Midland High School (Midland, Michigan)

Midland High School is a three-story public high school located in Midland, Michigan. It is the older of two high schools in the Midland Public Schools district, and a member of the Saginaw Valley High School Association.

History

• 1872 – Union High School opens its doors.
• 1907 – The Union High School building was destroyed in a fire as the result of a boiler explosion.
• 1908 – $11,000 USD is donated by the Dow Chemical Company to help rebuild the high school. The name changes to Midland High School with the opening of the new building, which was closed and demolished in 1957 after being used as an elementary school and intermediate school. The site of the former building is now known as Grove Park.

• 1937 – The third building and location of Midland's High School is built (in use, as Central Middle School until 2013.)
• 1955 – Construction of the current facility is completed on what was the old Midland Airfield.
• 1956 – Students begin the 1956-57 school year in the new building.
• 1968 – Overcrowding is reduced as Herbert Henry Dow High School opens for sophomores.
• 1997 – Ninth grade moves from intermediate schools to high schools.
• 2005 – Construction is started on two additions to the building – a new gymnasium and music wing.
• 2006 – Construction on the new gymnasium and music wing is completed.
• 2007 – A new front entrance on Eastlawn Drive and a new pick-up/drop-off area to improve traffic flow and modernize the building's appearance is constructed. Midland High School celebrates its 50th anniversary in their present building and becomes an International Baccalaureate school.

IB Diploma

Both High Schools in Midland participate in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, the most widely recognized pre-university educational program. The challenging academic regimen is especially useful for students planning to study abroad and college admissions officers view the IB Diploma very favorably.

Midland High School

Activities

Midland High School provides its students with a wide array of extracurricular activities. Among them:

• The school newspaper, Focus.
• Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA)
• Key Club
• Environmental Club
• Business Professionals of America (several national champion teams)
• Computer Aided Design (CAD) Club
• DECA
• National Honor Society
• Band, Orchestra, and Choir
• Ping Pong Club
• Drama (three productions a year, including a musical and competition piece)
• Forensics
• Model United Nations
• Debate Club (Placed third in the 2012 Lower Thumb division)
• Kiva Club
• Student Council
• Programming Club
• Anime Club
• First Robotics Team 5509

Athletics

The school's athletic director is Eric Albright, also History teacher for upper classmen and Chemic's varsity baseball coach.

Football: Midland High boasts an excellent football program, coached by Eric Methner, along with Assistants Matthew Starling, Pete Welter and Scott Albrecht. Albrecht and Starling are graduates of Midland High. The Chemics have posted consecutive winning seasons for the past 37 years (since 1976), the second longest streak in the history of the state of Michigan. Midland High has also earned eight consecutive playoff berths, and 20 overall since 1983. Since 1950, Midland High has had only 5 losing seasons. The annual Midland High vs. Dow High game is considered one of the biggest high school football games in the state of Michigan, generally drawing around 10,000 spectators. Midland has dominated the series with a 31-10 overall record. The Chemics have two state championships (1957 and 1968), and have made it to the state championship game three times since then (1990, 1993, 2007).

Wrestling: The Chemic wrestling team has won three straight district championships and the school's very first regional championship in 2009.^[4] In the first round of the 2008 regional the Chemics were matched up with Davison and lost, a reversal of the 2007 football regional with MHS beating Davison.^[5] The 2009 wrestling regional was again a match-up between MHS and Davison. The Chemics win was in turn a reversal of the 2008 football regional with Davison beating the Chemics.^[6] The Chemic wrestlers lost 51-12 to Holt High School in the quarterfinal matchup on March 6, 2009, putting an end to their season.^[7]

Midland Community Stadium, located on the west end of the MHS campus, was renovated in 2004 with AstroTurf XPe and is the home field of the Chemics' football, track & field and soccer teams. The stadium is also shared with Dow High School as their home field.

Newspaper

Midland High School's journalism curriculum publishes a monthly tabloid newspaper called Focus. The newspaper is run by the school's Advanced Journalism class, run by advisor Jim Woehrle. It typically runs between 16 and 20 pages, including a color front page as well as a center spread. The paper is a member of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association out of Michigan State University.

Awards: Focus has been awarded the Newspaper Spartan Award, recognizing outstanding school newspapers in the state of Michigan 19 times in the last 20 years. It has also been nominated for, and has won, the National Scholastic Press Association's National Pacemaker Award, most recently in 2007.^[9]

School Fight Song

Sung to the tune of "The Rangers' Song (March of the Rangers)", composed by Harry Tierney for the 1927 Broadway musical Rio Rita. The fight song is known as the "Chemic Fight Song" and is titled as such on the band's music scores. Mr. Touchdown USA is Midland High's second fight song.

Lyrics

We'll all stick together
Old MHS in all kinds of weather;
We're friends, not foes
With luck it goes
We'll fight for right with all our might;
We'll not show white feather.
Our team has the old pep;
We're marching onward step by step.
The blue and gold will have no fear,
We're always ready to cheer and cheer
For dear old Midland High.^[1]

1. ^ https://www.midlandps.org/sites/mhs/Site%20Assets/MHS-HB-2015-16.pdf

Chemic traditions

• Spirit Week – Every year the four classes of students (Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors) hold a competition for possession of the Spirit Week Megaphone. The competition is held the week of the Midland versus Dow football game. Activities include Spirit Days, float decorating, hall decorating, Yell Night, and an obstacle course during the annual "Beat Dow High" assembly.
• Homecoming Ceremony – Prior to Homecoming, a student must be nominated to be put on the ballot. The top students from each grade are then put on a ballot. Two representatives, one male and one female, are chosen from each class, along with one overall king and queen. The winning representatives are announced ahead of time, but are officially introduced to the school during the coronation ceremony held in the old gym.
• Black Out – The newest tradition at Midland High is that anyone in the student section at the football games will wear all black. This is called the "Black Hole". It started in 2007 during the Homecoming Game against Flint Southwestern.
• Krause House – The Midland High Student Section for Boys basketball. Every student is to wear a white T-shirt or a customized Krause House shirt, sold during the fall & winter of the academic school year.
• Student/Staff Basketball Game – The game is open to any senior and any teacher of Midland High. There is now a Dunk Contest at half time during which any students who can dunk are able to show off their skills.
• Hoops for Haiti – A bracket-style basketball tournament where all proceeds will go to Haiti.
• Magazine Drive – This school-wide fundraiser is held annually at the beginning of the school year. Through prizes and an assembly, students are encouraged to sell a quota of 3 magazine subscriptions. The money goes toward various school activities, and the top 10 selling students receive prizes such as a video game system, a mini-fridge, a bike, and gift certificates. The top daily seller of each classroom wins free doughnuts. The class with the most subscriptions sold at the end of the drive wins another prize.
• Cinco de Mayo Massacre – A bracket-style dodgeball tournament held every year near May 5, starting with 16 eight-person teams and ending with one final champion team.
• Rhapsody Rendezvous – A fall talent show held at the Midland Center for the Arts auditorium. Seniors can audition to be MCs, and there are various student and staff acts and performances.
• Viva Variety – A spring talent show open to all students.
• Chemic Music Fest – A showcase of various rock bands and acoustic acts from Midland High.
• Marching The Halls – (All home football games, the Dow vs. Midland football game and continuing every playoff game) The day of a game during 4th hour the Marching Band will parade march through the halls, play the fight song, and perform the "Boogie Down" stand cheer which involves the entire band dancing.

Notable alumni

• Howard Mudd, (born 1942) 3-time Pro Bowl offensive guard for the San Francisco 49ers; currently Indianapolis Colts assistant coach
• Cathy Guisewite, (born 1950) cartoonist who created the comic strip Cathy in 1976
• Terry Collins, MLB manager (New York Mets, Anaheim Angels, Houston Astros)
• Larry Jaster, former MLB player (St. Louis Cardinals, Montreal Expos, Atlanta Braves)
• Jim Kern, former MLB pitcher (Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers)
• Paul Emmel, MLB umpire
• Kevin Mahar, former MLB player (minor league of the Texas Rangers)
• Roger L. Worsley (Class of 1955), higher education administrator
• Andrew Maxwell, football player for Michigan State University
• Edward B. Baker, Junior (Class of 1955), Rear Admiral, United States Navy, and Associate Dean, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

References

External links

• Official website