Grand Island Senior High is the only high school in the Grand Island Public Schools (GIPS) system in

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, United States. It has had several buildings over its history. The official mascot is the Islander, a tall man in a tropical grass skirt.

History

In 1908, a new building was built for high school students at 10th Street and Walnut Street, although high school education in an all-grades building had been going on before that. In 1925, a new building was constructed at 500 Walnut Street; the 1908 building was turned into a junior high school. In 1955, a fourth building was constructed in the 2100 block of Lafayette Avenue and its predecessor became Walnut Junior High.Budde, Eugene J. Retrieved October 27, 2013. In the late 1990s, a two-story section was added onto the main building. GISH adopted an "academy" system for the 2019-2020 school year, making students choose one of five tracks to focus on. As a part of this system, Grand Island Senior High has expanded to three total campuses, including a technically focused Career Pathways Institute, and an education, law and public safety focused Wyandotte Learning Center.

Athletics

Islander athletic teams compete in the Heartland Athletic Conference. *denotes co-championship

Performing arts

Grand Island has three competitive

show choirs A show choir (originally known as a "swing choir") is a musical ensemble that combines choral singing with choreographed dance, often with an overarching theme. It is most relevant in the Midwestern United States and was popularized by the America ...

, the mixed-gender "Ultimate Image" and "Future Image" as well as the all-female "Sweet Revelation". The program also hosts an annual competition, the Islander Invitational.

Notable alumni

Patrick Deuel Patrick Darren Deuel (March 28, 1962 – April 29, 2016) was an American individual known for being one of the heaviest people in the world. He was the subject of the documentary "Half Ton Man" in Channel 4's '' BodyShock'' series. In the docu ...

, one of the heaviest people in the world *

Tom Rathman Thomas Dean Rathman (born October 7, 1962) is a former professional football player, a fullback for the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Following his playing career, he became a coach in 1995 an ...

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) fullback (

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

) *

Bobby Reynolds Robert Thomas "Bobby" Reynolds (born July 17, 1982) is an American retired professional tennis player who resides in Auburn, Alabama. He was named head men's tennis coach at Auburn University in June 2016. Professional career Reynolds, a nativ ...

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 ...

halfback *

Rebecca Richards-Kortum Rebecca Richards-Kortum (born April 14, 1964) is an American bioengineer and the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University. She is a professor in the departments of Bioengineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and she is t ...

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

professor,

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...

"Former G.I. resident Rebecca Richards-Kortum named MacArthur ‘Genius.''Grand Island Independent''.
September 23, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2017. * Jeff Richardson,

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

(

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

) * Bob Smith, NFL halfback

References

{{authority control Educational institutions in the United States with year of establishment missing Grand Island, Nebraska Public high schools in Nebraska School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska Schools in Hall County, Nebraska National Register of Historic Places in Hall County, Nebraska