Santa Ynez Valley Union High School (SYHS) 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 ...

Santa Ynez, California Santa Ynez (; Spanish for "St. Agnes") is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California. The town of Santa Ynez is one of the communities of the Santa Ynez Valley. It features the Santa Ynez Airport ...

that serves students in grades 9–12 in the

Santa Ynez Valley The Santa Ynez Valley is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north. The Santa Ynez River flows through the valley from east to west. The Santa Ynez Valle ...

. As of the 2017–18 school year, 908 students were enrolled at the school.

History

Santa Ynez High School was founded in 1896 and was originally located on Pine Street in Santa Ynez, now the site of Santa Ynez Elementary School. The original high school burned down in 1908, and its current facilities were built in 1937. In 2005, the school was named a

California Distinguished School California Distinguished School is an award given by the California State Board of Education to public schools within the state that best represent exemplary and quality educational programs. Approximately 5-10% of California schools are awarded t ...

Academics

SYHS offers

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

(AP) classes, with 41% of students participating. The school formerly participated in the

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into ...

, but withdrew from the program in 2009.

Athletics

Santa Ynez Valley Union High School athletic teams are nicknamed the Pirates. The school is a member of the

CIF Central Section The California Interscholastic Federation—Central Section (CIF-CS) is the governing body of high school athletics in the central and southern portions of the San Joaquin Valley, the Eastern Sierra region, and as of the 2018/9 season, San Luis O ...

and began competing in the

Mountain League A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

starting in 2022. Prior to that, SYHS was a member of the

CIF Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF ...

and the now defunct

Los Padres League The Los Padres League was a high school athletic conference in California that was part of the CIF Southern Section (CIF-SS). Member schools were located in San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties. The league was dissolved in 2018 afte ...

. Despite only being formed in 1992, the Santa Ynez boys' volleyball program qualified for the CIF-SS playoffs 29 years in a row and set CIF records with 19 consecutive league championships, 208 straight league wins, and four straight CIF-SS titles. In 2019, the SYHS girls' track and field team captured the Channel League title after a perfect season.

Notable alumni

Jan Barrett Jan Michael Barrett (November 13, 1939 – October 7, 1973) was an American college and professional football player. He played college football at California State University, Fresno, where he was an offensive end. He was signed by the Green Bay ...

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

offensive end with

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

Don Milan Don Milan is a former quarterback in the National Football League. He spent five seasons in the NFL. In his fifth year, with Green Bay, Milan was briefly the Packers' starting quarterback when head coach Dan Devine made a much-publicized midseaso ...

, NFL quarterback with

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

Brian Asselstine Brian Hanly Asselstine (born September 23, 1953) is a former professional baseball player. He played all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball, from 1976 until 1981, for the Atlanta Braves, primarily as an outfielder. Asselstine was born ...

, MLB outfielder with

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

* Matt McKinney, AVP

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 ...

pro/vintner *

Thor Nis Christiansen Thor Nis Christiansen (28 December 1957 – 30 March 1981) was a Danish-American serial killer and necrophile from Solvang, California. He committed his first three murders in late 1976 and early 1977, killing young women of similar appearance ...

, convicted serial killer * Mark Andrews, filmmaker

References

External links

* {{authority control High schools in Santa Barbara County, California Public high schools in California Santa Ynez Valley 1896 establishments in California