Vero Beach High School (VBHS) is a 9–12 public high school in
Vero Beach
Vero Beach is a city in and the seat of Indian River County, Florida, United States. Vero Beach is the second most populous city in Indian River County. Abundant in beaches and wildlife, Vero Beach is located on Florida's Treasure Coast. It is thi ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, United States that was established in 1925. The school is operated by the
Indian River County School District
School District of Indian River County (SDIRC), also known as Indian River County School District, is a public school district that covers Indian River County, Florida. The district headquarters are in Vero Beach.
Superintendent
The current supe ...
.
The campus of VBHS encompasses approximately , which includes the Freshman Learning Center and main campus areas. The combination of school enrollment and the size of the physical plant make VBHS the largest high school in
Indian River County
Indian River County ( es, Condado de Río Indio, link=) is a county located in the Treasure Coast region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 159,788. Its seat is Vero Beach. It is Florida's 7th richest county ...
. The Freshman Learning Center serves about 750 9th grade students.
History
![Fighting Indian Statue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Fighting_Indian_Statue.jpg)
Vero Beach High School can trace its timeline back to the class of 1905, and a one-room schoolhouse where children of all ages were taught. In 1925, the first official Vero Beach High School opened. It was located about a half-mile north of the current location, where Vero Beach High School's Freshman Learning Center stands today.
After Vero Beach High School moved to its present-day location in 1963, the old high school became Vero Beach Junior High School, and VBHS took on a new official name, Vero Beach Senior High School.
In 1977, the junior high school was becoming insufficient for housing all of the county's junior high schoolers, and was torn down to make way for a new, smaller school, Indian River Middle 8 - the present-day home of the Freshman Learning Center, and soon to become a middle school again, once all the renovations at Vero Beach High School are complete. Prior to the completion of Sebastian River High School in 1994, Vero Beach High School was the only public high school in Indian River County.
Vero Beach High School completed a three-year, $51 million remodeling project in 2009.
Shawn O'Keefe took over for the 2012–2013 school year.
Academics
Vero Beach High School has an AP Program, a Dual Enrollment program with Indian River State College, an Honors program, and regular level classes.
The Dual Enrollment Program is offered with Indian River State College to give students the opportunity to take college-level classes at the college, online, or during the summer. The school also offers career and technical classes.
Athletics
On January 1, 2019, the Vero Beach High School Fighting Indians Band performed in the 2019 London New Year's Day Parade in London. This was the first time the band, in its 90 years existence as of June 2019, had gone overseas to Europe and Internationally traveled. This had also brought some attention to the high school and the city of Vero Beach due to the number of viewers at the parade and on TV. In October 2022, The football team was featured on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's
Today show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
.
Lacrosse Championships
Spanning the period of 2006-2015, the VBHS Girls Lacrosse team won the statewide Lacrosse Championship every consecutive season. This nine year dynasty was unprecedented in the sport and extremely rare when compared across all Floridian high school teams in any sport.
The city honored this dynasty by erecting two signs noting the achievement.
Notable alumni
*
Jade Cargill
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, professional wrestler
*
Alex Cobb
Alexander Miller Cobb (born October 7, 1987), nicknamed Swan, is an American professional baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the fourth round of the 2006 MLB draf ...
, MLB player
*
Dale Dawkins, NFL player
*
Scotty Emerick
Walter Scott Emerick (born July 11, 1973, in Hollywood, Florida) is an American country music artist, known primarily for his work with Toby Keith. In addition to penning several of Keith's singles, Emerick has also written for Sawyer Brown, ...
, country music singer
*
Barry Fanaro, Emmy Award-winning writer
*
Mardy Fish
Mardy Simpson Fish (born December 9, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. He was a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.Fish won six tournaments on the mai ...
, Olympic
silver medal
A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...
-winning tennis player
*
Kenny Holmes, NFL player
*
YNW Melly
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, rapper
*
Alison Mosshart
Alison Nicole Mosshart (born November 23, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, artist, and the lead vocalist for the rock bands The Kills and The Dead Weather. She started her musical career in 1995 with the Florida punk rock band Dis ...
, singer and songwriter, bands The Kills and Dead Weather
*
Zeke Motta
Ezekiel Ranieri Motta (born May 14, 1990) is a former American football safety who played for two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Falcons in the seventh round of the 2013 NFL Draft. H ...
, NFL player
*
Jake Owen
Joshua Ryan Owen (born August 28, 1981), known professionally as Jake Owen, is an American country music singer, songwriter, and actor. Signed to RCA Nashville in 2006, he released his debut studio album, '' Startin' with Me'', that year.
Thi ...
, country music singer
*
Gary Parris
Gary Thomas Parris (born June 13, 1950 in East St. Louis, Illinois), is a former professional American football tight end. He played for three different teams from 1973–1980, including the San Diego Chargers, Cleveland Browns and St. Louis ...
, NFL player
*
Albert Reed, model and ''
Dancing With the Stars'' contestant
*
Priscilla Renea, singer-songwriter
*
Stephen Root
Stephen Root (born November 17, 1951) is an American actor. He has starred as Jimmy James on the television sitcom '' NewsRadio'', as Milton Waddams in the film ''Office Space'' (1999), and provided the voices of Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickl ...
, actor
*
Eric Smith, NFL player
*
Daleroy Stewart
Daleroy Andrew Stewart (born November 1, 1978) is a former American football defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers. He was also a member of the Dallas Desperados of th ...
, NFL player
*
James Stewart, NFL player
*
Bryan Stork
Bryan Stork (born November 15, 1990) is a former American football center. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida State.
In the span of 13 months, Stork was ...
, NFL player
*
Terry Taylor
Paul Worden Taylor III (born August 12, 1955) is an American retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Terry Taylor and for his time as an in-ring performer in National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, and Wo ...
, professional wrestler
*
John Terry
John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the a ...
, actor
References
External links
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Buildings and structures in Vero Beach, Florida
Educational institutions established in 1925
1925 establishments in Florida
High schools in Indian River County, Florida
Indian River County School District
Public high schools in Florida