Parkway West High School is a

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 ...

comprehensive high school Comprehensive high schools are the most popular form of state school, public Secondary school, high schools around the world, designed to provide a well-rounded education to its students, as opposed to the practice in some places in which examinati ...

Chesterfield, Missouri Chesterfield is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is a western suburb of St. Louis. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,999, . The broader valley of Chesterfield was originally referred to as "Gumbo Flats", derived ...

, US, that is part of the

Parkway School District Parkway C-2 School District, or Parkway Schools, is a public school district serving eight municipalities in western St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The district operates four comprehensive high schools, one alternative high school, f ...

History

Parkway West High School (PWHS) was the second high school built in the Parkway School District; it opened in fall 1968 with grades 10-12. In the 1969–1970 school year, Parkway West Junior High was formed and grades 7-9 were housed in the West Senior building, operating on the same schedule as West Senior. For the 1970-71 school year, West Senior operated as a four-year high school (grades 9-12), with West Junior grades 7 and 8 attending Parkway South Junior High School on a split schedule. Members of the class of 1974 attended school in the West Senior building for five straight years. West Junior opened for the 1971–1972 school year with the new "

open classroom An open classroom is a student-centered learning space design format which first became popular in North America in the late 1960s and 1970s, with a re-emergence in the early 21st century. Theory The idea of the open classroom was that a large ...

" layout. One of the unusual features of PWHS was that for 13 years, under the leadership of principal Al Burr, it operated without any written rules or regulations—only mutual agreements and expectations.

Activities

For the 2013–2014 school year, the school offered 28 activities approved by the

Missouri State High School Activities Association The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) is the governing body for high school activities throughout the state of Missouri. Approximately 580 high schools are members of MSHSAA. The MSHSAA conducts championship-level activi ...

(MSHSAA): baseball, boys' and girls' basketball, sideline cheerleading, boys' and girls' cross country, dance team, field hockey, 11-man football, boys' and girls' golf, girls' lacrosse, music activities, scholar bowl, boys' and girls' soccer, softball, speech and debate, boys' and girls' swimming and diving, boys' and girls' tennis, boys' and girls' track and field, boys' and girls' volleyball, water polo and wrestling. Parkway West students have won several state championships, including: *Baseball: 1996 *Boys' basketball: 1991 *Boys' cross country: 1988, 1990 *Girls' cross country: 1989, 1990 *Girls' golf: 1980 *Boys' soccer: 1986 *Softball: 1988, 1992, 1993 *Boys' volleyball: 2003, 2021 *Water polo: 1984, 2012, 2014, 2021 *Boys' swimming and diving: 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1993 *Girls' swimming and diving: 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1994, 2011, 2020, 2021

Notable alumni

August Busch IV August Adolphus Busch IV (born June 15, 1964) is an American businessman and former CEO of Anheuser-Busch. He was the last of the family to control the company, which was purchased in a hostile takeover in 2008 by InBev. Busch IV was known for ...

, ex-president and CEO of

Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple glo ...

Dillon, D. (2005
''So Where'd You Go to High School?''
p.187, vol. 2, Virginia Publishing. *

Chris Cissell Chris Cissell is an American soccer coach born May 6, 1972, in Dallas, Texas, United States. He is the current Head Coach of the women's soccer team at Grand Canyon University. In 2003 Cissell guided the WJC women's soccer team to the NAIA Nation ...

, head coach of women's

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 ...

at UMKC,

NSCAA The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than 30 ...

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

NAIA Men's National Coach of the Year in 2006 *

Philip S. Davidson Philip Scot Davidson (born August 24, 1960) is a retired four-star admiral in the United States Navy who last served as the 25th commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command from May 30, 2018 to April 30, 2021. He previously served as the comm ...

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

Blaine Gabbert Blaine Williamson Gabbert (born October 15, 1989) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Missouri before leaving early for the 2011 NFL Draft after hi ...

, quarterback for the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

and former quarterback for the

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia fro ...

Matt Korklan Matthew Joseph Korklan (born March 19, 1983), better known by the ring name Matt Sydal, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Prior to signing with AEW, Sydal wrestled in WWE as Evan Bourne, and was ...

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

currently wrestling for

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was so ...

as Matt Sydal *

Pooja Kumar Pooja Kumar is an American actress of Indian descent who works in Tamil, Hindi, and English-language Indian films. After winning Miss India USA in 1995, she pursued a career as an actress and producer. She has appeared in a number of American f ...

, actress and former Miss India USA *

Brian Krolicki Brian K. Krolicki (born December 31, 1960) is an American businessman and politician. He was the 33rd Lieutenant Governor of Nevada, from 2007 to 2015. As the Lieutenant Governor, he presided over the Nevada State Senate, chaired the Commission o ...

, Lieutenant Governor of Nevada *

Lucas May Lucas James May (born October 24, 1984) is an American former professional baseball catcher who played for the Kansas City Royals in Major League Baseball (MLB). May graduated from Parkway West High School in Ballwin, Missouri. From there, he ...

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

in the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

organization *

Stone Phillips Stone Stockton Phillips (born December 2, 1954) is an American television reporter and correspondent. He is best known as the former co-anchor of ''Dateline NBC'', a news magazine TV series. He also has worked as a substitute anchor for ''NBC N ...

, former anchor of

Dateline NBC ''Dateline NBC'' is a weekly American television news magazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasion ...

, and gave the baccalaureate address for the Class of 1983 *

James Rollins James Paul Czajkowski (born August 20, 1961), better known by his pen name of James Rollins, is an American veterinarian and writer of action-adventure/ thriller, mystery, and techno-thriller novels who gave up his veterinary practice in Sacramen ...

(James Czajkowski),

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

best-selling author *

Ken Schrader Kenneth Schrader (born May 29, 1955) is an American professional racing driver. He currently races on local dirt and asphalt tracks around the country while also competing part-time in the ARCA Menards Series, driving the No. 11 Ford for Fast Trac ...

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

racer *

Nikko Smith Osborne Earl "Nikko" Smith Jr. (born April 28, 1982) is a singer-songwriter who was the ninth-place finalist of Season 4 on ''American Idol''. Biography Nikko Smith, the son of Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, is currently working on an alb ...

, singer–songwriter, top 12 in ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' season 4 and son of

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

Hall of Famer

Ozzie Smith Osborne Earl Smith (born December 26, 1954) is an American former professional baseball player. Nicknamed "the Wizard of Oz", Smith played shortstop for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals in Major League Baseball, winning the National ...

* Travis Stork, physician and TV personality most noted for appearing on '' The Bachelor'' season 8 and as host of the syndicated daytime talk show '' The Doctors'' *

Tuc Watkins Charles Curtis "Tuc" Watkins III (born September 2, 1966) is an American actor, known for his roles as David Vickers on ''One Life to Live'', Mr. Burns in '' The Mummy, Bob Hunter on ''Desperate Housewives'', Congressman Roger Harris on ''Black ...

, actor most noted for his role on ''

One Life to Live ''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...

'', also played neighbor Bob Hunter on ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American comedy-drama soap opera television series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Marc Cherry, Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from Octobe ...

'', 2007–2009 * Joe Williams, film critic of the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

References

{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1968 High schools in St. Louis County, Missouri Public high schools in Missouri 1968 establishments in Missouri Buildings and structures in St. Louis County, Missouri