Olathe Northwest High School is a public high school located in

Olathe, Kansas Olathe ( ) is the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas, United States. It is the fourth-most populous city in both the Kansas City metropolitan area and the state of Kansas, with a 2020 population of 141,290. History 19th century Olathe was ...

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, serving students in grades 9–12. The school is one of five high schools in the

Olathe USD 233 Olathe USD 233, also known as Olathe Public Schools, is a public unified school district headquartered in Olathe, Kansas, United States. It is one of the major school districts in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area and is one of the larger school ...

school district. The school colors are blue, black, and white, and the school mascot is the Raven. Olathe Northwest was established in 2003 to help educate the rapidly increasing population of Olathe. Olathe Northwest is a member of the Kansas State High School Activities Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Athletic teams compete in the 6A division and are known as the "Ravens". Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs.

History

Olathe Northwest High School was established in 2003 and celebrated its 10th school year with a homecoming event on September 21, 2013.

Academics

Olathe Northwest achieved the Kansas State Department of Education "Standard of Excellence" for the 2011–12 school year.

Classroom technology

When the school first opened, students were issued a Palm M515 model

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. After three years of use, those palms were deemed obsolete, and the district upgraded the school to the

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. Over the next few years, the school gradually phased out this program, and students are no longer issued PDAs. The school also uses ceiling-mounted projectors and Smart boards for classroom presentations. Students are now able to bring in their own personal device and use it on the school's wireless network.

e-Communication

Students in the e-Communication program, or e-Comm, have opportunities to advance their interests in web design, video production (entertainment and convergence journalism), graphic design and animation. The school is equipped with a television studio, numerous video editing suites, and several computer lab classrooms with the latest large display Apple iMac computers equipped with industry standard software for all strands of e-Comm. The e-Comm program allows students to experience each different strand, then pick a strand on which to focus. e-Comm engages students and helps to give them a foundation in their chosen strand. e-Comm even offers students a chance to enter in a multimedia festival called eMagine created and run by the e-Communication program.

Engineering Academy

Students in the Engineering Academy are immersed in nearly every major engineering discipline through a wide array of coursework including a materials and processing

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course and

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courses during their sophomore year, as well as additional CAD coursework along with a paired physics and mathematics/project course. During their senior year students have the options of joining a senior project including the

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project team, the Electrathon project team, an internship with a local business, the service-based course Engineer a Better World, or th
''FIRST'' Robotics team

Extracurricular activities

The Ravens compete in the Sunflower League and are classified as a 6A school, the largest classification in Kansas according to the

Kansas State High School Activities Association The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) is the organization which oversees interscholastic competition in the U.S. state of Kansas at the high school, high-school level. It oversees both athletic and non-athletic competition, ...

. A few graduates have gone on to participate in Division I, Division II, and

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

athletics.

Athletics

Baseball

In 2007, the ONW baseball team became co-Sunflower League champions for the first time in school history. The team finished with a record of 12–8. The squad reached the Regional Championship game in 2004 and 2005 but fell one game short of the state tournament each time. In the 2003–04 season, the Ravens entered into regional play as the bottom seed and drew

Mill Valley High School Mill Valley High School is a high school located in Shawnee, Kansas, and operated by De Soto USD 232 public school district. As of the 2020–2021 school year, its attendance is roughly 1,306. Mill Valley is a member of the Kansas State High ...

, the 1 team in 5A. The Ravens defeated Mill Valley in one of the biggest upsets in Kansas high school baseball history.

Bowling

The 2014–15 and 2016–17 bowling men's varsity team won the city competition, beating cross-town rivals Olathe North.

Boys' basketball

In 2017, the Raven boys' basketball team qualified for the state tournament for the first time in school history.

Football

In 2004, the first year of varsity play, the ONW football team went 2–7. The next year, they improved to 4–5. The 2006 squad finished 3–7 and made the playoffs for the first time in school history. The 2014 team had the program's first winning record and beat cross-town rival Olathe East for the first time in school history.

Girls' basketball

The Lady Ravens broke a couple of records in their 2015 season, but they did not enjoy the way it ended with a 51–45 loss to Blue Valley in sub state, finishing with a 9–12 record. Their records include most three-pointers made in state, with seventeen, and most three-pointers attempted, with forty-three.

Softball

In 2009, the Lady Ravens girls' softball team compiled a perfect 25–0 regular season record. The team continued on to win the 2009 Kansas State High School Championship title against Washburn Rural High School. In May 2011, entering the postseason as the number 6 seed in 6A, the Ravens captured their second title, beating Washburn Rural 9–1. In 2017, the Lady Ravens won their third state championship.

Tennis

In 2006, sophomore J.T. Christian won the 6A State Championship in boys singles. After graduating from ONW, Christian played tennis at

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and

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Wrestling

The 2014–15 ONW wrestling team placed 12th in the state – their best finish to date. Six wrestlers from the 2014–2015 squad qualified for state, three of whom placed.

Volleyball

In 2010, the girls' varsity team went 11–0 in the Sunflower League and claimed the first league championship in team history. The Lady Ravens won back-to-back state championships in 2016 and 2017.

State championships

Non-athletic programs

Publications

''Evermore'' is the school yearbook, run by a large staff that distributes the book during the summer. ''Undefined'' was also a literary magazine published until 2007 when the class was terminated due to low enrollment. A new literary magazine, the ''Aviary'', was started in late 2015, but is no longer in production. Journalism 1 and photojournalism classes are also offered. In 2007, the department was awarded the "First Amendment Press Freedom Award" in

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by the Journalism Education Association. Also in 2007, ''The Raven's Beak'' was nominated for the prestigious NSPA "Pacemaker" award, known as the nation's top prize in scholastic journalism, and was the first high-school newspaper in the

Olathe School District Olathe USD 233, also known as Olathe Public Schools, is a public unified school district headquartered in Olathe, Kansas, United States. It is one of the major school districts in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area and is one of the larger schoo ...

to earn this honor. ''Evermore'' was also awarded a "Best in Show" at the 2007 JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention in

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. In September 2008, it was announced that ''The Raven's Beak'' was nominated for a Pacemaker for a second straight year by the NSPA. On November 15 at the NSPA Conference in

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, The Raven's Beak won the Pacemaker, the first Olathe school to take home the honor.

''ONW NOW''

''ONW NOW'' is a weekly 10-minute school news broadcast produced by Olathe Northwest students as part of the e-Communication program. The program is aired to the school on Thursdays, during the "seminar" period, in which the entire student body watches. The show consists of five minutes of daily announcements along with news packages about school and community-related events, and five minutes of a sports news show, titled ''GameDay: Northwest'' started in 2011. In 2008, ONW NOW produced their first live show on April 4, after previously using a "live to tape" format.

Band

The Olathe Northwest band program includes over two hundred students. There are four concert ensembles: the Concert Band, Symphonic Band, audition-only Wind Ensemble, and an audition-only Raven Winds, the latter three forming the marching band during the fall. A 6A division Kansas school, ONW has the most band ensembles in the district, boasting 10 organized groups. The school’s marching band is known as the "Raven Pride Marching Band" and has performed at football, basketball, and volleyball games as well as in school spirit assemblies. Their field shows have been "Sir Elton John" (2013), "The Sound Of Music" (2014), "Let Freedom Ring" (2015) which won the Neowollah Marching Festival, "Turandot" (2016) which earned them the Grand Champions title at the 2016 Heart of America Marching Festival, "The Raven" (2017), "From One... Many" (2018), which won the Grand Champion title at the 2018 UCM Festival of Champions, “Pulse” (2019), “Warrior” (2020 & 2021), and “Into the Starry Night” (2022), winning the Grand Champion title at the 2022 Shawnee Mission High School Marching Band Invitational. In November 2014, the marching band traveled to New York City and marched in the annual Veteran's Day Parade. In May 2018, the Raven Pride Marching Band represented Kansas in the national Memorial Day Parade in Washington D.C.. The band most recently traveled to Orlando, Fl, where they performed at Walt Disney World in the 50th anniversary parade. they are the largest band in the state of Kansas. Olathe Northwest also has a very successful Jazz program. The four jazz ensembles are: Raven Jazz I, II, III, and IV (Lab). Olathe Northwest has more jazz ensembles than any school in the area. Raven Jazz I won the "Basically Basie" Competition at KCKCC in 2015, 2017, and 2018. They also traveled to the 2018 KMEA All-State Convention in Wichita, Kansas; where they performed for the first time in school history. The Raven Jazz I ensemble also qualified as a finalist in the 2021 Essentially Ellington competition by Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Debate and forensics

In 2007, the team of Alex Parkinson and Jesi Egan won the two-speaker state championship in

policy debate Policy debate is an American form of debate competition in which teams of two usually advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for policy change by the United States federal government. It is also referred to as cross-examinat ...

. Parkinson and Egan also won back-to-back Debate Coaches Invitational titles in 2006 and 2007. Parkinson went on to debate at

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, where he earned numerous honors, including second speaker at the

National Debate Tournament The National Debate Tournament is one of the national championships for collegiate policy debate in the United States. The tournament is sponsored by the American Forensic Association with the Ford Motor Company Fund. History of the NDT Th ...

in 2011. At the 2014

NSDA The National Speech and Debate Association is an American student debating society. It was established in 1925 as the National Forensic League; the name was changed in 2014. It is one of four major national organizations that direct high school ...

National Tournament, senior Alaina Walberg was named the Phyllis Flory Barton Top Speaker in policy debate. As of May 14, 2018, Olathe Northwest is ranked third in Kansas and 27th in the nation for

speech Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...

and

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

Orchestra

The Olathe Northwest Orchestra program is split into three separate orchestras: the Freshmen Orchestra (open to freshmen), the Concert Orchestra (open to sophomores through seniors), and the Chamber/Advanced Orchestra (open to sophomores through seniors by audition). The Olathe Northwest Orchestra has four major performances in each school year. The members have also traveled and performed in

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, the Disney Festival at the

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, and the

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Notable alumni

Willie Cauley-Stein Willie Trill Cauley-Stein (born Willie Durmond Cauley Jr.; August 18, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League. He played college basketball with the Kentucky Wildcats. He previously ...

, professional basketball player for the

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Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

, and

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

Shavon Shields Shavon O'Day Shields (born June 5, 1994) is an American-Danish professional basketball player for Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketba ...