West Florida High School of Advanced Technology is a magnet high school located in

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

. It is part of the

Escambia County School District The Escambia County School District (ECSD) is the organization responsible for the administration of public schools in all of Escambia County, Florida, in the United States. The district currently administers 35 elementary schools, nine middle sch ...

. West Florida High School of Advanced

Technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

opened in August 2001 with 324 ninth graders. Today, the enrollment is 1,280

students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementary ...

, ninth through twelfth grade.

Technical fields

* Academy of Information Technology * Aerospace Engineering * Agriscience Technology * Biomedical Sciences * Civil Engineering and Architecture * Cox Telecommunications * Criminal Justice * Critical Care & Emergency Medicine * Energy Academy * Multimedia * Pre-Professional Nursing * Sports Medicine WFHS is on a modified block schedule. On even calendar days, even numbered classes meet. On odd calendar days, odd numbered classes meet. The one exception is that 7th period meets every day for a shorter amount of time. Seniors may elect to participate in the A.C.E. program, which allows students to get on the job training while getting paid by participating in internships.

Capstone

Each student completes a Capstone project—a display of comprehension and mastery of a given field that focuses on a field-related topic. The project is separated into three parts: * technical paper * product or project-related community service * presentation with visual aides This Capstone project is completed during the 11th grade year only.

Athletics

West Florida High provides many

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

such as

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

cross-country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

, track and field,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, swimming, weightlifting, lacrosse, tennis and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

. With the first new sport addition in the last few years, lacrosse has been made an official sport for both boys and girls in the 2014–2015 school year. The West Florida softball team brought the school its first team state championship in the 2013–2014 year. In the 2011 - 2012 year, the Jaguars Freshman football team went 9–1, claiming the district championship. The 2013 - 2014 team fell just short of another district championship. After being ranked No. 1 in the state for a few weeks to start the season, the team lost to the then No. 2 ranked Catholic High. They still made the playoffs, but they were thwarted by Catholic again with an overtime loss in the second round of the playoffs. They did beat Tallahassee Godby in the first round, which was a major accomplishment considering the fact that Godby had knocked them out of the playoffs the previous two years. In the 2016 - 2017 school year, the Freshman and Junior Varsity football teams went undefeated, along with a 6–2 record for Varsity. Girls' soccer has also won consecutive district titles in 2012 and 2013. Boys' soccer won its first district championship in 2018 after defeating Choctawhatchee 2–0 in the District 1-3A Championship game. West Florida also knocked off #2 in the state Gulf Breeze High School in the district semifinal with a score of 2–0, and Pensacola High 5–0 in the opening round of the tournament.

Arts and other activities

WFHS also added a

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...

for the 2010–2011 school year. Known as the Sound of the Jags, they are now led by Justin Mozina. During 2007–2008, in only its ninth year in existence, WFHS served as the President school of the Florida Association of Student Councils. Since then, the Student Government Association has earned a Gold Medallion every year. The organization's main project for 2016–2017 involves a local nursing home, Bayside Manor. All SGA members volunteer there for four hours per nine weeks.

Online presence

West Florida High School's Student Government Association (SGA) hosts an Instagram and Twitter page to "update and notify students of current/future school news and events." Similarly, yearbook club spreads information relating to yearbook orders and pickup via their Instagram page. Other arts courses, sports teams, and clubs use social media, including Key Club, HOSA Club, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, and more.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:West Florida High School Of Advanced Technology Escambia County School District High schools in Escambia County, Florida Educational institutions established in 2001 Public high schools in Florida Magnet schools in Florida 2001 establishments in Florida