Centennial High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

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 ...

serving

grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also r ...

9- 12 in

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

USA 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 territori ...

. It is part of

Champaign Unit 4 School District Champaign Community Unit School District No. 4 is a unit school district with over 10,000 students and 19 campuses covering Champaign and the villages of Bondville and Savoy in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. It was formed in 1948 fr ...

. As of the 2020–21 school year, it had 1,400 students. The principal is Scott Savage. The school is located next to Jefferson Middle School and Centennial Park.

Curriculum

The school offers a variety of courses, including AP courses in Macroeconomics, English, Calculus AB or BC, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, US History, American Government, and Statistics. In addition, many consumer science and industrial technology courses are offered. The school also offers a Young Adult Program for students 18–21 years of age, which is based at

Parkland College Parkland College is a public community college in Champaign, Illinois. It is part of the Illinois Community College System serving Community College District 505 which includes parts of Coles, Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Iroquoi ...

.Centennial High School
The

student-teacher ratio A student teacher or prac teacher (''practice teacher'') is a college, university or graduate student who is teaching under the supervision of a certified teacher in order to qualify for a degree in education. The term is also often used intercha ...

is 16:1, average for the state.greatschools - Centennial High School
/ref>

Students

The school's student composition includes 26.7% low-income students. 0.7% of student are of limited English proficiency. There is a high school dropout rate of 1.8%. The ethnic background of students includes 38% African-American, 35% White, 11% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 5% Multiracial, and 0.3% Native American.
/ref>

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Centennial competes in interscholastic sports in the Big Twelve Conference (Illinois) of the

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fed ...

(IHSA).

Fall sports

*Cheerleading *Boys cross-country *Girls cross-country *Football *Boys golf *Girls golf *Marching band *Boys soccer *Girls swimming and diving *Girls tennis *Volleyball

Winter sports

*Boys basketball *Girls basketball *Cheerleading *Boys swimming and diving *Wrestling

Spring sports

*Baseball *Girls soccer *Softball *Boys tennis *Boys track and field *Girls track and field The girls tennis team won consecutive Illinois state championships in 1995 and 1996.Illinois High School Association Season Summaries
/ref> The school's basketball team also won their first state championship game in 2009, beating Oswego 61-59. They had a repeat appearance to the state championships in 2010, taking 4th place overall.

Clubs and organizations

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 ...

Color Guard In Military, military organizations, a colour guard (or color guard) is a detachment of soldiers assigned to the protection of Colours, standards and guidons, regimental colours and the national flag. This duty is so prestigious that the militar ...

*Dance Team *Journalism *

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 ...

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 ...

Asian American Association Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

Gender & Sexualities Alliance Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

*Math Team *

Science Olympiad Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school team ...

Board Game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

Club *

Ping Pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Club *Animal Club *

Anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

Club * Scholastic Bowl *

National History Bowl The National History Bee and Bowl (NHBB) are nationwide history quiz competitions for high school, middle school, and elementary students in the United States. International Academic Competitions oversees both NHBB and the comparable Internation ...

WYSE WYSE (970 AM) is a radio station located in Canton, North Carolina, that simulcasts WISE's sports format from Asheville, North Carolina. Owned by the Asheville Radio Group subsidiary of Saga Communications, the station is licensed by the Fede ...

Team *Global Diffusion * Future Physicians of America *Speech Team *Rattle the Stars * CMN Dance Marathon * Thespian Troupe #1043 *Empower In 2011, Centennial High School hosted the inaugural Central Illinois History Bee and Bowl, a history quiz tournament which a team from Centennial also won.

Performance

In 2006, the school was named as one of the top 50 high schools in Illinois, according to the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

. In 2006, students' ACT scores exceeded both the state and national averages by about 2 points. In 2007, the school's scores on the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE) Reading and Math tests exceeded the state averages, with around 60-65% of students meeting or exceeding state standards. Currently, the school is not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Notable alumni

Bonnie Blair Bonnie Kathleen Blair (born March 18, 1964) is a retired American speed skater. She is one of the top skaters of her era, and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, winnin ...

, multiple gold medalist in

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 ...

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marath ...

Katherine Reutter Katherine Reutter-Adamek ( ; born July 30, 1988) is an American short track speed skater. She is a two-time medalist (one silver, one bronze) in the Winter Olympics, 2011 overall world silver medalist and the 2010–2011 overall ISU Short Track ...

, silver and bronze medalist in

Nichole Millage Nichole Ann Millage (born March 27, 1977) is a former American Paralympic volleyballist (she retired in 2021 after the Tokyo Paralympics) and an Environmental Sustainability Specialist at the City of Champaign. Early life Millage was born in Cha ...

, gold medalist & two-time silver medalist in

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

sitting volleyball Sitting volleyball is a form of volleyball for athletes with a disability. As opposed to standing volleyball, sitting volleyball players must have at least one buttock in contact with the floor during the game. History Sitting volleyball was inve ...

* Trent Meacham, graduate of Centennial, played on

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball The Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at the State Farm Center, located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's campu ...

team * Rayvonte Rice, guard for 2013-2014

team *

Mikel Leshoure Mikel Leshoure (born March 30, 1990) is a former American football running back. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at Illinois. Early years Leshoure attended Centennial High ...

, played football for Illinois, selected by

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

2011 NFL Draft The 2011 NFL Draft was the 76th installment of the annual NFL Draft, where the franchises of the National Football League select newly eligible football players. Like the 2010 draft, the 2011 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York C ...

Matt Herges Matthew Tyler Herges (born April 1, 1970) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1999 to 2009, and is the former pitching coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Herges played in ML ...

, pitcher for several MLB teams *

Scott Nagy Scott Michael Nagy (; born June 7, 1966) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach for Wright State Raiders men's basketball. He had previously served as head coach at South Dakota State Jackrabbits men's basketball, Sout ...

, basketball head coach at

South Dakota State South Dakota State University is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest and most comprehensive university and the oldest continually-operating university in South Dakota. The ...

* Chantal Bailey, 1994 Olympics

Reggie Hodges Reginald Aaron "Reggie" Hodges (born January 26, 1982) is a former American football punter. He was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the sixth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He played college football at Ball State. Hodges has been a member of t ...

, punter for several NFL teams *

Dan Hornbuckle Dan Hornbuckle (born December 26, 1980) is a former American mixed martial artist and a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee tribe. A professional since 2006, Hornbuckle has competed for Bellator, Legacy FC, World Victory Road, and DEEP. ...

, professional

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

fighter *

James Kinney James Andrew Kinney (December 10, 1869 – June 10, 1941) was a politician in Alberta, Canada and the first Labour member of the Edmonton City Council.Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 9, 1913 Kinney was born in Ontario in 1869. He served as the fir ...

(class of 2009): professional basketball player

References

External links

School websiteSchool District website
{{authority control Public high schools in Illinois Schools in Champaign County, Illinois Buildings and structures in Champaign, Illinois 1966 establishments in Illinois educational institutions established in 1966