Wilkes Central High School is a public

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 ...

(grades 9–12) located in

Moravian Falls, North Carolina Moravian Falls (formerly, Petersburg and Forks of the Road)* is a census-designated place (CDP) in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,802 as of the 2020 census. Geography Moravian Fal ...

. It is a part of the Wilkes County Schools system. The school's enrollment is typically around 1,000 students. The school's district includes the towns of Wilkesboro and

North Wilkesboro North Wilkesboro is a town in Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States, approximately 80 miles north of Charlotte. The population was 4,131 at the 2020 US Census. North Wilkesboro is the birthplace and original home of Lowe's Home Improvemen ...

as well as the southern regions of Wilkes County. The current principal of the school is Dr. Dion Stocks. Wilkes Central has the largest enrollment of Wilkes County's four public high schools.

History

Wilkes Central High School was formed in 1951, from a merger of Wilkesboro High School and North Wilkesboro High School. The school's first campus was located on the southern bank of the

Yadkin River The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in North Carolina, flowing . It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, po ...

in Wilkesboro, the county seat. In 1981 the school moved to a new, hilltop campus in the community of

Moravian Falls Moravian Falls is a waterfall in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Geology The waterfall is located on Moravian Creek, where it flows over a large bedrock to a lower plunge pool. Natural history The falls is privately owned by a campground who ha ...

, located just south of Wilkesboro, overlooking the Brushy Mountains. In 1965 Wilkes Central became the first high school in Wilkes County to be racially integrated; that year several students from Wilkes County's all-black high school (called Lincoln Heights) began attending Wilkes Central.

Academics

A normal school day consists of four 90-minute blocks with two 30 minute lunch periods after second block, also known as "Smart Lunch" The school offers career preparation classes and college preparation classes. It offers Honors

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, English, and

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

courses. Wilkes Central also offers

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

courses in subjects such as History,

Calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...

and English. The language department offers courses in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, and French. Wilkes Central is fully accredited by the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...

, also known as SACS. The school yearbook is called ''The Golden Eagle''; the school newspaper is called ''The Talon''.

Athletics

Wilkes Central's sports mascot is the

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

. Wilkes Central is a member of the

North Carolina High School Athletic Association 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 ...

and is classified as a 2A school. The school is a member of the Mountain Valley Athletic Conference, which includes 1A and 2A schools from Wilkes County and neighboring counties in North Carolina. The school's colors are

forest green At right is displayed the color forest green. ''Forest green'' refers to a green color said to resemble the color of the trees and other plants in a forest. This web color, when written as computer code in HTML for website color display, is w ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

State Championships

* 2A Women's

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Team State Champions (2002) * 2A Men's

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 ...

State Champions (2005) * 2A Women's Basketball State Champions (2015) * 2A Men's Golf State Champions (2016) *Many Individual Men and Women Cross Country and

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

State Champions

Notable alumni

Zach Galifianakis Zachary Knight Galifianakis (born October 1, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He appeared in ''Comedy Central Presents'' special and presented his show ''Late World with Zach'' on VH1. Galifianakis has starred in films including ''Th ...

, (born 1969), actor and stand-up

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

Deneen Graham Deneen Zezell Graham Kernsis a dance teacher and pageant contestant from North Carolina. In 1983 she became the first African-American to win the Miss North Carolina beauty pageant; she remained the only African-American to have won the Miss North ...

, (born 1964), first African-American to win the

Miss North Carolina The Miss North Carolina competition selects the representative for the state of North Carolina to compete in the annual Miss America competition. The competition has been held in Raleigh every year since 1978. Prior to that, it was held in vario ...

beauty pageant * Shirrel Rhoades, (born 1942), former executive vice-president of

Marvel Entertainment Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Enterprises) is an American show business, entertainment company (law), company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, New York (state), New York, formed by the merger of #Marvel Entertainment ...

and publisher of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

John Swofford John Douglas Swofford is an American former college athletics administrator. He served as the athletic director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1980 to 1997 and as the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) f ...

, (born 1948), Commissioner of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) from 1997 to 2021;

Athletic Director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

of the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

from 1980 to 1997. Has also served as the Chairman of the

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...

(BCS) in college football. * William Oliver Swofford (1945–2000), pop singer known as "Oliver", recorded two hit singles in 1969, "

Good Morning Starshine "Good Morning Starshine" is a pop song from the musical '' Hair'' (1967). It was a No. 3 hit in the United States in July 1969 and a No. 6 hit in the United Kingdom in October 1969 for the singer Oliver. The chorus makes extensive use of appar ...

" and "

Jean Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...

"; older brother of John Swofford

References

External links

* {{authority control Public high schools in North Carolina Educational institutions established in 1953 Schools in Wilkes County, North Carolina 1953 establishments in North Carolina