Berea Community High School

Berea Community High School (also known as Berea Community or BCHS) is located in Berea, Kentucky. Current attendance is approximately 350-400 students for grades 9 through 12. Despite its small size, BCHS is able to offer many sports and after-school activities to its students. These include Varsity American football, Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, Track and Field, Golf, and Academic Team, which competes at Governor's Cup (Academics). The school also offers many clubs for students. Some include National Beta Club, Student Council, National Honor Society, FCA, GSA, FCCLA, FBLA, FEA, and Spanish Club.

History

In the late 1960s, the city of Berea and Berea College worked together to build a new school to replace the city system schools, Berea Elementary and High School, and the college owned schools, Knapp Hall and Berea Foundation School. College-owned property along Walnut Meadow road was chosen as the site for the new school. Construction of the high school (and, concurrently, the elementary school) began in 1969 and was completed in time for the 1969-1970 school year. The design of the new school incorporated revolutionary space age design elements consisting of three circles placed in a triangle formation. One circle was reserved for the high school, another for the elementary school, and the third was designated for the gymnasium. In the center of the triangles was the cafeteria, named the commons. The school was built following the open-space school format with no internal walls, with the exception, at least in the high school, of rooms set aside for lab sciences and intelligence purposes. The school also adopted an open lunch policy, since discontinued, for 9th through 12th graders which allowed students in these grades to leave campus during lunch.

The Berea School System was, by most measures, a very successful system. It benefits from its close proximity to Berea College and Eastern Kentucky University (in Richmond, Kentucky) and to Lexington, Kentucky, the second largest city in the Commonwealth. These factors allow it to continuously attract dedicated and highly skilled teachers as well as draw upon a rich pool of motivated and curious students. For these reasons, it became one of the most prestigious schools in the state of Kentucky.

The Present

Berea Community has undergone several changes since its inception. Despite the protests of students, the open lunch policy was ended in 2005. Also in the same school year, Berea College decided to pull out of Berea Community and leave the school on its own.

Construction projects involved the addition of a second gym, mainly for the use of the elementary, to complement the current Berea gym, Singleton Gym. A wing of classrooms for Middle School was also added to the school, and nicknamed 'The Pirate Cove'. Walls were also added to both the Elementary, Middle School, and High School classrooms. During the same year, a proposal was made to implement random student drug testing. Drug testing began in 2009.

In late 2009, the Conkin Gym was completed, as was the other construction. Both basketball teams now play in the Conkin Gym.

Berea Pirate Athletics

The 1998 Lady Pirate basketball team finished the year placing 3rd in the state championship competition. The head coach was Greg Todd, who currently is the head basketball coach at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. On January 19, 2008, the team was reunited, for the first time ever, for their 10th year anniversary at the halftime of Berea vs. Madison Central.

The cross country and track teams have seen great successes, with individual state champions numerous times throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. After a long dry spell, the Cross Country team took the regional runner-up in 2011 and has successfully taken the title in 2012[1] and 2013.[2] In the 2000s, the Cross Country team has finished as high as 11th at the KHSAA state cross country championships with a finish as high as 16th in 2013. As a team, the Track team has seen limited success, but is carried by the distance team. 2014 was a breakthrough season for Pirate track, with state qualifiers in 9 events.[3]

Pirate Football is infamous for being terrible, losing 9 of their 11 games in the 2014 season.[4]

In 2007 Kenan McWhorter was hired as the head coach of the Pirate's football team. His first year they went 4-6. In 2008-09, the team had a record of 8-2, losing to Estill and Powell Co.

Administration

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://ky.milesplit.com/meets/121402/results/227031
  2. ↑ http://ky.milesplit.com/meets/121402/results/227031
  3. ↑ http://ky.milesplit.com/meets/148350/results/308746
  4. ↑ http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/berea-pirates-(berea,ky)/football-fall-13/schedule.htm

Coordinates: 37°34′45″N 84°17′40″W / 37.57907°N 84.29440°W / 37.57907; -84.29440

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