Santa Clara High School is a comprehensive,

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

located in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

, United States. It is one of five

high schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in the

Santa Clara Unified School District The Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) is a public school district in Santa Clara County, California, United States that serves roughly 14,000 students from the cities of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Cupertino. The distric ...

(SCUSD).

History

In 1872, Santa Clara High School opened in the downtown area on the same property as the Santa Clara Grammar School. In 1905, the board of education oversaw the construction of a new building at a different site, and the high school moved the following year. In 1981, rival

Buchser High School Emil R. Buchser High School was a comprehensive, coeducational public high school in Santa Clara, California, United States that served students in grades nine through twelve. It opened in 1957 as the Santa Clara Union High School District's ...

closed, and Santa Clara High School moved to its campus. Because of the influx of former Buchser students into the Santa Clara student body, the school changed its

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

, and

yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of Annual publication, a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually ...

name. Santa Clara High shares a longstanding rivalry with crosstown Wilcox High School.

Swimming

San Jose State University Alumnus

George Haines George Frederick Haines (March 9, 1924 – May 1, 2006) was a competitive swimmer and coach who for twenty-three years coached the highly successful Santa Clara Swim Club which he founded in 1951. He later coached UCLA, Stanford University, ...

formed the Santa Clara Swim Club on campus in 1950. By 1960, seven swimmers from the club had qualified for the Olympics. The success of the club attracted swimmers to the high school. As a result of the club, the original Santa Clara High School was responsible for assembling the most Olympic gold medalists from a single high school.

Notable alumni

Mark Spitz Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the Lists of Olympic medalists#Medalist with most medals by Olympiad, most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympi ...

- 2nd in all-time total golds in any Olympics- Olympic gold medal swimmer *

Margaret Jenkins Margaret Jenkins (born 1942) is a postmodern dance, postmodern choreography, choreographer based in San Francisco, California. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1980 and in 2003, San Francisco mayor, Willie Brown (politician), Willie Brown, declared ...

- pioneer in women's sports/world class track and field/Olympic competitor * Nino Bongiovanni - Major League Baseball outfielder * Joe Bottom - Olympic silver medalist; two-time world record holder; Swimming Hall of Fame *

Donna De Varona Donna de Varona Pinto (née Donna Elizabeth de Varona; born April 26, 1947) is an American former swimmer, Olympic champion, activist, and television sportscaster. Biography Swimming career de Varona attended Santa Clara High School, whose sw ...

- Olympic gold medal swimmer *

- USA, Olympic, and UCLA swimming coach *

Claudia Kolb Claudia Anne Kolb (born December 19, 1949), also known by her married name Claudia Thomas, is an American former competition swimmer, swim coach, two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in four events. Born in Haywood, Califor ...

- Olympic gold medal swimmer *

Mike Garzoni Michael John Garzoni (August 19, 1923July 18, 2007) was an American football offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. He also played for the New York Yankees in the All-America ...

- NFL football guard *

Ken Powell Kendall J. Powell (born c. 1954) is an American businessman. He is the former chairman of General Mills from 2008 to 2017, and chief executive officer (CEO) from 2007 to 2017. Early life and education Powell was born circa 1954 in Denver, Colora ...

- chairman,

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

* Harry Lew - former U.S. Marine *

Don Schollander Donald Arthur Schollander (born April 30, 1946) is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in four events. He won a total of five gold medals and one silver medal at the 1964 and 1968 S ...

- Olympic gold medal swimmer *

Heather Simmons-Carrasco Heather Jean Simmons-Carrasco (born May 25, 1970) is an American competitor in synchronized swimming and Olympic champion. Born in Mountain View, California, she competed for the American team that received a gold medal in synchronized swimming ...

- Olympic gold medalist in synchronized swimming *

Carol Speed Carolyn Ann Stewart (March 14, 1945January 14, 2022), known professionally as Carol Speed, was an American actress, singer-songwriter and author. Speed was best known for her roles in films during the 1970s blaxploitation era, most notably star ...

- actress *Julia Allender - Former Collegiate Basketball Coach *

Gloria Nevarez Gloria Elaine Nevarez (born June 15, 1971)State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905-1995''. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics/ref> is the current commissioner of the Moun ...

(Class of 1989) - Commissioner of

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

and Former Commissioner of

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...

Notes

References

External links

Official site of school
Who’s Who in Santa Clara Unified? - List of notable alumni from the school district
California School Recognition Program
{{authority control High schools in Santa Clara County, California Public high schools in California Education in Santa Clara, California 1872 establishments in California