Greeley West High School is a public high school located in
Greeley, Colorado
Greeley is the home rule municipality city that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Weld County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,795 at the 2020 United States Census, an increase of 17.12% since the 2010 ...
, at the intersection of 35th Avenue and West 24th Street. The school was established in 1966 and had an enrollment of 1,450 students in the 2003-04 school year. Its mascot is the Spartans.
History and academics
Opened on January 25, 1965 Greeley West High School and featured a distinctive hexagonal shape shared by
John Evans Middle School, which opened the same day. The cost to build the 113,470-square-foot high school was $2 million and the school opened with an enrollment of 785.
In 1996, it became the only school in Greeley to offer the
International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...
Program. In 1998, Greeley West offered a program called Extended Learning Opportunity, which pushed back the school's regular starting time 90 minutes to allow students who wished to come in earlier to participate in small study classes.
In 2000, principal Erik Fredell was named a principal of the year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and
MetLife
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
.
In 2016, two administrators were implicated in a scandal involving parent surveys. Principal Shelli Robins and Assistant Principal John Diebold were accused by a whistle-blower of creating fraudulent parent survey responses and submitting them to school district officials for over two years. The school district's internal investigation concluded that the accusations were true and that the pair additionally had ordered school staff to participate in the fraud. The district administrators accepted the resignations of Robins and Diebold and reformed the administration process of parent surveys.
On November 5, 2019, voters in Greeley and Evans approved a $395 million bond issue to improve school facilities throughout the District, including a replacement school for Greeley West. Ground breaking for the $120 million site began in August 2020. Construction is ongoing with a planned opening of 2022.
Enrollment
According to the Colorado Department of Education, Greeley West has 1666 enrolled students (as of the 2019-20 school year).
Athletics
Greeley West offers golf, football, volleyball, boys' and girls' soccer, boys' and girls' basketball, cheerleading, poms, baseball, softball, cross country, track and field, wrestling, boys' and girls' tennis, and boys' and girls' swimming.
The school has won state championships in baseball (1975), girls' soccer (2003, 2004), and four state titles in girls' tennis, most recently in 2003.
The school has also won state titles in boys' cross country (1965, 2009), girls' cross country (2007), and 5A Poms/Jazz (2000, 2007).
The boys' swim team at Greeley West was named state 4A Academic Team champion in 2007, and the boys' basketball team in 2010.
The Greeley West boys' swim team was named the class 4A State Champions in 2019.
Notable alumni
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Shane Carwin
Western Colorado Mountaineers
Shane Bannister Carwin (born January 4, 1975) is an American former mixed martial artist who competed in the Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a former Interim UFC Heav ...
,
mixed martial artist
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...
, former
Interim Heavyweight Champion of the
UFC
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...
.
*
Keith English, former
NFL
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 major ...
player.
*
Taryn Hemmings
Taryn Elizabeth Hemmings (born April 26, 1986) is an American former professional soccer defender.
Early life
Hemmings grew up in Greeley, Colorado and attended Greeley West High School. During her junior and senior years, she led her high sc ...
, professional soccer player for the
Boston Breakers
The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...
.
*
Mike Higgins,
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
basketball player.
*
Ryan Martinez
Ryan Martinez (born August 27, 1982) is a retired American mixed martial artist. A professional from 2009 until 2014, he competed for Bellator and ProElite.
Background
Martinez was born in Greeley, Colorado. He grew up wrestling and had a promi ...
, wrestler and professional mixed martial artist.
*
Dick and Charlie Monfort, owners of the
Colorado Rockies
The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...
.
*
Tom Runnells
Thomas William Runnells (born April 17, 1955) is an American former infielder, coach and manager in Major League Baseball.
Biography
Runnells attended the University of Northern Colorado and originally signed with the San Francisco Giants. He pla ...
, former
MLB
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), ...
player, manager.
*
Ron Waterman
Ronald Waterman (born November 23, 1965) is a former American mixed martial artist, professional wrestler, and celebrity member of the Team Impact motivational group. He holds notable victories over Valentijn Overeem, Ricco Rodriguez, Kevin Ran ...
, Team Impact member, former pro wrestler.
References
External links
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Public high schools in Colorado
Educational institutions established in 1966
Greeley, Colorado
Schools in Weld County, Colorado
1966 establishments in Colorado
International Baccalaureate schools in Colorado