Shawnee Mission Northwest High School is a fully accredited public high school located in

Shawnee, Kansas Shawnee is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States. It is the seventh most populous municipality in the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 67,311. History Territory of Kansas Before ...

, United States, serving students in grades 9-12. It is one of five high schools operated by Shawnee Mission USD 512 school district. The school colors are orange, black, and white. The school population is approximately 1,850 students. The current principal is Lisa Gruman. Shawnee Mission Northwest was founded in 1969 in order to help educate the increasing number of students due to the emerging population of Shawnee Mission. The school launched the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

program at the start of the 2008–2009 school year. Shawnee Mission Northwest is a member of the

Kansas State High School Activities Association The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) is the organization which oversees interscholastic competition in the U.S. state of Kansas at the high school, high-school level. It oversees both athletic and non-athletic competition, ...

and offers a variety of sports programs. Athletic teams compete in the 6A division and are known as the "Cougars".

History

Shawnee Mission Northwest High School was established in 1969 to help educate the increasing populations of Shawnee and Overland Park, Kansas. In 1998, a mural of evolution was painted near the science rooms in the school which created controversy throughout the school and the city. The mural depicted many things including DNA, cells,

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

, and a

four chambered heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

. In addition to this, the mural also depicted in a series of walking figures, the evolution of man, from a hunched-over, hairy, apelike creature to the modern man. The mural offended many students and their parents and a large debate was held concerning whether to paint over the mural. In the end, the mural was left alone and remains today.

Academics

In 2001, Shawnee Mission Northwest High School was selected as a

Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

. The Blue Ribbon Award recognizes public and private schools which perform at high levels or have made significant academic improvements. In 2008, Shawnee Mission Northwest launched the

program for the 2008–2009 school year.

Faculty

In 2004, history teacher Dan Fullerton was named the 2004 Kansas Outstanding Teacher of American History by the Kansas Society Daughters of the American Revolution. In 2005, social studies teacher Ron Poplau was named a Disney Teacher Award Honoree.

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

The Cougars compete in the Sunflower League and are classified as a 6A school, the largest classification in Kansas according to the

KSHSAA The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) is the organization which oversees interscholastic competition in the U.S. state of Kansas at the high-school level. It oversees both athletic and non-athletic competition, and sponsors ...

. Throughout its history, Shawnee Mission Northwest has won many state championships in various sports. Many graduates have gone on to participate in Division I, Division II, and

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

athletics. Spanning from 1994 to 2007, the Northwest boys varsity

cross-country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

team won the state title for fourteen consecutive years and nineteen years overall.

State Championships

School newspaper and yearbook

The school newspaper is ''The Northwest Passage'' and the yearbook is ''The Lair''. The ''Passage'', ''Lair'', and the journalism website have received national recognition at journalism conventions across the country, including awards like the Crown Award from the

Columbia Scholastic Press Association The Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) is an international student press association, founded in 1925, whose goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchang ...

and Pacemaker awards from the National Scholastic Press Association.

Notable alumni

* 1976 graduate

Craig Bolerjack Bolerjack in 2009. Kyle Craig Bolerjack (born May 16, 1958) is an American sportscaster. He is currently calling Utah Jazz telecasts on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain with Thurl Bailey. He also calls games for CBS, ESPN, and CBS College Sports ...

, sport commentator * 1978 graduate

Willie Fritz Willie Fritz (born April 2, 1960) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Tulane. Fritz served as the head football coach at University of Central Missouri from 1997 to 2009, Sam Houston State University ...

, Head Football Coach

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

* 1988 graduate

Sean Wheelock Sean Wheelock (born 1974) is a mixed martial arts and soccer commentator based in Shawnee, Kansas. He served as the commentator for the M-1 Challenge and served as the play-by-play television commentator for Bellator Fighting Championships from ...

, sports commentator * 1997 graduate Holly Lou Teeter, United States District Judge * 2000 graduate

Ryan Lilja Ryan Matthew Lilja (born October 15, 1981) is a former American football center and guard. He played college football at Kansas State, and signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent in 2004, and later played with them from 2010 ...

, former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

for the

Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as c ...

in college then professionally for

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

and

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

* 2004 graduate

Kyle Vogt Kyle Vogt is an American engineer, entrepreneur, technology executive and robotics pioneer. In 2013, Vogt founded Cruise Automation, where he currently serves as the company's President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Cruis ...

, founder of

Justin.tv Justin.tv was a website created by Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt in 2007 to allow anyone to broadcast video online. Justin.tv user accounts were called "channels", like those on YouTube, and users were encouraged to br ...

and founder and current CEO of

Cruise Automation Cruise LLC is an American self-driving car company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2013 by Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan, Cruise tests and develops autonomous car technology. The company is a largely-autonomous subsidiary of G ...

* 2004 graduate Mike Rivera, former linebacker for the

Kansas Jayhawks The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division I. The Jayhawks are also a mem ...

, played professionally for five

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

teams * 2004 graduate

Ryan Torain Ryan Devon Torain (born August 10, 1986) is a former American football running back. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He played college football at Arizona State University. He has also played for ...

, former running back for the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member o ...

, played professionally for three

teams * 2008 graduate

Alex Carder Alex Carder (born October 22, 1989) is an American football quarterback for the West Michigan Ironmen of American Arena League. He was signed as a free agent by the Detroit Lions of the National Football League. He was formerly the starting quar ...

, former quarterback for the

Western Michigan Broncos The Western Michigan Broncos are a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I program representing Western Michigan University (WMU) in college athletics. They compete in the Mid-American Conference in men's baseball, basketball ...

, plays professionally for the

Portland Thunder The Portland Steel were a professional arena football team based in Portland, Oregon and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team started as the Portland Thunder, joining the AFL in 2014 as an expansion team along with the Los Ange ...

in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

References

External links

*
USD 512 School District Boundary Map
KDOT {{Authority control Education in Overland Park, Kansas Schools in Johnson County, Kansas Public high schools in Kansas Educational institutions established in 1969 1969 establishments in Kansas