Borah High School

History

The school opened 59 years ago in the fall of 1958 at the base of the second Boise bench, on what would later become Cassia Street in southwest Boise. Borah was the second high school in the Boise School District, preceded by Boise High School in 1902, and followed by Capital in the north in 1965, and Timberline in the southeast (converted from Les Bois Junior High) in 1998.

In the last years before Borah opened, overcrowding at Boise High School limited its downtown campus to the upper two grades only. Sophomores remained with the freshman at the four junior high schools (North, East, South, & West). Unlike most new schools, Borah had a senior class (1959) during its first year.

Mascot & colors

The school colors of Borah High School are green and gold (with accessory use of white and black), and the mascot is the lion. The school's slogan is "The Lions of Idaho," a play on the nickname of namesake Senator William Borah, known internationally as the "Lion of Idaho" for his outspoken stance on issues.

Student body

In July 2015 the school enrollment was 1,569; the 13th grade 10 students, 467 seniors, 553 juniors, and 508 sophomores and 31 freshmen's 52% of the school's graduating seniors enrolled in post-secondary education. The feeder schools into Borah are South Junior High and West Junior High.

Borah was listed in Newsweek's Top 1500 high schools in the United States in 2008. In the 1970s and 1980s, Borah had nearly 2000 students, with over 600 students per class.

Football

Borah was the dominant football program in the state for the school's first quarter century, winning the Southern Idaho Conference and the A.P. writers' poll (introduced in 1963) in 15 of the first 21 seasons, as well as two of the first three official titles in the playoff system. Ed Troxel, a former head coach at the College of Idaho, was 78-6-2 (.919) in the school's first nine seasons, with eight unofficial state titles and a runner-up. After an undefeated season in 1966, he left to become an assistant at the University of Idaho in Moscow and assistant coach Delane "De" Pankratz succeeded him as head coach for the next two decades.

Pankratz' first five seasons as head coach brought five more state titles with only two defeats, to intra-city rival Capital in 1967 and 1971, separated by 34 consecutive victories. The 1971 team rebounded from the loss and won eight straight, with a final 27-12 victory on Thanksgiving over Punahou in Honolulu to finish 11-1. The 1975 Lions went undefeated as did the 1978 team, the last before the playoff system. Borah was the state runner-up in 1972, 1974, and 1976.

In November 1979, an 8-team playoff was introduced for the state's largest schools in Class A-1 (5A since 2001); Borah shut out Lewiston 42–0 in the semifinals and archrival Boise 38–0 in the final to grab the first official A-1 state title in football, and finished with a record of 11–1.

Both Borah and Boise returned to the finals in 1980, but with a different outcome as Boise won 7–0 with an early touchdown and a game-ending goal line stand. Borah finished at 9–3, with two losses to Boise and one to Capital. In November 1981, undefeated Borah regained the state title with a 30–13 win over Boise in the Lions' closest game of the year (17 points). The Lions (12–0, with two shutouts) were unchallenged all season, winning by an average score of 37–9, earning a national top-20 ranking in multiple publications. Through 2014, it is Borah's most recent state title in football.

Additional state championships that academic year were won by the Borah varsity basketball team and track & field team (the second of four straight), for a rare triple state title for the class of 1982. The Borah baseball team won the state title in 1981, but lost their opener 1–0 at the state tourney in 1982.

Pankratz was the head football coach at Borah for twenty seasons (1967–86) and compiled a record of 186–36 (.838). He was succeeded by Wil Overgaard in May 1987, the head coach at nearby Bishop Kelly for three seasons. He had been an assistant for six years under Pankratz at Borah (1978–83) and a three-year starter at tackle at Idaho (1974–76) under Troxel. Overgaard was the head coach for seven seasons (1987–93), then left for an administrative position in Weiser.

The current head coach is Darren Corpus, a Borah alumnus from the class of 1980. A longtime coach at feeder school West Junior High, he was the starting fullback on the 1979 championship team and played college football at Boise State. In his first season in 2011, he led the Lions to their first winning season in a decade. The next year, the Lions went 7–2 in the regular season and tied for the 2012 SIC title. It was the most wins for the Lions since 1995 and their first state playoff berth since 2001.

Basketball

Borah won its eleventh state title in basketball in 2013, the fourth under head coach Cary Cada. The Lions won consecutive titles with different head coaches in the mid-1960s, and five titles under Kirk Williams in the 1980s and 1990s.

Track

The boys' track team has won four consecutive titles on three separate occasions, with different head coaches: 1960–63 (Ed Troxel), 1981–84 (Rich Dickson), and 2004–07 (Chester Grey). The girls' team also won four consecutive titles (2005–08) with Grey as head coach.

State titles

Boys

Girls

Combined

Honors

Idaho's Gatorade Player of the Year

Facilities

The school sits on a sprawling campus, with five permanent buildings, connected by outdoor "breezeways." The original 1958 campus featured three structures: the main classroom building, with a designated hall for each of the three grade levels, and a cafeteria, library, main office and other assorted features. The other two buildings were the "math hall" (math and industrial arts); and the "old gym," which contained the school's original gymnasium, publications staff room, orchestra, band, and weight room facilities.

A second gym was added to the campus in 1993, commonly known as the "new gym," which was renovated in 2007–08. A large auditorium was constructed on the west end of the campus in 2000.

Athletic facilities include Bill Wigle Field (former home to several minor league baseball teams, including the Boise Hawks), an indoor batting cage facility, synthetic-rubber track and several other fields used for physical education classes and extra-circular activities. Wigle was the head baseball coach for Borah's first 24 years.

From its founding in 1958 through 2011, the school's varsity football team played its home games at Bronco Stadium on the campus of Boise State University, about four miles (6 km) east. In 2012, high school games were moved a few blocks northeast to the new Dona Larsen Park, the former site of East Junior High (1952–2009). Before it was a school site, it was "Public School Field," the home field of Boise High. It was also used for college football by Boise Junior College (1930s), and on occasion, the University of Idaho (1920s and 1930s).

Soccer games are held off-campus at 334 S. Cole Rd, the old Jackson Elementary or BLA Building.

Alumni