Colleyville Heritage High School
Encyclopedia
Colleyville Heritage High School is a public secondary school in Colleyville
Colleyville, Texas
Colleyville is a city in northeast Tarrant County, Texas, United States. Located roughly from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the population was 22,807 at the 2010 census. Emerging from a number of small, rural settlements along the Cotton Belt Route, Colleyville was established in the...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, a city in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The school is a part of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District
Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District
Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District is a public school district based in Grapevine, Texas . In addition to most of Grapevine, the district serves most of the city of Colleyville and small portions of northern Euless and Hurst and extreme eastern Southlake...

.

CHHS is located several miles west and in sight of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and is the busiest airport in the U.S. state of Texas...

. The high school has been categorized as one of the top 100 high schools in the United States of America by the Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

magazine's Challenge Index. Colleyville Heritage High School celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006. The school became the focus of national attention during a 2005 steroid scandal involving multiple student-athletes. This episode and others like it in the Metroplex, would lead to publication of an award-winning feature in The Dallas Morning News on high school PED
Performance-enhancing drugs
Performance-enhancing drugs are substances used by athletes to improve their performances in the sports in which they engage.- Types of performance-enhancing drugs :...

 abuse and the introduction of random drug testing for students in UIL-sponsored school activities. Students come from Heritage Middle School, half of Grapevine Middle School and half of Colleyville Middle School. Although Colleyville Heritage is in Colleyville, only 45% of its student body lives in Colleyville, while the other 50% lives in Grapevine and 5% lives in Euless.

History

On March 1, 1994 the Cadence Group General Contractor began clearing the 64 acres (258,999 m²) between Heritage Avenue and State Highway 121 that would be eventually become Colleyville Heritage High School. CHHS opened its doors on August 15, 1996 with a student population of 1,369, making it the second high school in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. It is located across the street from Heritage Elementary and Middle School, which feed into the high school.

Academics

CHHS has the distinction of being recognized on a repeated basis by Newsweek magazine as one of the nation’s top 100 high schools based on students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses and success in those courses. The school offers over 17 AP courses for students beginning as early as their freshman year. In addition, CHHS offers dual enrollment courses in conjunction with Tarrant County College
Tarrant County College
Tarrant County College ' or Tarrant County College District is a community college serving the Fort Worth area in Tarrant County, Texas and providing degree programs toward an Associate of Arts, an Associate of Applied Science or Associate of Arts in Teaching...

 and work programs through Career and Technology Education classes.

Football

Colleyville Heritage Panther Football currently competes in UIL Division 6-5A and has enjoyed several successful seasons in recent years, including a run to the Texas state quarterfinals in 2006. Grapevine plays in a spirited rivalry with the crosstown CHHS. The Panthers' first rivalry win drew a stadium crowd of 11,298 saw Colleyville's first win against rival Grapevine in 2001 season, 33-14. Heritage went on that year to become district champions for the first time with a 10-2 record (second best in school history). CHHS best regular season record came in 2011 when the varsity team went 9-1 with its only loss to the #1 ranked Trinity Trojans in a thrilling 3-point overtime loss.

Varsity football plays its home games at Mustang-Panther Stadium, a 9,100-seat multi-purpose venue which it shares with Grapevine High School
Grapevine High School
Grapevine High School is a public secondary school at 3223 Mustang Drive in Grapevine, Texas, United States. The school is a part of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District.GHS is located in the northeast region of Tarrant County....

. The facility includes an artificial turf field, running track, field house, enclosed press box, as well as a video scoreboard installed in 2007. The junior varsity and freshman football teams play their games on the CHHS campus at a smaller facility.

Baseball

Panther Baseball saw some success in the 2010 season with a 27-5-1 record (12-2 in district play), Where one point in the season they were ranked 1st in State by the coaches poll and 1st in the nation by ESPN The Rise. But finished off the season ranked 14th in the state of Texas. The team makes plays at Panther Field.

Hockey

The Colleyville Heritage Non-UIL Varsity Hockey team took the 2008 City Championship over Frisco High School
Frisco High School
Frisco High School is a public high school located in Frisco, Texas and is a part of the Frisco Independent School District.The school mascot is the Fightin' Raccoon.- History :Frisco High School was founded in 1902...

 and won the Silver State Championship against Birdville High School
Birdville High School
Birdville High School is a public high school located in the city of North Richland Hills, Texas and is the second youngest school in the Birdville Independent School District. Established in 1999, it was the third high school built into the Birdville Independent School District...

 in overtime. It was the school's first team state championship.

Steroid Controversy

Colleyville Heritage became the focus of a district investigation during the 2004-2005 school year after a Panther football/baseball player and his mother confronted school administrators and GCISD about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The student came forward only after his mother discovered a bag full of syringes and vials of liquids in his bedroom closet. The school and district officials dismissed the mother's claims, and the school's head football coach went as far calling her a "liar" in a Dallas Morning News interview. Under mounting pressure from district officials, local and national media, and law enforcement, a total of nine other CHHS athletes confessed to use of steroids and other PEDs. In February 2005, The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...

 published an in-depth report entitled "The Secret Edge", a look at the topic of steroids in high school sports. One section on the report's website (seen here) was called "Colleyville Heritage's team secret".
The scandal at CHHS, as well as the well-publicized suicide of a student-athlete in Plano
Plano
Plano can refer to:*Plano cultures, the Late Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer societies of the Great Plains of North America** Plano points, the chipped stone tools of the Plano culturesPlaces in the United States:...

, Texas led to the implementation of random drug testing by the University Interscholastic League
University Interscholastic League
The University Interscholastic League is an organization that creates rules for and administers almost all athletic, music, and academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in the American state of Texas....

 in 2007. The testing became controversial, as students in UIL-sponsored extracurricular activities including band, choir, and theatre became subject to random drug screenings. In more recent years, the UIL has slowly begun to lessen the number tests due to costs.

The Panther Band, Percussion, and Colorguard

The Colleyville Heritage Panther Band has enjoyed a colorful past dating back to the creation of CHHS in 1996. Each season, the band consistently places highly at local, regional, and national marching competitions, winning the Carrollton Tournament of Bands in October 2005. The band itself makes frequent performances around the country, performing in locales such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Antonio in the last decade alone. In 2008, members of the band performed in West Lothian, Scotland, an international sister city of Colleyville.

The Panther Band represented the state of Texas in the 2003 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...

, and attended the Bands of America
Bands of America
Bands of America , a division of Music for All, Inc., is an organization that promotes and organizes marching band competitions for high school students. Competitions include both Regional and Super Regional Championships as well as the Grand National Championships...

 Grand Nationals competition in 2008 held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Additionally, many of its upperclassmen members audition and perform during the summer with Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International , formed in 1972, is the non-profit governing body operating the North American drum and bugle corps circuit for junior corps, whose members are between the ages of 14 and 21. It is the counterpart of Drum Corps Associates which governs senior or all-age drum corps...

, as well as exclusive UIL Region, Area, and State groups.

Percussion students often perform with and against other ensembles at various levels of competition. The Panther Drumline frequently wins caption awards at various contests as part of the larger marching band, a testament to its consistency.

Theatre

The Colleyville Heritage Theatre department has existed since the school's opening. Its curriculum features courses ranging from beginning to advanced acting, technical theatre, and also directing. Numerous productions are performed in the school's main auditorium and more intimate black box theater
Black box theater
The black box theater is a relatively recent innovation, consisting of a simple, somewhat unadorned performance space, usually a large square room with black walls and a flat floor.-History:...

 throughout the year; past productions have included West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...

, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...

, Bye Bye Birdie, and Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...

. In addition to its regular season, the department also works each year to compete in the Texas UIL
University Interscholastic League
The University Interscholastic League is an organization that creates rules for and administers almost all athletic, music, and academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in the American state of Texas....

 one-act play competition. The department has been involved in the International Thespian Society
International Thespian Society
The International Thespian Society is an honorary organization for high-school and middle-school theatre students located at more than 3,600 affiliated secondary schools across the United States, Canada, and abroad. The International Thespian Society was founded in Fairmont, West Virginia...

 (Troupe 5610), even presenting the play Bang, Bang You're Dead at the Society's annual conference, which came to Texas in 2003.

Speech and Debate

The Colleyville debate team has been in existence since 1996. The team has won the Texas Forensics Association state tournament multiple times, in addition to being highly competitive at the national level.

Notable alumni

  • Jaimie Alexander
    Jaimie Alexander
    Jaimie Alexander is an American actress best known for portraying Jessi on the TV series Kyle XY and Sif in the 2011 superhero film Thor.-Early life:...

     '02, actor (Kyle XY
    Kyle XY
    Kyle XY is an American television series with a science fiction premise and mystery-drama style. The central character is a teenage boy who awakens naked in a forest outside Seattle, Washington, with no more knowledge or abilities than a newborn. He is taken in by a family and given the name Kyle...

    , Thor
    Thor
    In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...

    )
  • Disco Curtis
    Disco Curtis (band)
    Disco Curtis is an American pop rock band from Colleyville, Texas. They formed during the 4th grade, but became a four-piece band in 2008. On September 10, 2010, AJ Novak, Garrett Perales, and Brendan Barone left Disco Curtis, leaving Tanner Howe as the only remaining member.-History:Disco Curtis...

     '10, rock band made up of alumni
  • Christian Ponder
    Christian Ponder
    Christian Ponder is an American football quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Vikings with the twelfth overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, and signed with them on July 31, 2011, shortly after the 2011 NFL lockout ended...

     '06, 12th overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2011 NFL Draft
    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...

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