Springville High School is one of the two

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 ...

s that serves and is located in Springville,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States.

Mascot

Springville High School's

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, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

is" Red Devils". Two incorrect versions of the origin of the mascot name have been proposed. One of those is based on a 1936 report in the local paper (The Springville Herald) that is based on an individual's memory not consistent with historical fact. The first reference in the press to anything resembling "Red Devils" dates back to 1923 during a tournament of state basketball champions from several western states, where the Springville starters were said to have "played like demons". Springville had won the state basketball championship in 1917 and again in 1923. The earliest use of the "Red Devil" moniker occur in Springville Herald reports of the 1926 Springville High football season. The second incorrect story is often circulated that the mascot name comes from the original construction of the school, when the Red Devil Cement Company allegedly assisted with the building, including an actual cement bag with the Red Devil Cement logo on it that can be found in one of the display cases in the high school. The mascot has come under fire multiple times, the most recent opposition occurring when some local citizens organized a committee called "Parents for Mascot Review". One stated issue is that a devil is a symbol of evil; another is the racial connotations. In a letter to Nebo School District, the president of the Navajo Nation stated that "the use of the term 'Red Devils' lends or conveys the immediate opinion of assertion of offensive racial commentary."https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91676&page=1 Utah Town Sees No Evil in Devil Mascot

Athletics

Springville High school has done well in many sports. The Red Devils have posted region championships in girls' tennis, girls' cross country, girls' soccer, boys' golf, volleyball, boys' swimming, boys' cross country, football, and girls' basketball. The Red Devil swim team won back-to-back boys' 4A state championships in 2008 and 2009. The championships of 2008 and 2009 mark the first time a boys' team of any sport at SHS has won back-to-back titles. The boys' basketball team won the 2017 4A basketball championship, under Coach Justin Snell, for the first time since 1958. In 2020, the boys' basketball team won the 5A state, Coach Snell's second title in four years. The girls' basketball team was 5A runner up. In 2021 the girls team snatch the 5A state title. In 2017, the boys' track team won the 4A state title and followed by the 5A title in 2018. In 2016, the Springville High School Boys Cross Country won the at large bid to go to the prestigious Nike Cross National race. The team ended up placing 15th overall. The following year the team placed 5th at the race. The cross country team has seen a lot of success in recent years with Head Coach Samantha Smith. In 2017 the boys' team won the 5A state championship; the first time Springville High School Boys ever won a cross country state championship title. The girls' team won the 5A state title in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. They qualified to compete at the Nike Cross Virtual -the COVID-19 substitute for Nike Cross National. The team ended up placing 5th overall. In the 2019, 2020, and 2021 region eight Cross Country meet, Springville “swept” the meet by winning first place in all the races. Coach Smith has five cross country state titles from the past five years. Springville High School's marching band has also won many competitions.

Notable alumni

Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including '' The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), '' An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...

, animator, film producer and director * William R. Bradford, General Authority of the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

* George Dewey Clyde,

Governor of Utah A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

* Creed Haymond (1893–1983), Olympic and world-record track athlete * Eli Herring, of the

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 ...

* Bryan Johnson, founder of Braintree,

OS Fund OS Fund is an American venture capital fund that invests in early-stage science and technology companies. Firm Bryan Johnson created OS Fund in October 2014, a year after selling Braintree to eBay for $800 million. He devoted $100 million fr ...

and

Kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learn ...

Wendell B. Mendenhall Wendell Bird Mendenhall (September 26, 1907 – September 14, 1978) was the head of the Church Building Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and one of the moving forces behind the Labor Missionary program of ...

, the "father" of the

Polynesian Cultural Center The Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) is a family-centered cultural tourist attraction and living museum located in Laie, on the northern shore of Oahu, Hawaii. The PCC is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), wa ...

* Scott Mitchell, of the National Football League * Roger Reid, college basketball coach (BYU, Snow College, Southern Utah University) and NBA assistant coach (Phoenix Suns)

References

Utah High School Activities Association Records; 1923-03-16 Provo Daily Herald , , Page 1 https://www.deseret.com/platform/amp/2019/10/23/20926407/high-school-cross-country-farmington-boys-springville-girls-claim-5a-state-titles https://www.heraldextra.com/sports/high-school/cross-country/springville-girls-cross-country-earns-team-title-gardner-races-to/article_e89eb675-575a-5054-b033-c724f1127481.html

External links

*
Nebo School District
website {{authority control Public high schools in Utah Schools in Utah County, Utah 1902 establishments in Utah Educational institutions established in 1902 Buildings and structures in Springville, Utah

Mascot

Athletics

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links