William Howard Taft High School is a

public high school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

in the

Northside Independent School District Northside Independent School District is a school district headquartered in Leon Valley, Texas. It is the largest school district in the San Antonio area and the fourth largest in the State of Texas. Northside serves of urban landscape, subur ...

(NISD) of

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. As with all NISD high schools, the school is named for a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

justice, in this case former Chief Justice

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

, who was also the 27th

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

. Taft High School was the fifth NISD high school, and the first outside Loop 1604. It is home to the magnet school

Communications Arts High School Communications Arts High School (commonly Comm Arts or CAHS) is a magnet school in the Northside Independent School District of San Antonio, Texas, United States. The school is consistently rated as one of the top high schools in the nation. Fou ...

which focuses primarily on college readiness and technology. The building was designed by Noonan & Dockery & Noonan & Rogers Architects and was built by the

H.B. Zachry Henry Bartell Zachry (1901–1984), also known as H.B. Zachry and Pat Zachry was the founder and former president and chairman of H.B. Zachry Company, the parent company of Zachry Holdings Inc. and Zachry Construction Corporation. He earned a degre ...

Company. Taft was named a

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

in 1997-98. In 2017, the school was rated " Met Standard" by the

Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

, with a 2-Star Distinction for Academic Achievements in Social Studies and Top 25 Percent Closing Performance Gaps.

Athletics

The Taft Raiders compete in the following sports: *

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 ...

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 ...

* Cross country *

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

* Swimming & diving *

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 ...

Track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

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 ...

Marching Band

The Taft Raider Band has over 190 students from Communications Arts and Taft. The band qualified for the state marching contest in 2014. They participate in Region 29 and Area H UIL competitions.

Taft Raiders football

In December of 2001 the Taft Raiders competed in the 2001 class 5A Division 1 State Championship game. The Taft Raiders faced the Mesquite Skeeters at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio,Texas. But the Taft Raiders would lose to the Skeeters by a final score of 14-13. And the Taft Raiders became 2001 State runner-up. The Taft Raiders year by year results of Texas high school football are below from 1997-2022

Notable alumni

Derek Cecil Derek Cecil (born January 5, 1973) is an American actor. He played the role of Seth Grayson on the Netflix series ''House of Cards'', starred in the short-lived series ''Push, Nevada'' and '' The Beat'', and made several appearances in the series ...

(Class of 1991) — Actor; starred in ''House of Cards'' on Netflix * Otis McDaniel (Class of 2004) — Gold medal winning sprinter specializing in the 100 and 200 meters dashes *

Ike Ofoegbu Ikechukwu Justin (Yitzhak) "Ike" Ofoegbu (born November 9, 1984) is an American-Nigerian former professional basketball player. He is a 2.05 m (6 ft 8.75) tall power forward-center. He played college basketball with SMU. Professional car ...

(Class of 2004) - American-Nigerian

Israeli Premier Basketball League Ligat HaAl ( he, ליגת העל, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is the top-tier level league of professional competition in Israeli club basketball, making it Israel's primary basketball co ...

player *

James Roday James Roday Rodriguez (born James David Rodriguez, April 4, 1976) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He is best known for starring on the USA Network series ''Psych'' as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn S ...

(Class of 1994) — Actor, director, screenwriter; known for USA Network series ''

Psych ''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observ ...

'' *

Haley Scarnato Haley Suzanne Scarnato (born June 15, 1982) is an American singer who was the 8th-place finalist on the sixth season of ''American Idol''. Early years Scarnato was born in San Antonio, Texas to Rose and Anthony Scarnato. She was a young gymnast b ...

(Class of 2000) — Singer; placed 8th on Season 6 of ''American Idol''

References

External links

Taft High School websiteNorthside Independent School District website
High schools in San Antonio Public high schools in Bexar County, Texas Northside Independent School District high schools 1985 establishments in Texas Educational institutions established in 1985 {{Texas-school-stub