Waukesha South High School is one of three

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 located in

Waukesha, Wisconsin Waukesha ( ) is the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Its population was 71,158 at the 2020 census. The city is adjacent to the Village of Waukesha. History The area that ...

. It was opened in 1957 as a southern campus to Waukesha High School, then in downtown Waukesha. The downtown campus is now Les Paul Middle School - Central Campus.

History

Waukesha South High School Shooting

On December 2, 2019, a school shooting took place in which a student armed with a pellet gun was wounded by a

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

Heavy Police Presence at Waukesha South

On December 2–3, 2021, almost two weeks after the Waukesha Christmas Parade Tragedy, there was a heavy police presence at Waukesha South due to physical altercations between students. This situation was immediately responded by school faculty and administration, as well as the Waukesha Police Department. In addition to the police presence on Friday, there was also a staggered evacuation at

Waukesha West High School Waukesha West High School is one of three public high schools located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The high school was established in 1993. History Email threat and subsequent evacuation On December 3, 2021, almost two weeks after the Waukesha Chri ...

due to an online threat to students during the lunch period.

Extra-curricular activities

Waukesha South is one of three schools whose students participate in CORE 2062, a

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

team. The team won the Rookie All Star Award in 2007, the Wisconsin Regional (Milwaukee) in 2008, and the 10,000 Lakes Regional (Minneapolis) in 2010. In 2008, they also won the World Safety Award, the Wisconsin Regional Safety Award, the St. Louis Safety Award, the Entrepreneurship Award, the Website Award, in 2009 they won two Safety Awards, two Quality Awards, and an Animation Award. In 2015 CORE 2062 won regionals twice and made it to the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis. In 2019 they won the Chairman's Award, the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics Competition and attended the world championships in Detroit. Waukesha South's mock trial team won the state championship in 2021 and placed 13th at the National High School Mock Trial Tournament. ''The Blackshirt Student Newspaper'', or ''The Blackshirt'', is an online student-run school newspaper. Founded in 2017 by a couple of students, the student-run publication has gone on to complete interviews with Olympic Athlete Whitney Ashley and Max Temkin, a

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

alumn & cofounder of the popular card game

Cards Against Humanity ''Cards Against Humanity'' is an adult party game in which players complete fill-in-the-blank statements, using words or phrases typically deemed offensive, risqué, or politically incorrect, printed on playing cards. It has been compared to th ...

. The

Academic Decathlon The Academic Decathlon (also called AcDec, AcaDeca or AcaDec) is an annual high school academic competition organized by the non-profit United States Academic Decathlon (USAD). The competition consists of seven objective multiple choice tests, tw ...

team took 3rd place in state competition in 2011 and was 1st among Division 1 schools. Waukesha South's novice debate team placed seventh at state in 2010 and one of its members, Sam Foat, won Top Negative Speaker. South also had a Lincoln-Douglas debater qualify individually. The forensics team had all but one member qualify for state in 2011 and all achieved high honors. In September 2011 South restarted

Key Club Key Club International, also called Key Club, is an international service organization for high school students. As a student-led organization, Key Club's goal is to encourage leadership through serving others. Key Club International is the hig ...

. It is an avid volunteer group throughout the community with about 50 members. They have helped out with many charity events throughout the community including Apple Harvest Festival, Waukesha Artful Bowls, Minooka Mash, and Salvation Army bell ringing. As the school year progresses Waukesha South Key Club plans on having many more volunteer projects ahead. Waukesha South also has a Mock Trial team, which advanced to the State competition in 2019 as the runner-up in their region. They placed third in their region in 2020, but no State competition was held that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In their virtual 2021 season, they had gone undefeated and advanced to the National Mock Trial Championship, where they placed 13th in the country. In the 2022 season, they placed 5th at State after coming 1st in their region.

Athletics

South is a member of the Classic 8 Conference for most athletics. South's boys' swim team won the state championship in 2010, 2011, and 2017, and placed second in 2020. The girls' swim team won the state championships in 2011, 2012, and 2013, and placed third at the state meet in 2009 and second in 2010. Waukesha South's sports include: *Baseball *Basketball (boys and girls} *Cheerleading *Cross country (boys and girls) *Dance team *Diving (boys and girls) *Football *Gymnastics (co-op team with

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

and

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

) *Ice hockey (boys and girls, co-op teams with

and Kettle Moraine (girls) *Lacrosse (boys and girls, co-op team with

and

) *Soccer (boys and girls) *Softball *Swimming (boys and girls, co-op teams with CMH (boys) and Mukwonago (girls) *Tennis (boys and girls) *Track & field (boys and girls) *Volleyball (boys and girls) *Wrestling Waukesha South athletes, coaches, and fans won the Classic 8 Sportsmanship Award in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Bands

Waukesha South's Bands, the Waukesha South Blackshirt Bands, include Concert, Wind & Symphonic, Jazz, Marching, and several ensembles. The band curriculum focuses on music performance and music theory. The bands travel to local, domestic, and international venues. Locations have included Switzerland in 1974; England in 1998; New Orleans, Texas, and Florida in 2009; England, California, and Australia in 2011; and China in 2007.

Orchestras

Waukesha South's Orchestras include two skill levels; Symphony, and Chamber. Both orchestras work together to focus on music theory, performance etiquette and musical technique in solo and ensemble performance. Orchestra performances periodically involve winds, brass, and percussion instruments to create a full symphony orchestra. The string players perform together within the community to boost awareness of the musical program. Community gigs includes partnership performances with the Waukesha Public Library, and an annual Flash Mob on opening night of Downtown Waukesha's Friday Night Live. The full Waukesha South Orchestra performed in collaboration with Milwaukee band, I'm Not A Pilot in May 2015. The full Waukesha South Orchestra and indie rock band played a total of eight original I'm Not A Pilot songs written by band members Mark Glatzel, Adrian Esguerra, Peter Thomas, and Steve Vorass Jr. with orchestral scores arranged by Jim Gray.

Notable alumni

John Anderson John Anderson may refer to: Business *John Anderson (Scottish businessman) (1747–1820), Scottish merchant and founder of Fermoy, Ireland * John Byers Anderson (1817–1897), American educator, military officer and railroad executive, mentor of ...

, former

Green Bay Packer The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the thi ...

and one-time sports announcer on Channel 6-Milwaukee, now FOX 6-Milwaukee *

Frank Caliendo Frank Caliendo Jr. (born January 19, 1974) is an American comedian, actor and impressionist, best known for his impersonations on the Fox Network television series ''MADtv'', and as the in-house prognosticator for ''Fox NFL Sunday''. In 2007 ...

, former ''

MADtv ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series originally inspired by '' Mad'' magazine. In its initial run, it aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009. After a one-off reunion show in 2015 to celebrate the twentiet ...

'' star and

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Will Durst Will Durst (born on March 18, 1952) is an American political satirist. He has been called a modern mix of Mort Sahl and Will Rogers. Early life Durst was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went to 14 different schools before graduating from Wau ...

, political satirist and stand-up comic *

Morgan Hamm Morgan Carl Hamm (born September 24, 1982 in Washburn, Wisconsin) is an American artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. He is an Olympic silver medalist in the Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's artistic team all-around, team compet ...

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

Silver Medalist in gymnastics *

Paul Hamm Paul Elbert Hamm (born September 24, 1982 in Washburn, Wisconsin) is a retired United States, American artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. He is the 2004 Olympic Games, 2004 Olympic all-around champion, a three-time Gymnastics at the Summer Ol ...

Gold Medalist in gymnastics * Erinn Lobdell, TV show contestant on former '' Survivor: Tocantins'' *

Mark Mallman Mark Mallman (born July 20, 1973) is a Minnesota musician, film composer, and memoirist. Since 1998, he has released nine full-length studio albums, ''Happiness'' (2021) being his most recent. Education Mallman graduated from Waukesha South Hi ...

, rock pianist * Kurt Neumann,

Sam Llanas Samuel J. Llanas (born 1961) is an American singer, acoustic guitarist, and songwriter in several rock and roots rock bands active from the 1980s to the 2000s, including BoDeans and Absinthe. Career Llanas was one of the founding members of th ...

, and Bob Griffin of

BoDeans BoDeans is an American rock band formed in Waukesha, Wisconsin. BoDeans came to prominence in the 1980s. The band's sound encompasses multiple rock genres, including roots rock, heartland rock, and alternative rock. The band's biggest hit to da ...

* Gwen Jorgenson, triathlete and Olympic Gold Medalist *

Nik Rettinger Nikolaus Peter "Nik" Rettinger III (born August 1990) is an American political staffer and Republican politician from Waukesha County, Wisconsin. He is a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing Wisconsin's 83rd Assembly district sin ...

, Wisconsin state legislator *

Michelle Thaller Dr. Michelle Lynn Thaller is an American astronomer and research scientist. Thaller is the assistant director for Science Communication at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. From 1998 to 2009 she was a staff scientist at the Infrared Processin ...

, astronomer and assistant director for Science Communication at NASA *

musical group

References

External links

Waukesha South High School
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1957 Public high schools in Wisconsin Schools in Waukesha County, Wisconsin 1957 establishments in Wisconsin