Junction City High School is a comprehensive

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

junior/senior

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 ...

serving grades seven through twelve in the rural, distant community of

Junction City, Arkansas Junction City is a city in Union County, Arkansas, United States, and is the twin city of neighboring Junction City, Louisiana. The population was 581 at the 2010 census. Geography Junction City is located at (33.019174, -92.722915). It is ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Located in southern

Union County, Arkansas Union County is a county located on the central southern border of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,639. The county seat is El Dorado. The county was formed on November 2, 1829, and named in recognition ...

, Junction City High School is one of seven public high schools in the county and is the sole high school managed by the Junction City School District. The school has a concurrent credit arrangement for students at the nearby

South Arkansas Community College South Arkansas Community College (SouthArk) is a public community college in El Dorado, Arkansas. South Arkansas Community College, known locally as SouthArk, is a public, comprehensive community college with an open-door policy, providing edu ...

. Since 1974, Junction City High School has won seven state baseball championships.

Curriculum

The assumed course of study at Junction City High School is the

Smart Core curriculum Smart or SMART may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014 * Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com * ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper * ''SMart'', a children's television ser ...

developed by the

Arkansas Department of Education Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

(ADE). Students engage in regular and

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

(AP) coursework and exams to obtain at least 22 units before graduation. Exceptional students have been recognized as

National Merit Finalists The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organizati ...

and participated in

Arkansas Governor's School The Arkansas Governor's School (also known as Arkansas Governor's School for the Gifted and Talented or AGS) is a publicly funded four-week (formerly six-week) residential summer program offered to rising seniors in the state of Arkansas. The scho ...

. The school maintains a concurrent credit partnership with

, whereas students in 11th and 12th grade can attend SACC and receive high school and college credit simultaneously.

Extracurricular activities

The Junction City High School mascot is the

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

with purple and yellow serving as the school colors.

Athletics

For the 2012-2014 seasons, the Junction City Dragons participate 2A 8 (Football) Conference and the 2A 7 (Basketball) Conference. Competition is primarily sanctioned by the

Arkansas Activities Association The Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) is the primary sanctioning body for high school sports in state of Arkansas. AAA is a member association of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHSA). Every public secondary sch ...

with the Dragons competing in

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 ...

(boys/girls),

cheer Cheering involves the uttering or making of sounds and may be used to encourage, excite to action, indicate approval or welcome. The word cheer originally meant face, countenance, or expression, and came through Old French into Middle English ...

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 ...

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/girls), track, weightlifting and softball.

Football

Under Coach David Carpenter, Dragon football is one of the most dominant teams in state. It has recorded state championships in 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018. The Dragons were the state championship runner-ups in 2017 when the teams competed in 3A competition. In 2003, the Dragon football team scored a state-record 753 points as it won 15 games, a modern state-record tying performance. The team also has claimed a state runner-up in 2006. The 2009 team had 9 shutouts, the most in school history.

Baseball

The baseball team is one of the state's most successful having won nine

state championships The Brazilian states football championships are the professional adult male soccer competitions in Brazil that take place between January and April for the Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and South regions. In some states from the North Reg ...

between 1972 and 2019, including consecutive titles in 1981 and 1982. The Dragons Baseball team most recently won the state championship in 2014 and 2019, while being the runner-up in 2016. The Dragons baseball squad has made 34 state tournaments, winning 61 tournament contests, a state-record 21 semifinals, and 11 title game appearances. The 1981 team holds the state record for most regular season wins with 37, and the 1977 squad went undefeated at 24-0. Several members of the baseball team hold state records, most notably Kelly Owens (1981–82) who has four state-records listed in the national high school record book, which is maintained by the

National Federation of State High School Associations The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) is the body that writes the rules of competition for most high school sports and activities in the United States. NFHS's headquarters are located in White River State Park in Indi ...

Basketball

In 2006-07,

James Anderson James Anderson may refer to: Arts *James Anderson (American actor) (1921–1969), American actor *James Anderson (author) (1936–2007), British mystery writer *James Anderson (English actor) (born 1980), British actor * James Anderson (filmmaker) ...

led the Junction City Dragons to the state basketball championship and was awarded the Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year award and several national honors.

Cheer

The competitive cheer team has won two state championships (2008, 2012).

Notable people

The following are notable people associated with Junction City High School. *

(Class of 2007) — professional basketball player, high school All-American and former

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division ( ...

draft pick * Ronald Simmons (politics) Class of 1978 - State Representative, Texas House of Representatives 2012 - 2019

References

External links

* {{authority control Public high schools in Arkansas Schools in Union County, Arkansas