MAINE SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL

'Maine South High School', or 'MSHS', is a public four-year high school located in Park Ridge, Illinois, a north-west suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Maine Township High School District 207, which also includes Maine East High School and Maine West High School.

Contents

History

Academics

Athletics

Activities

Notable alumni

References

External links

History

Maine South was built in 1964 on the grounds of a former landfill to meet the growing educational needs of the area, mainly the city of Park Ridge, but also some of Niles, Harwood Heights, Norridge, and unincorporated Norwood Park Township.
Maine South's varsity baseball diamond hosted a Schaumburg Flyers game in 2001.

Academics

In 2006, Maine South had an average composite ACT score of 24.2, and graduated 93.0% of its senior class. Maine South has made Adequate Yearly Progress on the Prairie State Achievements Examination, a state test part of the No Child Left Behind Act. The average class size is 21.0.^[1]
Maine South's academic programs range from remedial/academy class, to accelerated honors/AP classes. Maine South is ranked 14th among public high schools in the Chicago area, ranked according to percentage of students passing the Prairie State Achievement Examination.[1] Maine South is ranked 17th by the Chicago Sun Times among public high schools in the Chicago area, ranked according to PSAE scores.[2]

Athletics

Maine South competes in the Central Suburban League South Division. Its mascot is the Hawks.
Maine South has won Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Titles in Boy's Basketball (1979 AA), Football (1995 5A and 2000 6A), Girls' Swimming (1975), and Boy's Volleyball (2006). In the era preceding its recognition by the IHSA, the Girl's Soccer team won three consecutive "State" Tournaments from 1984 to 1986, posting a record of 60-0-4 over that time.
Maine South Football has been one of the most successful programs in Illinois in recent history. In addition to their two state titles, they played in the Class 8A (largest school) State Championship game for three consecutive seasons from 2003-2005. The team has qualified for the IHSA playoffs each year since 1992, and has only had two losing seasons since 1980. Coach David Inserra took over the program from long-time coach Phil Hopkins in 2001 after he won the state championship in his final season.
In addition to its three unofficial state titles, the Girl's Soccer program has continued to flourish, winning four regional titles and seven sectional titles since the IHSA recognized Girl's Soccer in 1987. They have appeared in the IHSA State Finals six times, placing second in 1988.
Maine South Wrestling has won four regional titles since 1999. The team has placed in the State Sweet 16 once in that time, and has won numerous Conference titles.
The Girl's Tennis team has captured five IHSA Sectional Titles since 2000. Between 2001 and 2004 they finished in the top 10 at the IHSA State Championships three times, capturing second place in 2001. Individually, the school's top doubles team finished second in 2001, and the top singles player won the State Championship in 2004.
The Maine South Soccer team captured 3rd place in the IHSA State Tournament in 2006. The team is academically accomplished as well, earning the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Award four times since 2002. The award is given to teams who average a GPA of greater than 2.15 on a 4.0 scale.
In addition to their 2006 State Title, the Boys' Volleyball team won four consecutive Regional titles from 2004 to 2007, qualifying for the State Tournament in 2005.

Activities

The Maine South marching and concert bands, led by Joel Matter, are two of the most respected music programs in the area. Rebecca Pascal directs the award winning orchestra.
The choirs at Maine South are directed by Ann Espel who was new to the school in 2006. Band at Maine South carries a rich tradition, with well over 30 members of the Maine South band turning professional in the last 20 years.
The Maine South Constitution Team has won the Center for Civic Education's "We The People" competition in Illinois for the past twelve straight years. In 1999 the team won the National competition in Washington D.C.. [3]
Sandwiched between finishing fifth and second at the IHSA State Tournament in 2001 and 2004, respectively, the Chess Team won back-to-back IHSA state titles in 2002 and 2003. A seventh place finish in 2006 was followed by another State Championship in 2007 with Maine South defeating a tough Whitney Young team to claim their third IHSA state title in six seasons.
From the 2003-04 through 06-07 seasons, the Scholastic Bowl team posted four consecutive winning seasons with 40+ wins, including a program best 85-22 for the 2006-07 campaign. In addition to winning the Illinois Mason sponsored State Championship, the team finished third among all Class AA schools in the final State Coaches Poll of the 06-07 season, after reaching as high as second in the mid-season poll. [4]
The Rube Goldberg machine team has won the state competition twice (2006 and 1999). In 2007, the two Maine South teams finished first and third in the Chicago area regional, and then finished second and third at the state competition, marking the first time two teams from the school have placed that high in the competition. [5]
The Maine South Hawkettes has won numerous trophies and medals in various dance categories and is known as one of the best teams in the nation.

Notable alumni

★ Dr. Dante "Dan" Amidei, Physicist, a principal investigator and key member of the large Collider Detector at Fermilab collaboration which discovered, and computed the mass of, the top quark to complete the quark model within the Standard Model of particle physics; a principal investigator and key member of the ATLAS experiment, a large particle detector collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN; presently working to discover the Higgs boson; class of 1974

★ Dave Butz, NFL Defensive Lineman (St. Louis Cardinals 1973 & 74 - Washington Redskins 1975 - 1988); member of NFL 1980s All-Decade Team, class of 1969

★ Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former First-Lady of the United States, Current junior U.S. Senator from New York and candidate for Democratic nomination for U.S. Presidency, class of 1965

★ Danny Corkill, child actor, class of 1992

★ Greg Glienna, director, actor, screenwriter, "Meet the Parents", class of 1981

★ Mark Greenwald, Olympic speedskater, class of 1986

★ David Greising, Chicago Tribune Business Editor, class of 1978

★ Matt Hader, screenwriter, The American Screenwriters Association Board Member class of 1978

★ Rick Hader, aka, Myron Noodleman, the "Clown Prince of Baseball" class of 1976

★ Dag Juhlin, musician (Poi Dog Pondering, The Slugs, Goldstars, Greenwoods), class of 1980

★ David 'the Rock' Nelson, Former Golden Gloves Boxer and current b-movie horror filmmaker

★ Dana Olsen, screenwriter, class of 1976

★ Ray Ozzie, computer software specialist, creator of Lotus Notes and Chief Software Architect at Microsoft, class of 1973

★ John Pankow, actor (Mad About You, To Live and Die in LA), class of 1973

★ Greg Peterson, $38,000 runner-up in the Summer, 2007 Jeopardy! Teen Tournament, class of 2007

★ Kurtis Romanowski, 1999 World's Strongest Man Contestant, class of 1986

★ David Santee, Olympic Figure Skater (1976, 80); 8 times top three in the U.S; 2nd in the world (1981), class of 1975

★ Janet Shamlian, national NBC News Correspondent, class of 1980

★ Nancy Swider, Olympic speedskater (1976, 80, 84, 88); National Speed Skating Hall-of-Fame, class of 1974

★ Jim Walewander, Professional Baseball player (Detroit Tigers), class of 1980

★ Hope Woodside, news anchor Fox News, Salt Lake City, UT, class of 1979

References

1. Illinois School Report Card

External links

★ Official Website

★ Maine South High School Alumni website

★ WMTH Alumni website

★ IHSA season records for Maine South athletics and activities