Proviso West High School
Encyclopedia
Proviso West High School (PWHS) is a public high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 located in Hillside
Hillside, Illinois
Hillside is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,155 at the 2000 census.One notable landmark in Hillside is the Mount Carmel Cemetery. On the grounds of the cemetery are the graves of a number of organized crime figures, such as Al Capone and Dion O'Bannion...

, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

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

. Proviso West is a part of Proviso Township High Schools District 209
Proviso Township High Schools District 209
Proviso Township High Schools District 209, established in 1910, is located in western Cook County, Illinois, USA. The district encompasses most of Proviso Township, excluding the extreme southern portion...

, and was opened in 1958. Its sister school is Proviso East High School
Proviso East High School
Proviso East High School is a public secondary school in Maywood, Illinois which serves the educational needs of Maywood and three other villages within Proviso Township, Cook County, Illinois: Broadview, Forest Park and Melrose Park. It is the original campus of Proviso Township High Schools...

.

The school is located approximately ten miles (16 km) west of metropolitan Chicago in Proviso Township
Proviso Township, Cook County, Illinois
Proviso Township is one of thirty townships in Cook County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 155,831. It was organized in 1850 and originally named Taylor, but shortly afterward its name was changed to make reference to the Wilmot Proviso, a contemporary piece of...

. While the school's address is on Harrison Street, most of the school's property is adjacent to Wolf Road, while the southern part of the property lies along Roosevelt Road
Roosevelt Road
Roosevelt Road is a major east-west thoroughfare in the city of Chicago, Illinois, and its western suburbs. It is 1200 South in the city's street numbering system, but only one mile south of Madison Street...

 – which is also Illinois Route 38
Illinois Route 38
Illinois Route 38 is an east–west state road that runs across northern Illinois. It runs from U.S. Route 52 in downtown Dixon to U.S. Highways 12, 20, and 45 in Westchester. This is a distance of . As Roosevelt Road it continues through Forest Park and into Cicero and Chicago before...

 at that point. The school is less than one mile from the interchange between I-290
Interstate 290 (Illinois)
Interstate 290 is a main Interstate freeway that runs westwards from the Chicago Loop. A portion of I-290 is officially called the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway. In short form, it is known as "the Ike" or the Eisenhower...

 and I-88
Interstate 88 (west)
Interstate 88 is an intrastate Interstate Highway in the state of Illinois. It runs from an interchange with Interstate 80 near Silvis and Moline to an interchange with Interstates 290 and 294 in Hillside, near Chicago...

 (referred to locally as the Hillside Strangler).

Proviso West High School serves seven villages within the township, specifically Bellwood, Berkeley, Broadview, Hillside, part of Northlake, Stone Park, Westchester, and part of Melrose Park.

History

Prior to the opening of Proviso West, all students in the district attended Proviso High School (which became Proviso East when Proviso West was opened).

In 1953, researchers from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 recommended that the school district begin planning to expand, and school district officials began examining the purchase of land for a new school. By 1955, the school population had grown to over 3,400 students, with an estimated increase to over 6,500 students by 1956. In June 1955, the board accepted a recommendation to purchase a 60 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

 site in the town of Hillside, and planned a bond issue for the autumn. The construction of the school would also take up nine holes of the Hillside Golf Club. In November, the bond issue was approved by a 5900–626 vote.

In the summer and autumn of 1956, the district began accepting bids for construction of the new school which was to be designed by Perkins and Will
Perkins and Will
Perkins+Will was founded in Chicago in 1935 by and ., on the belief that design has the power to transform lives and enhance society...

. The original designs for the school called for a maximum capacity of 2,500 students. The school would have two 3-story academic wings, a two story wing that would house a library and administrative offices, a single story wing for maintenance, cafeteria, shops, and art rooms, as well as a two story gymnasium. A one story auto shop facility would be built as separate building. The gymnasium was to include a spectator gym with main floor and balcony seating and a swimming pool.

As construction neared, there were changes made to the designs. The school was now designed to be expandable up to a maximum of 4000 students. The gymnasium area was now to consist of four smaller gyms that could be combined into a spectator gym with seating for 4000, in addition to a wrestling room, an orthopedic gym, a dance studio, nine locker rooms. The cafeteria, auditorium, and boiler rooms were specifically designed for expansion. The cost at the start of construction was US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

5 million. The school opened after a cost of just under US$7.5 million.

In March 1960, the board of education began examining the need to expand Proviso West (including the addition of a fieldhouse). In June, the US$3.5 million bond issue was voted on.

In 1961, the district shifted an attendance boundary so that more students from Bellwood could attend Proviso West, in order to even out the student populations between the two buildings. The referendum was defeated, but a classroom addition began construction in early 1962 with money being taken from the operating fund.

Academics

Proviso West's class of 2008 had an average composite ACT
ACT (examination)
The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...

 score of 16.7. 77.5% of the senior class graduated. Proviso West did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized...

 (AYP) on the Prairie State Achievements Examination, which with the ACT comprises the state assessments used to fulfill the federal No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...

. Neither the school overall, nor any of its four student subgroups met expectations in reading or mathematics. The school is listed as being in its fifth year of academic watch.

Athletics

Proviso West competes in the West Suburban Conference
West Suburban Conference
The West Suburban Conference is an athletic conference in DuPage County and Cook County in the state of Illinois.The conference was founded in 1924.-Member schools:All of the schools are also members of the Illinois High School Association...

. The school is a member of the Illinois High School Association
Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association is one of 521 state high school associations in the United States, designed to regulate competition in most interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High...

 (IHSA), which governs most sports and competitive activities in the state. Teams are stylized as the Panthers
Black panther
A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is...

.

The school sponsors interscholastic teams for young men and women in 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...

, 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...

, 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....

, soccer, 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...

 & diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...

, 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...

, track & field, and 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...

. Young men may compete in 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...

, football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....

, and 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...

, while young women may compete in bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

, 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...

, and 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...

.

The following teams have finished in the top four of their respective IHSA sponsored state championship tournaments or meets:
  • Baseball: State Champions (1978—79)
  • Cross Country (boys): 4th place (1974—75); 2nd place (1967—68); State Champions (1964—65)
  • Gymnastics (boys): 4th place (1976—77)
  • Track & Field (boys): 4th place (1980—81, 90—91); 2nd place (1964—65); State Champions (1967—68)
  • Track & Field (girls): 4th place (1976—77); 3rd place (1996—97, 97—98); 2nd place (1998—99)


In March 1960, the U.S. Badminton Open, which included 300 players from the United States, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, among others, was hosted by Proviso West.

Proviso West Holiday Tournament

Since 1961, Proviso West has been the host of an annual boys basketball tournament in December; the first holiday basketball tournament in the Chicago area. Over that time, over 30 players who played in the tournament have gone on to professional athletic careers. Between 1964 and 2008, 95 teams qualified for the IHSA state tournament the same year they participated in the Proviso West Holiday Touranment (13 of which won the state title that year).

The tournament received national attention in 2005 when Glenbrook North High School
Glenbrook North High School
Glenbrook North High School, or GBN, is a public four-year high school located in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States...

 star Jon Scheyer
Jon Scheyer
Jonathan James "Jon" Scheyer is an American-Israeli professional basketball player. He plays shooting guard for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Super League in that competition, the Adriatic League, and the Euroleague...

, playing in front of his future coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University
Duke Blue Devils men's basketball
The Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team is the college basketball program representing Duke University in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I...

, scored 21 points in a 75 second stretch late in the fourth quarter of a game against the host Panthers.

Notable alumni

  • Flozell Adams
    Flozell Adams
    Flozell "The Hotel" Adams is an American football offensive tackle who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 1998 NFL Draft. He played college football at Michigan State....

     is an NFL
    National Football League
    The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

     All-Pro
    All-Pro
    All-Pro is a term mostly used in the NFL for the best players of each position during that season. It began as polls of sportswriters in the early 1920s...

     offensive tackle (1998—present), playing his entire career for the Dallas Cowboys
    Dallas Cowboys
    The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...

    .
  • Lee Archambault
    Lee Archambault
    Lee Joseph "Bru" Archambault is an American test pilot and NASA astronaut. He has logged over 4250 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. Archambault is married with three children. His hobbies include bicycling, weightlifting, and playing ice hockey. Archambault has received numerous...

     is a NASA
    NASA
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

     astronaut
    Astronaut
    An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

     who has piloted (STS-117
    STS-117
    - Crew Notes :The initial crew manifest before the Columbia accident was:Astronaut Mark Polansky was originally slated to pilot this mission, but was moved to STS-116, which he commanded...

    ) and commanded (STS-119
    STS-119
    -Crew notes:This mission was originally scheduled to bring the Expedition 9 crew to the ISS. This crew would have consisted of:-Mission parameters:* Mass:* Orbiter liftoff: * Orbiter landing: * Perigee: * Apogee:...

    ) the space shuttle
    Space Shuttle
    The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

    .
  • Steve Bannos
    Steve Bannos
    Steve Bannos is an American television and film actor and writer. As an actor, he may be best known for his portrayal of Frank Kowchevski on the short-lived NBC dramedy Freaks and Geeks....

     is an actor (Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin
    The 40-Year-Old Virgin
    The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a 2005 American buddy comedy film about a middle-aged man's journey to finally have sex. The film was written and directed by Judd Apatow and co-written by its lead star, Steve Carell, though the film itself features a great deal of improvised dialogue...

    , Pineapple Express
    Pineapple Express (film)
    Pineapple Express is a 2008 American stoner action comedy directed by David Gordon Green, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and starring Rogen and James Franco. Producer Judd Apatow, who previously worked with Rogen and Goldberg on Knocked Up and Superbad, assisted in developing the story,...

    )
  • Bruce Kopp, television news anchor and reporter, WTHR
    WTHR
    WTHR, channel 13, is a full-service television station serving the Indianapolis, Indiana metropolitan area. An affiliate of the NBC television network, its studios at 1000 N. Meridian Street anchor the south end of Indy's Television Row...

     Indianapolis, Indiana
    Indianapolis, Indiana
    Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

    .
  • Ray McElroy
    Ray McElroy
    Raymond Edward McElroy is a former professional American football player who played cornerback for six seasons for the Indianapolis Colts, the Chicago Bears, and the Detroit Lions in the National Football League...

     was an NFL defensive back
    Defensive back
    In American football and Canadian football, defensive backs are the players on the defensive team who take positions somewhat back from the line of scrimmage; they are distinguished from the defensive line players and linebackers, who take positions directly behind or close to the line of...

     (1995—98, 2000—01), playing most of his career with the Indianapolis Colts
    Indianapolis Colts
    The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....

    .
  • Jacquelyn Mitchard
    Jacquelyn Mitchard
    Jacquelyn Mitchard is an American journalist and author.She is the author of the best-selling novel The Deep End of the Ocean, which was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club, on September 17, 1996...

     is a journalist and author (The Deep End of the Ocean
    The Deep End of the Ocean
    The Deep End of the Ocean is a best-selling novel by Jacquelyn Mitchard, released in 1996. It is about an American middle class, suburban family that is torn apart when the youngest son is kidnapped and raised by a mentally ill woman, until he appears at the frontdoor step of his real mother and...

    , A Theory of Relativity
    A Theory of Relativity
    A Theory of Relativity is a 2001 novel written by American author Jacquelyn Mitchard. The book tells the story of a custody battle for a young girl following the sudden death of her parents.-Plot summary:...

    , Cage of Stars
    Cage of Stars
    Cage of Stars is a 2006 best-selling novel by Jacquelyn Mitchard.-Summary:Young Veronica Swan's idyllic life in her Mormon community is shattered when her two younger sisters are brutally murdered by the schizophrenic Scott Early...

    ).
  • Dick Murphy
    Dick Murphy
    Richard M. Murphy is a former U.S. politician. He served as the 33rd Mayor of San Diego, California from 2000 to 2005-Early life:...

     was the mayor
    Mayor
    In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

     of San Diego, California
    California
    California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

     (2000—05).
  • Walter Parazaider
    Walter Parazaider
    Walter Parazaider is best known for being a founding member and saxophone player for the rock band Chicago. He also plays the flute and other woodwind instruments in the band, including clarinet. On the hit "You're Not Alone," he played backing rhythm guitar.Parazaider began playing the clarinet...

     is a woodwind player. He is an original member and founder of the rock group Chicago
    Chicago (band)
    Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...

    .
  • Kyle Prater
    Kyle Prater
    Kyle Prater is an American football wide receiver for the University of Southern California.-High school career:Prater graduated early from Proviso West High School of Hillside, Illinois. Rivals.com rated Prater as the #3 overall prospect in the class of 2010 and Scout.com rated him as the #4...

     is a wide receiver
    Wide receiver
    A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football, and is the key player in most of the passing plays. Only players in the backfield or the ends on the line are eligible to catch a forward pass. The two players who begin play at the ends of the offensive line are eligible...

     for USC
  • Awvee Storey
    Awvee Storey
    Awvee Storey is an American professional basketball player. He plays the shooting guard/small forward position.-High school career:...

     was an NBA player (2004—06, 07—08).
  • Robert Z'Dar
    Robert Z'Dar
    Robert J. Zdarsky , better known as Robert Z’Dar, is an American actor and film producer, perhaps best known for his role as Matt Cordell in the cult horror film Maniac Cop and its two sequels. Due to his unusual facial structure, he is often referred to as "The Chin".-Early life:Born in Chicago,...

     is an actor (Tango & Cash
    Tango & Cash
    Tango & Cash is a 1989 American buddy cop film starring Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Jack Palance and Teri Hatcher. It was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, although Albert Magnoli took over in the later stages of filming....

    , Maniac Cop
    Maniac Cop
    Maniac Cop is a 1988 action/horror film directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen. The film spawned two sequels, Maniac Cop 2 and Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence .-Synopsis:...

    ).
  • David Berens is a successful entrepreneur, business executive, motivational speaker, and philanthropist.

External links

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