Niles West High School, officially Niles Township High School West or NWHS, is a public four-year

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 ...

located in

Skokie, Illinois Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. Its population, according to the 2020 census, was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's do ...

, a north suburb of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in the United States. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219, which also includes

Niles North High School Niles North High School, officially Niles Township High School North, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a North Shore (Chicago), North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. It is part of Niles Townshi ...

. Its school teams were originally the Indians, but this was later changed in 2001 to the Wolves. Its feeder middle schools are Lincoln Junior High School (located in Skokie), Fairview South School (located in Skokie), Lincoln Hall Middle School (located in Lincolnwood), Culver Middle School (located in Niles), and Park View School (located in

Morton Grove Morton Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 25,297. The village is named after former United States Vice President Levi Parsons Morton, who helped finance the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railr ...

History

Niles West High School sits on over an acre of land. The school opened in the fall of 1958. In 1996, the Niles Township Federation of Teachers went on a

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

for two weeks over negotiations with administrators. During that time numerous students staged a walkout and pledged their allegiance to Niles West. Strikes have also happened in 1979 and 1985 with similar results.

Academics

In 2007, Niles West had an average composite ACT score of 22.3, and graduated 93.2% of its senior class.Class of 2007 school report card
The average class size was 19.2. In 2012, Newsweek ranked Niles West on its list of the Top 1000 Public Schools in the nation. As of March 2020, many 8th or 7th graders have been attending Niles West high school as part as an off-level program.

Student life

Activities

The "West Word" student newspaper has been awarded first place for seven years running, with special merit twice, by the American Scholastic Press Association Newspaper contest. Starting in the 2010–2011 school year, the print newspaper was retired, renamed "Niles West News", and moved online.

Fine arts

In April 2007, both Niles West and Niles North received the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network and National School Boards Association Award for excellence in arts education. In summer 2010, the Niles West High School Theatre Department performed at the 2010 American High School Theatre Festival in Scotland. The Illinois Art Education Association awarded the Fine Arts Departments with three awards in 2020: Art Education Program of the Year, Patti-Anne Ford as the Art and Design Administrator of the Year, and Deanna Sortino as the Secondary Art Educator of the Year.

Athletics

Niles West competes in the

Central Suburban League The Central Suburban League is an IHSA-recognized high school extracurricular conference comprising 12 public schools located in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago. Comprising 12 relatively large high schools, it is among the larger high school ...

and

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fed ...

(IHSA). Teams are stylized as the

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

. Until the end of the 1999–2000 school year, the sports teams were known as Niles West Indians, a name which was changed to the Wolves so as not to offend Native Americans. Niles West sponsors interscholastic athletic teams for men and women 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 ...

, cheerleading, cross country,

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 ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

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 ...

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

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 & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

, and

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 ...

. Men may also compete in

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Women can also compete on the wrestling team and may compete in

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 ...

. While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school also sponsors a Poms team for women. The baseball team has won two IHSA state championships (1971–72 and 1974–75). The girls' basketball team won the IHSA state championship in 1978-79. Niles West Men's gymnastics also won the IHSA state championship for men's gymnastics in 2016.

Notable alumni

* Steven N. Berk, Associate Judge on the

Superior Court of the District of Columbia The Superior Court of the District of Columbia, commonly referred to as DC Superior Court, is the trial court for the District of Columbia, in the United States. It hears cases involving criminal and civil law, as well as family court, landlor ...

; nominated by

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Arnie Bernstein Arnie Bernstein (born 1960) is an American writer of historical nonfiction. His works include ''Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing'' and ''Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund''. Biography ...

, nonfiction writer *

Bart Conner Bart Wayne Conner (born March 28, 1958) is a retired American Olympic gymnast. As a member of the US men's gymnastics team at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, Conner won two gold medals. He owns and operates the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy in N ...

International Gymnastics Hall of Fame The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City, USA, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring the achievements and contributions of the world's greatest competitors, coaches and authorities in artistic gymnastics. The early IGHO ...

inductee and

Congressional Gold Medal The Congressional Gold Medal is an award bestowed by the United States Congress. It is Congress's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions. The congressional pract ...

recipient *

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, bank robber *

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, 86th

Attorney General of the United States The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

, (2021– ) *

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, drag queen and

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contestant *

Jim Hart (American football) James Warren Hart (born April 29, 1944) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1966 through 1983 and the Washington Redskins in 1984. Early life Hart was raise ...

, NFL quarterback (1966-1984), most notably for the

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, selected to four Pro Bowls * Paul Igasaki, former Chief Judge of

U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose of the Board is to revi ...

George Kontos George Nicholas Kontos (born June 12, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cleveland Indians. Prior to playing ...

, former

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

pitcher and sports commentator for

NBC Bay Area KNTV (channel 11), branded as NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's NBC network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Sta ...

George Kotsiopoulos George Kotsiopoulos (born November 18, 1968) is an American magazine editor, fashion consultant, stylist and television personality. He is style editor at large for ''Cardinal Courier Media, C'' magazine and was a fashion associate at ''The New Yo ...

, television host, author, and former magazine editor * John S. Koudounis, CEO of Calamos Investments *

Gary Kremen Gary Kremen (born 20 September 1963) is an American engineer, entrepreneur and politician who founded the personals site Match.com, was the first registrant of Sex.com and founder of Clean Power Finance, and is a board member of the Santa Clara Va ...

, founder of

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Jewell Loyd Jewell Loyd (born October 5, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for CB Avenida, Perfumerias Avenida of Spain's Liga Femenina de Baloncesto and the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was draft ...

, a professional basketball player currently playing for the

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of the WNBA (league champion, 2018, 2020), Gold Medal,

Tokyo 2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. Her number 32 retired by Niles West High School. *

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, former football player, Huffington Post contributor, and writer for HBO's ''

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'' *

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, policy adviser *

Atour Sargon Atour Toma Sargon, ( syr, ܐܵܬܘܿܪ ܬܐܘܿܡܵܐ ܣܲܪܓܘܿܢ) also referred to as Atour Sargon, ( syr, ܐܵܬܘܿܪ ܣܲܪܓܘܿܢ) is an Assyrian American activist. She is the first ethnic Assyrian to be elected to the Lincolnwood Boa ...

Assyrian American Assyrian Americans ( syr, ܣܘܼܖ̈ܵܝܹܐ ܐܲܡܪ̈ܝܼܟܵܝܹܐ) refers to individuals of ethnic Assyrian ancestry born in or residing within the United States of America. Assyrians are an indigenous Middle-Eastern ethnic group native to ...

activist and politician *

Maya Schenwar Maya Schenwar (born November 10, 1982) is the editor-in-chief of Truthout and a writer focused on prison-related topics. She is the co-author of ''Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms,'' author of ''Locked Down, Lock ...

, editor-in-chief of Truthout and a writer focused on prison-related topics *

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, mastermind of 2019 college admissions bribery scandal *

Todd Sucherman Todd Sucherman (born May 2, 1969) is an American drummer, who is best known for having been a member of Styx since March 1995. Early life Sucherman grew up in a musical family and followed in his father's footsteps by playing the drums. His fat ...

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...

drummer * Byron Udell, author and businessman

References

External links

Official website

District 219 Niles Township High Schools
{{authority control High schools in Skokie, Illinois Public high schools in Cook County, Illinois 1959 establishments in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1959