Tuscola High School is a public senior high school located in

Waynesville, North Carolina Waynesville is a town and the county seat of Haywood County, North Carolina. It is the largest town in North Carolina west of Asheville. Waynesville is located about southwest of Asheville between the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains. As ...

, United States, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west-southwest of Asheville. Tuscola High School succeeded the original Waynesville Township High School during the 1966 consolidation that merged Fines Creek and Crabtree High Schools with Waynesville. The school was built in the Tuscola community of East Waynesville, near

Lake Junaluska Lake Junaluska is a census-designated place (CDP) in Haywood County, North Carolina, United States, and a manmade lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lake Junaluska is named after nearby ...

and was named after the community in which it was built. Tuscola is a Cherokee word that means "Digging in Many Places". The school's mascot is a Mountaineer and the school colors are black and gold.

History

On September 30, 1963, the joint boards of education recommended that the schools of Haywood County consolidate. Due to the popular thought that larger schools could provide more opportunities at a more cost-effective price, plans were made to build two senior high schools, one on each side of the county. The construction of these new schools was to be financed by a $2.5 million bond, along with additional state and local funds. In order to make travel more reasonable for residents of Crabtree and Fines Creek, the location of the high school was moved from West Waynesville to an East Waynesville community near Lake Junaluska known as Tuscola. The name for the new high school became an issue for debate. Some wanted to keep the Waynesville name, while others suggested the name "Crabcreek", after the Crabtree and Fines Creek high schools. However, the school was named Tuscola, after the East Waynesville community in which it was built. The Waynesville school colors of black and gold and the Mountaineer mascot were both inherited by the new school.

Athletics

A June 8, 2021, conference realignment placed Tuscola in a newly formed Mountain 7 3A athletic conference with East Henderson, Franklin, North Henderson, Pisgah, Smoky Mountain, and West Henderson High Schools.

Football

The Tuscola High School football team won the 1972

NCHSAA The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) is the governing organization of high school athletics in North Carolina, United States. The association maintains the official rule books and governs the officiating standards across ...

Football State Championship. The Tuscola–Pisgah rivalry celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022. The first meeting between Waynesville Township High School and Canton High School took place in 1922.

Marching Band

The Tuscola High School marching band qualified to be a finalist at the Bands of America National Championship in 1982 and 1983.

Notable alumni

Jonathan Crompton Jonathan David Crompton (born July 25, 1987) is a former American football quarterback having briefly been a member of the New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Washington Redskins after being drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the fi ...

, former

NFL 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 major ...

and

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

quarterback *

Stephanie Glance Stephanie Glance is an American basketball coach. Career She was hired as the head women's basketball coach at Columbia University in April 2013. She had spent the previous three years s the head coach at Illinois State University. She was a spe ...

, women's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach * Judy Green,

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 ...

coach *

Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick Brown (born June 21, 1978) is an American college basketball coach. Since 2022, she has been the head coach for the East Tennessee State Buccaneers women's basketball team. Career She was previously the head coach of th ...

, women's college basketball coach *

Joe Sam Queen Joe Sam Queen (born June 18, 1950) is a North Carolina politician and architect. He has served in both the North Carolina Senate and the North Carolina House of Representatives. Political career Queen represented the state's 47th Senate distr ...

, North Carolina

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

(November 18, 2019). Weir, Luke
Joe Sam Queen to run for re-election in 2020
''themountaineer.com''. Retrieved May 20, 2020.

References

History of Tuscola

Tuscola Football History

North Carolina State Volleyball Champions Listing

North Carolina State Golf Champions Listing

External links

Official School Site

TuscolaFootball.com
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1966 Public high schools in North Carolina Schools in Haywood County, North Carolina Tuscola-Pisgah Rivalry 1966 establishments in North Carolina Waynesville, North Carolina