These classes include:
*AP World History
*AP US History
*AP English Language
*AP Literature
*AP Psychology
*AP Chemistry
*AP Environmental Science
*AP Biology
*AP Stats
*AP Calculus
Notable alumni
*
Larry Brackins
Larry Brackins (born November 5, 1982) is an American football wide receiver who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the fifth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He played college football at Pearl River Community ...
,
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
wide receiver
*
Johnny Mack Brown
John Brown (September 1, 1904 – November 14, 1974) was an American college football player and film actor billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career. He acted and starred mainly in Western (genre), Western films.
Early lif ...
,
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
halfback, Actor
*
Richmond Flowers, Sr.
Richmond McDavid Flowers Sr. (November 11, 1918 – August 9, 2007) was the Attorney General of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1963 to 1967, best known for his opposition to then Governor George C. Wallace's policy of racial segregation.
Early ...
,
Attorney General of Alabama
The Attorney General of Alabama is an elected, constitutional officer of the State of Alabama. The office of the Attorney General is located at the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. Henry Hitchcock was elected Alabama's first attorney general ...
, 1963–1967
*
Steadman S. Shealy
Steadman S. Shealy, Jr. (born June 8, 1958) is an American attorney and former college football quarterback. He is best known as the starting quarterback on the University of Alabama's 1979 national championship team. Shealy was also a member ...
,
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
, Attorney
*
Bobby Goldsboro
Robert Charles Goldsboro (born January 18, 1941) is an American pop and country singer and songwriter. He had a string of pop and country hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature No. 1 hit "Honey", which sold over 1 million copies in ...
,
singer, songwriter
External links
*
References
{{authority control
Public high schools in Alabama
Educational institutions established in 1911
Schools in Houston County, Alabama
1911 establishments in Alabama