Point Loma High School is a public

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 ...

in the

San Diego Unified School District San Diego Unified School District (formerly known as San Diego City Schools) is the school district based in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1854. As of 2005 it represents over 200 institutions and has over 15,800 employee ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. It is located in the

Loma Portal Loma Portal (from Latin ''porta'' "gate") is a neighborhood in the community of Point Loma in San Diego, California. It is a hilly area northwest of Rosecrans Street and northeast of Nimitz Boulevard, overlooking San Diego Bay. Features Loma Port ...

neighborhood of

Point Loma Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...

. The school serves the neighborhoods of Point Loma and Ocean Beach. Students who live in Mission Hills may choose to attend Point Loma High School as their neighborhood school. Point Loma is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

History

PLHS is the third oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School District. It was dedicated in 1925 as Point Loma Junior-Senior High school, serving grades 7 through 12. There were 386 students at its opening on September 22, 1925. The first principal was Pete Ross and there were 30 teachers. Some San Diegans opposed creating a school in Point Loma, contending it was too far away from town, but school board member Edgar F. Hastings pushed the proposal through. In its early days the school was sometimes referred to as "Hastings' folly". The original three-story high school building was torn down in the 1970s as part of a statewide requirement to make all schools earthquake-safe. It was replaced by multiple two-story buildings. During the 1950s it was converted to a three-year high school with the opening of Richard Henry Dana Junior High School. In 1983 it became a four-year high school. PLHS now draws from six elementary schools serving grades kindergarten through 4, and two middle schools: Dana Middle for grades 5 and 6, and Correia Middle for grades 7 and 8. The school holds the distinction of having produced two major-league baseball pitchers who threw

perfect games Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

David Wells David Lee Wells (born May 20, 1963) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams, most notably the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Nicknamed "Boomer", Wells was considered on ...

and

Don Larsen Don James Larsen (August 7, 1929 – January 1, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher. During a 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched from 1953 to 1967 for seven different teams: the St. Louis Browns / Baltimore O ...

. Only 21 pitchers have thrown perfect games in

Major League Baseball 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), ...

history. Wells also threw a perfect game while a student at PLHS. Wells became the school's head baseball coach starting with the 2014-2015 school year. He had been volunteering as an assistant coach for several years. The team's home field was named David Wells Field in 2010.

Demographics

Point Loma High School is the third largest of 16 high schools in the San Diego Unified School District. It is a four-year, comprehensive high school, serving grades 9–12. It houses a student population of approximately 2000 students who come primarily from the local community. Approximately 35 percent of the student body participates in specialized programs, such as the Voluntary Ethnic Enrollment Program (VEEP), the Choice Program, the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) program, or the Seminar Program.

Academics

Point Loma High School offers a large variety of AP classes, ranging from Music Theory to Physics. Video production is a class offered by Point Loma High that is uncommonly offered in high school, PLHS features a multimillion dollar video production suite unmatched by any other high school in San Diego County.

Athletics

The school's colors are maroon and gold, although football uniform colors are typically unconforming with their traditional colors of a main maroon with an accent of gold. The mascot is the Pointer Dog. The school offers a variety of men's and women's competitive sports:

Offered

Fall

*Cross country (men and women) *Field hockey (women) *Football (men) *Golf (women) *Marching band (all genders) *Tennis (women) *Volleyball (women) *Water polo (men)

Winter

*Basketball (men and women) *Soccer (men and women) *Water polo (women) *Wrestling (men and women)

Spring

*Badminton (men and women) *Baseball (men) *Competitive cheer (men and women) *Golf (men) *Lacrosse (men and women) *Softball (women) *Swim (men and women) *Tennis (men) *Track & field (men and women) *Volleyball (men)

Club Sports

*Surfing (men and women) *Sailing (men and women)

Awards and championships

Football

The Pointer football team won

CIF Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries. Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in competit ...

championships four times, in 1966, 1982, 1987 and 1991, all during the tenure of football head coach

Bennie Edens Bennie Edens (December 7, 1925 – February 8, 2008) was an American football coach. He was the head football coach at Point Loma High School from 1950 to 1998. He received many individual coaching awards (including NFL High School Coach of the ...

Women's basketball

The Lady Pointers basketball team was a powerhouse at the state level during the late 1980s, capturing the state championship for four straight years, 1984 to 1987. Their victories inspired a graffiti-style mural at the athletic field. Under legendary women's basketball coach Lee Trepanier, known as "Coach T", the Lady Pointers posted an astonishing record of 335 wins and 51 losses between 1977 and 1990.

Sailing

The nationally ranked PLHS sailing team has won the Baker Trophy, the national team-racing championship of the

Interscholastic Sailing Association The Interscholastic Sailing Association also known as ISSA is the organization that serves as the governing authority for all sailing competition between both public and private secondary schools throughout the United States. The organization's he ...

, sixteen times (2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2018), making them the national champions in the sport of sailing. PLHS sailing teams also won the Mallory trophy, the national fleet-racing championship, eight times (1993, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2014, 2017, and 2018), a record unmatched by any other school. In 2003 PLHS Sailor Parker Shinn won the Cressy Trophy, the national singlehanded championship of the ISSA.

Leap of Faith

The school became known among

skateboarders Skateboarding is an action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. ...

for an infamous drop called the "Leap of Faith". This was a drop of 18 feet, 8 inches, consisting of 27 stairs, that had to be approached by an ollie over a railing. Professional skateboarder

Jamie Thomas Jamie Thomas (born October 11, 1974) is an American professional skateboarder and skateboard industry entrepreneur. Thomas is the owner and founder of Zero Skateboards and Fallen Footwear, until he announced its closure in January 2017. Thomas ...

made this spot famous in his filmed attempt to land it; he landed without injury, but his board snapped upon impact. His attempt was included in the Zero video "Thrill Of It All". Another skateboarder, Richard King and several rollerbladers also attempted it, among them Ian Brown, Brian Shima, and Chris Haffey, but no one was successful at landing it completely, and several people broke their legs or ankles in the attempt. The PLHS Leap of Faith was included as part of ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2'' is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the second installment in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series of sports games and was released for the PlayStation in 2000, with subs ...

'' and in a bonus level in

Tony Hawk's Underground ''Tony Hawk's Underground'' is a skateboarding video game and the fifth entry in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series after ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4''. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2003 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, ...

, the skateboarding-based video games. In 2005, the school built an elevator at the site to close it off to skateboarders.

The Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance Company

English teacher Larry Zeiger taught a class in musical theater called “Contemporary voices in literature” from 1977 until his retirement in 2007. In the second semester the students became “The Gotta Sing Gotta Dance Company”, writing and performing an original musical show in which all 100+ students took part. The students were all seniors, and “Zeiger’s show” became a beloved senior-year school tradition during the 31 years of its existence. The 2003 production ''"Sticky Fingers: A Tale of Saks, Lies and Videotape"'', which was inspired by the :Winona Ryder shoplifting incident, received national attention. The Performing Arts Center on campus was renamed the "Larry Zeiger Performing Arts Center" in 2007.

Notable alumni

Jamal Agnew Jamal Agnew (born April 3, 1995) is an American football wide receiver and return specialist for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at San Diego. On September 26, 2021, he tied the NFL rec ...

, NFL wide receiver for The Jacksonville Jaguars *

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, six-time NFL Pro Bowler; Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders; ESPN analyst *

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, actress, nominated for an Academy Award, ''

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'' * John Balaz, Major League Baseball player *

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, CNN business reporter * Graham Biehl, 2008 and 2012 Olympian in men's 470 sailboat *

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, swimmer, first woman to swim

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

in both directions * Bill Cleator, former San Diego City Councilmember, District 2 *

Dennis Conner Dennis Walter Conner (born September 16, 1942) is an American yachtsman. He is noted for winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and three wins in the America's Cup. Sailing career Conner was born September ...

, sailor, four-time winner of

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

Randy Gardner (record holder) Randy Gardner (born ) is an American man from San Diego, California, who set the record for the longest amount of time a human has gone without sleep. In December 1963/January 1964, 17-year-old Gardner stayed awake for 11 days and 24 minutes (26 ...

, holder of world record for longest time a human has gone without sleep *

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, NFL defensive tackle, St Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders, New Orleans Saints *

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, Manson Family member *

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, writer *

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, six-time pro soccer champion with San Diego Sockers; 1981 CIF player of the year *

Ben Hueso Benjamin "Ben" Hueso (born September 2, 1969) is an American politician currently serving in the California State Senate. A Democrat, he represents the 40th Senate District, which encompasses Imperial County and the border regions of San Diego ...

, state legislator *

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-winning

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, Major League Baseball pitcher, pitched only

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

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(1956) * Bill Lowery, former Congressman *

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(1921–2014), surfer and physician *

Briana Provancha Briana Provancha (born April 25, 1989) is an American sailor who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Life Provancha was born in San Diego in 1989. At the age of eight she had begun sailing. She attended Point Loma High School and by the age ...

, Olympic sailor in 2016Point Loma High grad sailing to Rio as an Olympian
Lainie Fraser, SDNews, Retrieved 6 August 2016 * Mark Reynolds, four-time Olympian in sailing with two gold medals and one silver; two-time Star World champion *

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'' *

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, member of rock band

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, creator of Suzy's Zoo line of greeting cards, calendars and cartoons * JJ Stokes, NFL wide receiver, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars *

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musician Nathan Williams *

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in 1998 *

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* Jimmy Wilson, defensive back, Miami Dolphins * Aaron Zigman, songwriter and Hollywood film score composer *

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References

External links

Point Loma High School website

PLHS '75 photo gallery
{{Authority control High schools in San Diego Point Loma High School alumni Point Loma, San Diego Public high schools in California Educational institutions established in 1925 1925 establishments in California