Fallston High School is located in the town of Fallston

Fallston

Fallston is the name of several places in the United States:*Fallston, Maryland*Fallston, North Carolina*Fallston, Pennsylvania...

, in Harford County, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. The school is made up of three floors. On the first floor are located the main office, guidance office, media center, academic classrooms and the gym. The upper floor is exclusively classrooms. The basement holds the cafeteria, Music and Technical skills classrooms and the locker rooms. Computer labs are located on all levels.

School Schedule

The school schedule was changed for the 2006-2007 school year, and now operates on a four-period per day schedule, known as the "Block Schedule". Students are enrolled in eight classes for the year. Some classes will meet daily for a semester, while other classes meet every other day. This schedule provides longer periods of instruction with fewer class changes than the previous schedule.

As of 2007 the school day begins at 7:30 and ends at 2:00, with each class meeting for approximately 88 minutes, and including a 5 minute class change in between classes. There are three different lunches (as of 2010) occurring during the 3rd period of each day, each lasting for 28 minutes.

History

With increasing population growth in this area of once-rural Harford County during the 1970s, the Board of Education determined the need for a secondary school to serve the youth of Fallston. Fallston High School was designed by Richard Ayres, architect, and built by Cam Construction Company at a cost of $10 million. The ground on which the school is built was formerly a dairy farm. The land was acquired from local Real Estate developer Mr. Joseph Diegert, with an adjacent four acres set aside as a new home for the Fallston Volunteer Fire Company. Fallston High School opened in November 1977 with a staff of 73 and a student population of 1400 in grades 6 through 10. The majority of the original Fallston students transferred from Bel Air schools. Initially the school was a combined Middle/High School but converted to being exclusively a High School with the opening of Fallston Middle School on an adjacent piece of property in 1993. Fallston High School was visited by President Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 during his term as president on December 4, 1985.

Athletics

Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association

Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association

Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Associationor , is the association that oversees public high school sporting contests in the state of Maryland. Organized in 1946, MPSSAA is made up of public high schools from each of Maryland's 23 counties and Baltimore City...

 (MPSSAA) Sanctioned Sports

Fall-
Field Hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

,
Football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

,
Men's and Women's Soccer,
Cross Country

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

,
Cheerleading

Cheerleading

Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...

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Men's and Women's Volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

,
Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

Winter-
Men's and Women's Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

,
Wrestling

Scholastic wrestling

Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...

,
Cheerleading

Cheerleading

Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...

,
Indoor Track,
Men's and Women's Swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

Spring-
Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

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Softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

,
Men's and Women's Lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

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Track & Field,
Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

Non-Sanctioned Sports-
Ice Hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

,
Bowling

Bowling

Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

2011 - 2012 School Year

• Field Hockey: UCBAC (conference) Champions, 1A State Champions
• Men's Soccer: 2A State Championship Finalists
• Football: 2A Regional Semi-Finalists
• Women's Volleyball: UCBAC (conference) Champions, 2A State Championship Finalist

2010 - 2011 School Year

• Men's Swimming: UCBAC (conference) Champions, 2A State Champions
• Men's Basketball: 2A East Regional Finalists
• Men's Lacrosse: UCBAC (conference) Champions, 2A Regional Semi-finalists
• Women's Lacrosse: UCBAC (conference) Champions, 2A Regional Champions
• Tennis: UCBAC (conference) Champions

Maryland State Championship Teams

• Men's Cross Country: 1981
• Men's Lacrosse : 1985, 1987, 2001
• Women's Field Hockey: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011
• Men's Soccer: 1992
• Women's Soccer: 1994, 1996, 2009
• Women's Softball : 2004
• Women's Indoor Track : 2005
• Men's Swimming : 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011
• Women's Basketball : 2009, 2010
• Women's Lacrosse : 2009
• Women's Volleyball: 2010

Honor Societies and Selective groups

• Art National Honor Society
• German National Honor Society
  German National Honor Society
  The German National Honor Society or Delta Phi Alpha , seeks to recognize excellence in the study of German and to provide an incentive for higher scholarship...
  
  
• Spanish National Honor Society
  Spanish National Honor Society
  Spanish National Honor Society is an academic honor society focused on Spanish language excellence in secondary education and promotes a continuity of interest in Spanish studies. The group, which was established in 1953 in the United States is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of...
  
  
• French National Honor Society
• National Honor Society
  National Honor Society
  The National Honor Society is a recognition program for high school students in grades 10-12 in the United States and in several other countries...
  
  
• Student Government Association

Competitive Organizations

• Dance Team: State Champions 2008, 2011
• It's Academic
  It's Academic
  It's Academic is a televised academic quiz competition for high school students, currently airing on two NBC affiliates in Washington, D.C. and Central Virginia and one CBS affiliate Baltimore, Maryland . The show has been on the air since October 7, 1961, making it the longest...
  
  
• Harford County Forensics League
• Chemathon Team
• Ecology Club
• Electrothon Team
• Envirothon
  Envirothon
  Envirothon is an annual environmentally themed academic competition held by the United States and Canada on a regional, state, and national level. It is sponsored by Canon, conservation districts, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Association of Conservation Districts...
  
   Team
• Marching Band
  • The Fallston High School Cougar Marching Band toured in the Tournament of Bands circuit, as well as the Cavalcade of Bands circuit. It has been to the Atlantic Coast Championships of the Tournament of Bands in the years 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006. After 2006, the Band stopped competition but continues to play at football games and parades.

Non-competitive organizations

• Best Buddies
• Spanish Club
• German Club
• Fishing Club
• French Club
• History Club
• Philosophy Club
• Future Business Leaders of America
• Varsity Club
• Rock Band Club
• Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)
• SALC (formerly SAC)
• International Club
• Art Club
• STARS (formerly SADD)
• Forensics
• Newspaper "The Print"
• Ecology Club
• Environmental Club
• Drama Club
• Tech Crew
• Car Club
• Movie Club
• Orchestra

The school also has an Eligibility Committee. If a student enrolled in an extracurricular activity or activities is failing in one or more subjects, they will be declared ineligible to participate in that or those activity/activities.

Notable alumni

• Sheryl Davis Kohl
  Sheryl Davis Kohl
  Sheryl Davis Kohl is an American politician who represented district 34A in the Maryland House of Delegates.-Background:Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Delegate Kohl was appointed by Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich to the Maryland House of Delegates in July 2005 to replace Charles R...
  
  , former member of Maryland House of Delegates
  Maryland House of Delegates
  The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland, and is composed of 141 Delegates elected from 47 districts. The House chamber is located in the state capitol building on State Circle in Annapolis...
  
  , graduated in 1980.
• Kimmie Meissner
  Kimmie Meissner
  Kimberly Claire "Kimmie" Meissner is an American figure skater. She is the 2006 World Champion, the 2007 U.S. National Champion, and the 2007 Four Continents Champion...
  
  , member of the USA 2006 Winter Olympics
  2006 Winter Olympics
  The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...
  
   team, 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Champion, and 2006 World Figure Skating Champion, graduated in 2007.

Military Casualties

• Marine L.Cpl. Patrick Ryan Adle - 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group. KIA Operation Iraqi Freedom on June 29, 2004, graduated in 2001. Link: Arlington Cemetery
• Marine Cpl. Jennifer M. Parcell - 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force. KIA supporting combat operations in Anbar province on February 7, 2007, graduated in 2004. Links: Her MySpace Page, Southern Maryland Online News Article, Military City

Notable events

• Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
  
   visited the school on December 4, 1985.
• Fallston High was featured in Sports Illustrated
  Sports Illustrated
  Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
  
   magazine for the Kimmie Meissner Olympic "Send Off."
• Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger
  Daniel Ruettiger
  Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger is a motivational speaker and former collegiate football player for the University of Notre Dame, who is best known as the inspiration for the motion picture Rudy....
  
   (Notre Dame University) came to Fallston High as a public speaker.
• Former Attorney General of the United States Edwin Meese III
  Edwin Meese
  Edwin "Ed" Meese, III is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan Gubernatorial Administration , the Reagan Presidential Transition Team , and the Reagan White House , eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th Attorney General of...
  
   visited the school in 2005.
• The kick-off for Maryland Public Schools' PRIDE program occurred at Fallston High School on February 22, 2007.
• Selected by Newsweek Magazine as one of America's top public High Schools in 2009 and 2010.

Sources

• Harford County Public Schools
• Joseph Schmitz, former Principal, Fallston High School
• Tom Dixon, former President, Fallston Cougar Boosters, Inc.
• http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2009/americas-best-high-schools/list.html
• http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/americas-best-high-schools/list.html