Stillwater Area High School (SAHS) is a public school located in
Oak Park Heights, Minnesota
Oak Park Heights is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, Washington County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 4,849 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
History
Formerly called simply Oak Park, the city was platted in 18 ...
, United States. It serves as the primary high school for the
Stillwater Area Public School District (834), the oldest public school district in Minnesota.
The current campus was built in 1993 thanks to a 28 million dollar bond that was approved by the citizens of District 834. The previous location is now Stillwater Middle School. (SMS). Students from both SMS and
Oakland Middle School attend Stillwater Area High School. ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' ranked the school #326 in their "List of the 500 Top High Schools in America in 2015."
Stillwater was designed by the architecture firm ATS&R. In 2017, the school completed a $97 million dollar renovation, involving the construction of a new 9th grade wing, a new gym and Pony Activity Center (PAC).
Athletics
The 2016 boys' soccer team finished the season ranked fourth in the nation by ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' on its final Super 25 Expert Rankings.
Notable alumni
*
Thomas J. Abercrombie
Thomas J. Abercrombie (August 13, 1930 – April 3, 2006) was a senior staff writer and photographer for ''National Geographic'', well known for his work on Middle Eastern countries. During his tenure at the Geographic magazine, Abercrombie t ...
—
photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographe ...
, first
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
to reach
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...
*
Glen Perkins
Glen Weston Perkins (born March 2, 1983) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and a television analyst. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins.
He made his major league debut with the Min ...
—
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
for
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...
*
Butch Thompson
Richard Enos "Butch" Thompson (November 28, 1943 – August 14, 2022) was an American jazz pianist and clarinetist best known for his ragtime and stride performances.
Music career
Thompson was born in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, began pl ...
—
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
and
clarinetist
This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet.
Classical clarinetists
* Laver Bariu
* Ernest Ačkun
* Luís Afonso
* Cristiano Alves
* Michel Arrignon
* Dimitri Ashkenazy
* Kinan Azmeh
* Alexander Bader
* Carl Baermann
* ...
*
E.E. Knight —
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
and
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
writer
*
Denis McDonough
Denis Richard McDonough (born December 2, 1969) is an American government official serving as the 11th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs under President Joe Biden since 2021.
McDonough served in the Obama Administration as chief of s ...
— White House Chief of Staff 2013-17 Current
United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs
The United States secretary of veterans affairs is the head of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the department concerned with veterans' benefits, health care, and national veterans' memorials and cemeteries. The secretary is a me ...
.
*
Gordon Klatt — colorectal specialist, founder of
Relay For Life
*
Jessie Diggins
Jessica Diggins (born August 26, 1991) is an American cross-country skier. She and teammate Kikkan Randall won the United States' first ever cross-country skiing gold medal at the Winter Olympics in the team sprint in 2018. At the 2022 Winter Oly ...
— Olympic cross-country skier
*
Patrick Hicks
Patrick Hicks (born 1970 Charlotte, North Carolina ) is an Irish-American novelist, poet, and Writer-in-Residence at Augustana University
Life
From Stillwater, Minnesota, much of his fiction takes place in the Midwest, but his poetry often discus ...
— novelist, poet, and essayist
*
Shura Baryshnikov
Aleksandra Lange "Shura" Baryshnikov (born March 5, 1981) is an American dancer, choreographer, dance educator, and actress.
Early life
Aleksandra Lange Baryshnikov is the daughter of ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and actress Jessica La ...
, dancer/actress
*
Anne La Berge
Anne La Berge (born Palo Alto, California, in 1955) is a flutist, composer and improviser, currently residing in Amsterdam. Her performances bring together a virtuosic command of her instrument, use of microtonal textures and melodies, and an ar ...
— flutist, composer
*
Ben Blankenship
Ben Blankenship (born December 15, 1988) is an American middle distance runner. He is a world record holder as a member of the 2015 USA Distance medley relay team, of which he ran the 1600-meter anchor leg.
Running career Elementary school
Bla ...
— Olympic distance runner
*
Rich Sommer
Rich Sommer (born February 2, 1978) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Harry Crane on the AMC drama series ''Mad Men''. He is also known for his roles in the comedy-drama films '' The Devil Wears Prada'' (2006), ''Celeste and ...
— actor (''
Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its fict ...
'')
*
Chris Maddock
Chris Maddock is an American stand-up comedian from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has released two albums and a DVD on Dan Schlissel's Stand Up! Records, most recently 2020's ''Country Music Legend'', which reached No. 5 on the iTunes comedy char ...
, stand-up comedian
*
Zach Sobiech
Zachary David Sobiech (May 3, 1995 – May 20, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and musician from Lakeland, Minnesota, who was a member of the band A Firm Handshake. The single "Clouds (Zach Sobiech song), Clouds" gained extensive media a ...
, singer/songwriter of "Clouds"
*
Chris Engler, former NBA player
*
Drew Gilbert, MLB outfielder for Houston Astros
*
Austin Murr, MLB outfielder for Detroit Tigers
*
Noah Cates
Noah Cates (born February 5, 1999) is an American professional ice hockey Winger (ice hockey), left wing currently playing for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Cates was drafted 137th overall by the Flyers in the 2017 ...
, NHL winger for Philadelphia Flyers
Notable staff
*
Chris Engler — former
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
player, history teacher
*
Phil Housley
Phillip Francis Housley (born March 9, 1964) is an American professional ice hockey coach and former player. He most recently served an assistant coach for the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2019 to 2022. Housley was th ...
— former
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
player, former head coach of Stillwater hockey team
Controversies
In late 2005, Stillwater Area High School received national attention after student journalists from the School Newspaper ''The Pony Express'' uncovered Joshua Gardner, a registered
sex offender
A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crime ...
posing as British royalty at the school. The journalists who helped uncover the true identity of Gardner were interviewed on
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
,
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
,
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
, and participated in a number of radio and newspaper interviews.
References
External links
''The Pony Express'' (school newspaper)
{{authority control
Public high schools in Minnesota
Educational institutions established in 1993
Schools in Washington County, Minnesota
1993 establishments in Minnesota