Buena High School (BHS) is a comprehensive public high school located in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city on the Southern Coast of California and the county seat of Ventura County. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist des ...

, United States. Opened in 1961, it is part of the

Ventura Unified School District The Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) is a school district headquartered in Ventura, California, United States. The district serves students in Ventura and surrounding unincorporated communities of Ventura County including Saticoy, Casit ...

and serves the eastern portion of Ventura.

Athletics

Buena High School athletic teams are nicknamed the Bulldogs. Since 2018, the school has competed in the Pacific View League, a conference affiliated with the

CIF Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF ...

. Previously, BHS was a long-time member of the Channel League. Buena's main rival is Ventura High School, which serves the western half of the city of Ventura.

Girls' basketball

Buena High School girls'

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

team is the most successful team in both wins and winning percentage in California history. The Buena girls' program has won two

California Interscholastic Federation The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have a ...

(CIF) state titles and 14 CIF championship appearances. In a 40 year span, Buena has won 34 Channel League titles. Buena has produced two Parade All Americans, Kelly Greathouse and Courtney Young, along with one

McDonald's All American The McDonald's All-American Game is the all-star basketball game played each year for American and Canadian boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the concl ...

, Courtney LaVere. Alum Teresa Palmisano moved on to play professionally for 12 years, reaching the Euro Cup Finals as well as playing for the

Cleveland Rockers The Cleveland Rockers were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Cleveland, that played from 1997 until 2003. The Rockers were one of the original eight franchises of the WNBA, which started in 1997. The owner was Gordon Gu ...

of the WNBA. The Buena girls' team have eight undefeated regular seasons, most in California.

Music department

The Buena High School music program dates back to the fall of 1961, when Buena first opened its doors for students. Students participating in the Buena Music Department have opportunities to perform in ensembles including Marching Band, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, String Orchestra, Beginning Instruments, Studio 'A' Jazz Band, Lab Jazz Ensemble, Winter Percussion Ensemble, and Winter Colorguard. During the 2012–2013 school year, the Winter Colorguard received a Bronze Medal at the Winter Guard Association of Southern California (WGASC) Championships in the Regional AA Division, having been promoted from the Regional A Division at the beginning of the season. In the 2013–2014 school year, the Wind Ensemble received a Unanimous Superior Rating at an SCSBOA Concert Festival held at

West Ranch High School West Ranch High School is a public high school in the William S. Hart Union High School District located in Stevenson Ranch, California. The school mascot is the Wildcat, and navy blue and gold are the school's official colors. ''The Paw Print'' i ...

in the Spring of 2014. In the 2014–2015 school year, the "Pride of the Gold Coast" set a twelve-year high score in the 3A division in SCSBOA competition. The Wind Ensemble received a Unanimous Superior rating at an SCSBOA festival held at

Santa Susana High School Santa Susana High School is one of four public high schools located in the Simi Valley Unified School District in Simi Valley, California. Built in 1970, the school campus was originally designed as a junior high campus formerly known as Sequoia ...

in the spring of 2015. In the 2015-2016 school year, the marching band qualified for the SCSBOA Championships for the second time in the program's history. The band qualified in first place out of more than thirty 2A division groups and maintained its first-place standing in the finals against eleven other competitors, receiving the first SCSBOA gold medal in the school's history. The final score of 87.3 is the highest score on record for the 2A division in SCSBOA finals competition.

Drama productions

Previous productions include ''

The Nightmare Before Christmas ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American stop-motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increme ...

'' (2004), ''

The Breakfast Club ''The Breakfast Club'' is a 1985 American teen coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. It stars Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. The ...

'' (2005), ''

Moulin Rouge! ''Moulin Rouge!'' (, ) is a 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It follows a young English poet, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and cour ...

'' (2007), ''

To Kill A Mockingbird ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...

'' (2007), and '' Little Shop of Horrors'' (2008). The 2008-09 season included ''

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

'' and ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...

'' as well as student directed

one-act play A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. The 20-40 minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in wri ...

s, a musical revue, an annual short film festival, Red Ribbon Week skits, and the annual "Comedy Shop".

Notable alumni

* Kelsey (Gerckens) Buttitta,

KEYT-TV KEYT-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Santa Barbara, California, United States, serving the Central Coast of California as an affiliate of ABC, CBS, and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) along ...

news anchor and winner of ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...

'' * Owen Bucey, musician, Army of Freshmen and the Calamity *

Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...

, actor and filmmaker (attended but did not graduate) *

Troy Dumais Troy Matthew Dumais (born January 21, 1980) is an American competitive diver from California. Dumais has competed for the United States at four Olympic Games, winning a team bronze medal in the synchronized 3m in 2012. He attended the Universit ...

, 2012 Olympic diving medalist * Aaron Goldberg, musician and filmmaker, Army of Freshmen * Freddy Keiaho, Super Bowl XLI and

Super Bowl XLIV Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champions New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

NFL linebacker with the Indianapolis Colts * Ethan Klein, co-creator of YouTube channel

h3h3Productions h3h3Productions is a YouTube channel hosted by Ethan Klein and Hila Klein, an Israeli-American husband-and-wife duo. The majority of their content consists of reaction videos and sketch comedy in which they satirize internet culture. The ''H3 ...

* Brandon Knight, right-handed pitcher for the

Nexen Heroes The Kiwoom Heroes () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. They are a member of the KBO League. The Heroes play their home games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Gocheok-dong, a neighborhood located in the southwestern part of Se ...

of the Korea Baseball Organization, formerly with the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

and

Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

Zachary Levi Zachary Levi Pugh ( ; born September 29, 1980) is an American actor. He received critical acclaim for starring as Chuck Bartowski in the series '' Chuck'', and as the title character in '' Shazam!'' and its 2023 sequel, as a part of the DC Ex ...

, actor * Donovan Melero, musician and singer-songwriter, Hail the Sun and Sianvar *

Kevin Paffrath Kevin Paffrath (born January 28, 1992; also known as Meet Kevin), is an American YouTuber, landlord, real estate broker, and entrepreneur. He has been a licensed investment advisor since September 2022 but states that he does not give personalize ...

, YouTuber and unsuccessful candidate for Governor of California *

Sami Whitcomb Samantha Allison Whitcomb (born July 20, 1988) is an American-Australian professional basketball player for the Perth Lynx of the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association ( ...

, basketball player *

David N. Weiss David Nathan Weiss is an American screenwriter. He is the screenwriter of ''All Dogs Go to Heaven'' and '' Rock-a-Doodle'' and co-writer of ''The Rugrats Movie'', ''Shrek 2'', ''Clockstoppers'', '' Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'', '' Rugrats in Paris ...

, screenwriter

References

External links

* * * {{authority control Buildings and structures in Ventura, California Educational institutions established in 1961 High schools in Ventura County, California Public high schools in California 1961 establishments in California