Valley Christian High School (VCHS) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

high school located in

Cerritos, California Cerritos (Spanish for "Little hills") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and is one of several cities that constitute the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. It was incorporated on April 24, 1956. As of 20 ...

. It is one of the largest in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and Orange Counties. It was founded in 1935 and is part of Valley Christian Schools, a school system with 4 campuses (preschool, elementary, middle and high school) enrolling more than 1300 students. In 2011, during its accreditation reviews, it received the highest degree of commendation from the

Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing School accreditation, accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary school, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, ...

. Valley Christian Schools is a member of

Christian Schools International Christian Schools International (CSI) is a nonprofit education organization and was established in 1920. Christian Schools International provides services to Protestant schools in accreditation, curriculum and instruction, employee benefits (insur ...

(CSI) and the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI).

Academics

97% of VCHS graduates continue on to college. VCHS graduates who are accepted to

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

schools have the highest

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...

scores of any Protestant,

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, or

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

high school in L.A. and Orange County. In 2013 VCHS students had an 81% pass rate (3 or higher) on

AP exams Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curriculum, curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement ...

compared to a National average of 58%. Valley Christian offers 20 AP and Honors courses.

Athletics

Valley Christian is current a member of the Olympic League of the

CIF Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF ...

. VCHS teams have won 200 league championships and 30

CIF Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries. Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in competit ...

state titles (and another three state runners-up). In 2011 the soccer team was ranked by ''USA Today'' as the #1 team in America. Nearly 60% of students participate in school athletics. The Girls Volleyball team has won a national championship.

Notable alumni

* John Verhoeven (Class of 1971) - Former

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), ...

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 ...

and head baseball coach at

Biola University Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor's ...

Greg Laswell Greg Laswell (born April 26, 1974) is an American musician, recording engineer, and record producer from San Diego, California. He attended high school at Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California. He has released 7 studio albums: '' ...

(Class of 1992) - musician *

Kirk Saarloos Kirk Craig Saarloos (born May 23, 1979) is an American baseball coach and former pitcher, who is the current head baseball coach of the TCU Horned Frogs. He played college baseball at Cal State Fullerton for coach George Horton from 1999 to 2001 ...

(Class of 1997) - Former

for the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

Oakland A's The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

, and

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

Arthur Chu Arthur Chu (born January 30, 1984) is an American columnist and former contestant on ''Jeopardy!'', a syndicated U.S. game show. Chu first became known for the unusual style of play he adopted during his eleven-game winning streak on ''Jeopardy ...

(Class of 2002) - Class valedictorian,

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...

contestant in from January 28, 2014 – March 12, 2014. Third-ranked Jeopardy champion of all time both in wins and money won. *

Beau Bennett Beau Daniel Bennett (born November 27, 1991) is an American former professional ice hockey right winger. He last played with the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract with the Arizona Coyotes of the Nationa ...

(Class of 2010, transferred out) -

National Hockey League 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 ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for the

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...

. Highest-drafted Californian born-and-trained player in NHL history, and first California born-and-trained player to become a Stanley Cup Champion (2016). *

Troy Van Leeuwen Troy Van Leeuwen (born January 5, 1970) is an American musician and record producer. He is best known as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist in the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, with whom he has recorded four studio albums. Joining the b ...

(Class of 1986) - Musician * Crystal Rosenthal (Class of 1996) - Head Softball Coach

Concordia University Irvine Concordia University Irvine is a private Lutheran university in Irvine, California, United States. It was established in 1976 to provide a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod college to serve the Pacific Southwest and provide training for pastors, ...

References

External links

Valley Christian High School website
{{authority control Christian schools in California Private elementary schools in California Educational institutions established in 1935 High schools in Los Angeles County, California Private high schools in California Private middle schools in California 1935 establishments in California