Manatee High School is the oldest public high school in
Bradenton, Florida
Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698.
History
Late 18th and early 19th centuries ...
, operated by the
Manatee County School District
The School District of Manatee County, in Manatee County, Florida, provides education to over 50,000 students. It employs over 7,000 people.
The School District is managed by the Manatee County School Board and the Superintendent. Cynthia Saund ...
.
History
Bradentown High School would open in 1897 located on what is now 15th Street West and Ballard Park Drive operating out of a wooden two-story building. A brick building which served as its replacement to the original building would be built in 1912. The original building became the Bradentown Intermediate School serving students from 3rd to 6th grade until closing in 1923 when a replacement was built for the intermediate school was built. After the new intermediate school was built it would be bought by Bradenton's municipal government and demolished. Sometime prior to 1915 students who lived in nearby Palmetto would start attending the school and it became known as Manatee County High School. Sometime during the 1920s it became known as Bradenton High School as a high school was created in Palmetto.
The school would move to the site of where the Biltmore Grade School formerly operated at in 1930. The Biltmore Grade School was originally built in 1926
but closed one year later because of the collapse of the
Florida Land Boom
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble. This pioneering era of Florida land speculation lasted from 1924 to 1926 and attracted investors from all over the nation. The land boom left behind entirely new, planned ...
.
The school's second location would end up becoming the Bradenton Junior High School in 1938 serving students in 7th to 9th grade before being made into the county school district administration offices in 1956 which served in that role until being demolished in 1989 when a new administration building was built. The building that formerly housed the Biltmore Grade School became known as the Davis Building after a longtime principal of the school, Paul F. Davis.
Both Bradenton High School and
Palmetto High School merged with each other in 1947 and the school would be renamed once again to Manatee County High School but ended up splitting again in 1959 with the school getting the name Manatee High School.
Walker Junior High School which existed across the street from Manatee High School would be absorbed by Manatee High in 1969 as a part of the school district doing redistricting for desegregation.
In 1997 a major redesign for the Davis Building that included new classrooms, a science-technology building, gym, and administration building was constructed. Most of Walker Junior High School be demolished in 1998 with only the western portion remaining.
The Davis Building would be demolished in 2011 and replaced.
The Macohi
The name for the school newspaper is derived from the school's former name, Manatee County High School, using the first two letters from each word to create "Macohi". Currently in its 94th volume, the Macohi began as "The Oracle", while the yearbook was named the Macohi. In 1990, the paper was awarded a Silver Crown Newspaper (for high schools) by the
Columbia Scholastic Press Association
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) is an international student press association, founded in 1925, whose goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchang ...
.
Notable people
Alumni
*
Bill Anderson – former
NFL 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 ...
*
Kelly Cassidy
Kelly Cassidy (born 1967/1968) is an American politician from Chicago. She is a Democrat and a member of the Illinois House of Representatives. She was appointed to represent the 14th district, on Chicago's North Side, in April 2011 following in ...
– congresswoman from
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
*
Demarcus Christmas
Demarcus Christmas (born July 4, 1995) is an American football defensive end for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Florida State. He has also been a member of the Seattle Seahawks an ...
– NFL defensive tackle for
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...
*
Ed Culpepper
Ed Culpepper (born Robert Edward Culpepper) (January 21, 1934 – January 9, 2021) was a Tackle (American football)#Defensive tackle, defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played two seasons with the Chicago Cardinals (NFL, 1 ...
– former
NFL player
*
Kathleen Flinn
Kathleen Flinn (born June 1, 1967) is an American writer, journalist and chef. She is best known for the 2007 ''New York Times'' bestseller, ''The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry''.
Early life
Flinn was born in Davison, Michigan, to Milton ...
– author
*
Tommie Frazier
Tommie James Frazier Jr. (born July 16, 1974) is an American former football player and coach who played quarterback for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Frazier led his team to consecutive national championships in 1994 and 1995, and is ...
– football player at
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 ...
, member of
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...
*
David Lawrence Jr.
David Lawrence Jr. (born March 5, 1942 in New York City, New York) is an American nationally known newspaper editor and publisher who retired at the age of 56 and subsequently became a leading national advocate for children, especially in the area ...
– journalist
*
Jill McCormick
Jill Kristin Vedder (née McCormick; born November 11, 1977) is an American philanthropist, activist, and former fashion model. She is the co-founder and Vice-Chairman of the EB Research Partnership, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding ...
– former fashion model and philanthropist
*
Brian McRae
Brian Wesley McRae (; born August 27, 1967) is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies and Toronto Blue Jays from to . McRae is the son of former major ...
–
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), ...
center fielder
A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...
*
Alvoid Mays
Alvoid Wilson Mays (born July 10, 1966) is a former American football cornerback. He played college football at West Virginia. He was drafted in the eighth round (172nd overall) of the 1989 NFL draft by the Houston Oilers.
He also played for th ...
– former
NFL player
*
Scott Makar
Scott Douglas Makar (born October 15, 1959) is an American lawyer, college professor and Judge on the Florida First District Court of Appeal. Previously he was the Florida Solicitor General serving from 2007 until 2012 and in that position, argue ...
former
Florida Solicitor General
The solicitor general of Florida or Florida solicitor general is the top appellate (appeals) solicitor (lawyer) for the U.S. State of Florida. It is an appointed position in the Office of the Florida Attorney General and the individual serves at t ...
.
*
Dan Miller – former congressman representing
Florida's 13th congressional district
Florida's 13th congressional district is an electoral district for the U.S. Congress on Florida's Gulf Coast, reassigned in 2012, effective January 2013, to Pinellas County.
See whole Florida state map for 2013, with the 13th district coveri ...
*
Chris Perez – MLB relief pitcher
*
Ace Sanders
Tracy Lavon "Ace" Sanders (born November 11, 1991) is a former American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He played college football at South Carolina.
Early years
San ...
– former
NFL wide receiver for
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...
*
Deborah (Phillips) Smith (Ford) – lifestyle model, author,
actress
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...
*
Robby Stevenson – former kicker for
Florida Gators
The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as t ...
*
Richard Trapp – former
AFL
AFL may refer to:
Sports
* American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues:
** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
wide receiver prior to
NFL merger
*
Willie Taggart
Willie Author Taggart (born August 27, 1976) is an American football college coach. He has held the head coach position at five NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs: Western Kentucky (2009 to 2012 seasons); South Florida (2013 to ...
– head coach for
Florida Atlantic Owls football
The Florida Atlantic Owls football program represents Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in the sport of American football. The Owls compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Amer ...
, former head coach of
Florida State Seminoles football
The Florida State Seminoles football team represents Florida State University (variously Florida State or FSU) in the sport of American football. The Seminoles compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Colle ...
,
Oregon Ducks football
The Oregon Ducks football program is a college football team for the University of Oregon, located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the FBS and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12). Although ...
and
South Florida Bulls football
The South Florida Bulls football team represents the University of South Florida. The Bulls began playing in 1997 and compete in the American Athletic Conference (The American) of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) within the National Collegiat ...
*
Tyrone Williams – former
NFL player
Staff
*Former head football coach
David Braine went on to become a college athletic director, most recently at
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
.
*Former assistant football coach
Danny Hope
Charles Daniel Hope (born January 7, 1959) is an American football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 2003 to 2007, and Purdue University from 2009 to 2012, compiling a career colle ...
went on to become the head coach at
Purdue
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
.
*Former assistant football coach
Hootie Ingram
Cecil W. "Hootie" Ingram (born September 2, 1933) is a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played for the University of Alabama from 1952 to 1954 and was selected as an All- SEC defensive back in 1952. ...
went on to become athletic director at
FSU.
Athletics
Manatee High School athletic teams have won 16
FHSAA
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is an organization whose purpose is to organize sports competition for high schools in Florida. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Florida uses ...
state championships. The following sports are available to students at Manatee:
*Baseball (boys)
**State champs – 1925, 1931, 1932, 1942 & 1963
*Basketball (boys and girls)
*Cheerleading (girls)
*Competitive Cheerleading (girls)
**State champs – 2013
*Cross country (boys and girls)
*Football (boys)
**State champs – 1983, 1985, 1989, 1992 & 2011
*Golf (boys and girls)
*Soccer (boys and girls)
*Softball (girls)
*Swimming and diving (boys and girls)
*Tennis (boys and girls)
**Boys state champ – 1985
*Track and Field (boys and girls)
**Boys state champs – 1955–1957
*Volleyball (girls)
*Weightlifting (boys and girls)
**Boys state champ – 1990
*Wrestling (boys)
*Flag Football (girls)
Hawkins Stadium
Manatee High School's sports venue is the Joe Kinnan Field at Hawkins Stadium. It is the home stadium for the Manatee Hurricanes, the school's football team.
References
External links
Manatee High School website
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Schools in Bradenton, Florida
High schools in Manatee County, Florida
Public high schools in Florida