Spain Park High School (SPHS) is a four-year

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 sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

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

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, suburb of Hoover. It is the smaller of two high schools in the Hoover City School System. School colors are Carolina blue, black, and white, and the athletic teams are called the

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

s. SPHS competes in

AHSAA The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA), based in Montgomery, is the governing body for interscholastic athletics and activities programs for public schools in Alabama. The AHSAA is a member National Federation of State High School ...

Class 7A athletics.

Recognition

SPHS is consistently recognized as one of the best high schools in Alabama: * SPHS is one of 12 schools in Alabama to be included in the ''Washington Post'''s 2015 list of America's Most Challenging High Schools. * SchoolDigger ranks SPHS 8th among 365 high schools in the state of Alabama and 3rd among high schools in the

Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area The Birmingham metropolitan area, sometimes known as Greater Birmingham, is a metropolitan area in north central Alabama centered on Birmingham, Alabama. , the federal government defines the Birmingham–Hoover, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area ...

. * Niche ranks SPHS 4th in the state of Alabama and 3rd among high schools in the

. * The

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

has recognized SPHS as a

National 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, ...

and awarded it the National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Award.

Student Profile

Enrollment in grades 9–12 for the 2019-20 school year was 1,634 students. Approximately 61% of students are white, 20% are African-American, 6% are Asian-American, 8% are Hispanic, and 5% are multiracial. Roughly 18% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. SPHS has a graduation rate of 92%. Ninety-eight percent of its students meet or exceed proficiency standards in both reading and mathematics. The average ACT score for SPHS students is 24.

Athletics

SPHS competes in AHSAA Class 7A athletics and fields teams in the following sports: * Baseball * Basketball * Bowling * Cheerleading * Cross Country * Dance * Football * Golf * Indoor Track & Field * Lacrosse * Outdoor Track & Field * Soccer * Softball * Swimming and Diving * Tennis * Volleyball * Wrestling SPHS has won state championships in the following sports: * Lacrosse (2011, 2012, 2015, 2016) * Baseball (2014) * Boys' golf (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016) * Girls' golf (2009, 2017) * Boys' indoor track and field (2012) * Girls' soccer (2004, 2009, 2010, 2011) * Boys' tennis (2007) * Boys' bowling (2016, 2017) * Girls' basketball (2018) Spain Park's football team was shown on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's television program ''

Two-A-Days ''Two-A-Days'' is an MTV reality show that chronicled the lives of teens at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of nearby Birmingham. It focused on the members of the school's highly rated Hoover Buccaneers football team during the ...

,'' as an opponent of arch-rival Hoover High.Two-A-Days at MTV.com
/ref> The team also advanced to the "Super Six" Class 6A final game of the

Alabama High School Athletic Association The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA), based in Montgomery, is the governing body for interscholastic athletics and activities programs for public schools in Alabama. The AHSAA is a member National Federation of State High School ...

football championship in 2007, losing to defending champion

Prattville High School Prattville High School, formerly Autauga County High School, is a high school in Prattville, Alabama, United States. It forms part of the Autauga County School System. In 2010, it had an enrollment of 2,109 students and a faculty of 103 teachers i ...

(which defeated Hoover in the 2006 finals).

Notable alumni

* Simone Charley –

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

player for the Portland Thorns * Chris Ellis –

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), ...

player. *

Tyler Grisham Tyler Grisham (born June 11, 1987) is an American football coach and former wide receiver who is currently the wide receivers coach at Clemson University. College career Grisham played college football at Clemson from 2005 to 2009. He finishe ...

–

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 ...

player for the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

–

player for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

Nick Mullens Nicholas Clayton Mullens (born March 21, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Southern Miss, where he surpassed Brett Favre's single-season r ...

–

player for the Las Vegas Raiders

References

External links

SPHS website
{{authority control Public high schools in Alabama Educational institutions established in 2001 Hoover, Alabama Schools in Shelby County, Alabama 2001 establishments in Alabama