Peachtree Ridge High School

Peachtree Ridge High School
Address
1555 Old Peachtree Road
Suwanee, Georgia 30024
United States
Coordinates 34°00′47″N 84°05′14″W / 34.013188°N 84.087192°W / 34.013188; -84.087192Coordinates: 34°00′47″N 84°05′14″W / 34.013188°N 84.087192°W / 34.013188; -84.087192
Information
Established 2003
Principal Dr. Jeff Mathews
Grades 9–12
Enrollment 3400 (2014-2015)
Color(s)              White and Royal Blue with Red accents
Mascot Lions
Nickname Ridge
Rival Collins Hill High School
Newspaper The Roar
Alumni Cameron Heyward, Kevin Minter, Bradley Roby, Kidus Henok, Taylor Rooks, Jared Walsh, Nick Neidert
Rivals Collins Hill High School, North Gwinnett High School, Norcross High School
Literary magazine Masquerade
Website Peachtree Ridge High School

Peachtree Ridge High School is a public high school in Gwinnett County, in Suwanee, Georgia, USA and a part of Gwinnett County Public Schools. Peachtree Ridge is the only Gwinnett County Public School to use block scheduling; Shiloh High School used to but discontinued it in 2008.

Construction of the 418,000-square-foot (38,800 m2) school's main facility commenced in March 2001. PRHS was constructed in order to relieve overcrowding at four neighboring high schools. When its doors opened for the 2003-2004 academic year, almost all of the sophomores, juniors, and seniors came from either Duluth High School in Duluth, Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, or North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee.

The school officially opened for classes on Monday, August 11, 2003, with enrollment topping 1,900 students. By November of the same year, another 19,570 square feet (1,818 m2) of athletic facilities (field house) were nearing completion.[1]

History

Peachtree Ridge High School is located on Old Peachtree Road, which was completely built in 2003. It is located on land which belonged to the heirs of Eugene Baynes. A lake behind the school is named Lake Louella after Eugene Ella Baynes, as well as Lake Louella road near the school. A few hundred yards from the school is the Goodwin home, built in 1823 and the oldest building in Suwanee.[2]

Clubs

Robotics

Peachtree Ridge High School Robotics (Team 1261 Robo Lions) was established in the 2003-2004 school year. Since then the robotics team has participated in three different competitions, won numerous awards, and has grown to over 50 students and mentors. Nearly all Peachtree Robotics students go on to pursue post-secondary education in some of the nation's finest universities.

Team 1261's main platform is the FIRST Robotics Competition, which takes place during the spring semester. Students are expected to work as a cohesive unit to design, prototype, and build a robot in six weeks. Following the build period, students prepare for and compete in regional competitions. Team 1261 has participated in the Peachtree Regional, hosted at the Gwinnett Civic Center, every year since 2004 as well as other regional events located in the southeast. Since 2004, the team has won four regional events and numerous other awards for design efficiency, creativity, and performance.

In the 2014 season the Peachtree Ridge High School Robotics team won the Palmetto regional, becoming the first Georgia team to win a regional.

In the 2016 season, the Peachtree Ridge High School Robotics team participated in the Columbus, Albany, and Kennesaw FRC PCH District Qualifiers and won the Albany and Kennesaw events. They also became the first team in Gwinnett County to win the Chairman's Award at the Albany District Event. They then moved on the Peachtree District State Championship and were ranked #2 and became Championship Finalists. With their amazing performance throughout the season, team 1261 qualified for the World Competition in St. Louis, Missouri as part of the Curie division, in which they were eliminated in the semifinal playoff matches.

Team 1261's secondary platform is the VEX Robotics Competition, which takes place during the fall semester and serves as training for FRC. Team 1261 has been using the VEX platform since 2006, but in 2009, it began competing in the VEX Robotics Competition. Team 1261 now hosts a tournament event every November. Team 1261 manages and runs the event all while fielding eight to ten teams to compete in the events.

The robotics team also debuted a t-shirt bot named "K-Tash," named for former Peachtree Ridge principal Kevin Tashlein, that makes appearances at basketball and football games.

Peachtree Ridge Robotics serves to inspire students to pursue futures in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The team has also seen the importance of business skills in running the organization, and has since created a business team with devoted leadership. Thanks to its mentors and sponsors, students are able to gain real-world experience in a fast-paced, competitive environment. For more information, visit its website.

2006 Governor's Cup

In 2006 Peachtree Ridge was awarded the Governor's Cup for the most improvement in SAT scores for AAAAA schools in the county. Georgia governor Sonny Perdue visited the school and presented the cup.

The Roar

The school's newspaper, The Roar, earned first place in the general excellence category at an awards ceremony sponsored by the Gwinnett Daily Post. The paper's staff was led by adviser Tom Myers and Co-Editors-in-Chief Andrew Barnhart and Alexa Sherman. Anthony Herro and Kevin Bennett were recognized for maintaining the best sports section in the county. The staff of The Roar was recognized with the best news section, best layout/design, honorable mention for best sports section, and first place in general excellence.[3]

Winterguard

The Peachtree Ridge Winterguard placed Grand Champions (Division Scholastic AAA) in the Southern Association for Performing Arts Championships in Macon, Georgia in March 2007. Schools from five states competed against the PRHS winterguard. This has now passed on to Hull Middle School, Peachtree Ridge's middle school.

Athletics

Peachtree Ridge currently competes in Region 7-AAAAAA and has since 2004.[4][5]

2006-2007 GHSA State Football Co-Champions

In the 2006-07 GHSA Championship game, the Lions tied Roswell High School, with both schools being awarded state championships.

Competition cheerleading

Peachtree Ridge's competition cheerleading squad, also known as "Blue Pride," won the 7-5A Co-ed Region championship title, and were awarded runner-up in the 5A Co-ed division at the GHSA state competition. In the team's third year of existence they had an undefeated season and were the 5A GHSA State Champions as well as the 7-5A region champions. In their fourth year, Blue Pride achieved another 5A GHSA State title, resulting in the first true back-to-back State Championship title in all girl, 5A GHSA state competition history. On November 10, 2007 they won their 3rd consecutive State title. They went on to win two more State Titles.

Track & Field Championships, the Georgia Olympics

On May 5–7, 2011, a team of only nine athletes from Peachtree Ridge dominated the AAAAA 2011 Track & Field State Meet (the Georgia Olympics) by scoring a total of 62 points and took home the first track and field State Championship for the school.[6] Competing were Torri Tillman, Joe Horn, Matthew Cornwall, Josh Brickell, Matt Morris, and an unnamed 4x100 and 4x400 relay team. Three athletes from the nine-man team dominated the AAAAA competition by winning 5 gold medals. Taking home the individual gold medals were Torri Tillman (1st place 100m Dash and 1st place Long Jump), Josh Brickell (1st place 3200m run & 1st place 1500m run), and Matt Morris (1st Place Pole Vault).[7]

2009 Cross Country State Champions

In 2009, Peachtree Ridge's boys cross country team surprised the rest of the field and brought home the school's first cross country state title. They continue to grow on their success and are working to bring home another state title on the girls' and boys' sides of the team.

2013 Cross Country State Champions

In 2013, Peachtree Ridge's girls cross country team brought home their first State Championship. Peachtree Ridge won with a total of 119 points, while second place winner Brookwood came in at 131 points.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-mainweb01.nsf/5a0a6df480312567852567f400738f98/57a9b63ca0f094b185256ce600730764?OpenDocument&0~QuickLinks
  2. ↑ "History of Peachtree Ridge High School", Peachtree Ridge High School website
  3. ↑ http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=32&url_subchannel_id=&url_article_id=27817&change_well_id=2
  4. ↑ "GHSA Region Alignment". GHSA. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  5. ↑ "GHSFHA Mill Creek Yearly Region Standings". GHSFHA. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  6. ↑ http://ga.milesplit.com/meets/83301/results/158958
  7. ↑ http://ga.milesplit.com/meets/83301

External links

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