Parkview High School (Georgia)

History

During the early 1970s, Gwinnett County led the US in growth. This phenomenal growth rate produced overcrowding in its school systems, leaving South Gwinnett High School and Berkmar High School too overcrowded to accommodate excess student populations. In 1975, construction began on a new school. The students chose a panther as their school mascot, with orange and white as their school's colors, and blue as an accent color. The school was named "Parkview" after Stone Mountain Park. The doors opened in 1976 with Bartow Jenkins as its first principal.

The school expanded, both in area and number of students, until it was filled above capacity in the early to mid-1990s. In 2005, Parkview took over the then adjacent Trickum Middle School to create more space for its rapidly expanding population. The old Trickum Middle School building was reinstated as the "9th Grade Academy," and many freshman courses were relocated there. In moving classes to the new building, the school eliminated all of the nearly 70 trailers that had been used as annex partition on the school's property for the past decade.

Parkview has an average SAT score of 1557, making it one of the top 25 schools in the state. Its graduation rate is 88.5 percent.

Brookwood-Parkview rivalry

Brookwood High School opened in 1981 out of the Parkview and South Gwinnett school districts, but it was 10 years before a rivalry between Parkview and Brookwood emerged. The schools have been rivals in everything from sports to academics since the 1990s and were even featured on the Great American Rivalry Series.

Student Council

Parkview High School has a student council composed of class officers, student council representatives, and Gwinnett Student Leadership Team members. The council is run according to the guidelines of a student-authored constitution written in 2014. The student council maintains contact with the Georgia House District 108 representative and takes a trip to the State Capitol once a year.

School newspaper

The Parkview Pantera is an award-winning student newspaper published between 4 and 7 times per school year. Parkview students write articles and lay out the paper under the guidance of the newspaper teacher. Numerous Pantera staff members have gone on to study journalism in college. As of 2013, the Pantera staff maintains a website for the paper: phspantera.com.

Academics

Parkview was recognized by the Department of Education as a Blue Ribbon School for the 1984-1985 school year. It is ranked as the 19th best high school in Georgia (out of over 400), 3rd best high school in Gwinnett County, and 562nd best high school in the nation according to US News and World Report.

The school offers 26 AP courses and has a large gifted program.

Athletics

Parkview is known as a school of great athletic achievement, especially since the late 1990s. In 2005, Sports Illustrated ranked Parkview number 7 in its list of the "Top Sports Schools Nationwide." Parkview maintains a fierce rivalry in athletics with neighboring Brookwood High School. Parkview has won over 75 state championships in Georgia High School Association-sanctioned sports, making it the second most athletically successful highest division school in Georgia. Parkview is a AAAAAAA division school in Region 8.

Baseball

The Parkview baseball team won the State Championship in 1996, 2001, 2002, 2011, 2012, and 2015. It won the national title in 2012 and 2015. Parkview baseball currently ranks #4 in the nation.

Basketball

The Lady Panthers won a state championship in 2003 and Region Championships in 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016. In 2012, the Lady Panthers were ranked 3rd in the Girls' Final Hoops Poll by Score Magazine. The Lady Panthers are considered one of the better women's basketball teams in the county.

Cheerleading

Parkview Cheerleading won the state championship in 1998. Parkview has placed in the GHSA Top 16 Finals 2002-2014, with 1 Sub-Region and 2 Regional Championships.

Cross country

The Parkview boys' cross country team, historically one of the best teams in Georgia, has won eight state championships in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993, 2004, 2005, and 2006, as well as numerous second-place trophies, with the most recent in 2010. The Parkview girls' cross country team won the state championship in 1988. The current boys' and girls' cross country coach is Mike Demarest; former Coach James Tigue left in 2014.

Football

The first Parkview football head coach was Doug Burt, who served from 1976-1982. Coach Hugh (Buck) Buchanan was the head coach from 1983-1985. The Panthers went undefeated from 2000–2002, winning three straight AAAAA state championships, and reaching as high as second in the USA Today national high school football rankings during that stretch. The team was also AAAA state champions in 1997. Head Coach Cecil Flowe led the Panther varsity football team from 1994 to 2013. In 2014, Head Coach Eric Godfree took over. The stadium is now officially called "The Big Orange Jungle" or "Karl Bostick Field," but was previously known as "The Valley of the Cat."

Golf

The men's golf team won the Region Title from 2002–2005. They finished third in the state in 2004. The girls' golf team won the Region Title in 2002, 2003, and 2007.

Lacrosse

Parkview's men and women's lacrosse team was founded in 2010. The women's team is led by Melissa Smith and the men's by USMC (Ret.) GySgt David "Gunny" Erwin.

ROTC

The Parkview High School Orienteering team is in conjunction with students from Brookwood High School. The team is sponsored by Parkview's MCJROTC program, GySgt. David Erwin (USMC), Ret., Amy Williams, and Rick "Coach" Shane.

The riflery team is sponsored by Parkview's MCJROTC program and is run by Maj. Ron Tootle (USMC) Ret. They compete against other ROTC programs throughout the county, region, and state and travel out of state to various competitions.

Soccer

The Parkview boys' soccer team has won seven state championships, in 1993-1994, 1997–1998, 2001, 2005, and 2016. The Parkview girls' soccer team has won seven state championships, in 1997, 2003, 2005, 2007–2009, and 2013. In 1997, Parkview soccer became the first program in Georgia to win the girls' and boys' state championships in a single year. In 2005, the program repeated this feat. The Parkview soccer program is one of the most successful soccer programs in the state.

Swim and dive

The Parkview boys' swim and dive team holds the record for most state championships at Parkview, boasting ten total wins in 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2012, and 2013. The girls' swim and dive team won the state championship in 1997 and 1998. Many Parkview swimmers have gone on to swim at universities and colleges throughout the country.

Tennis

The Parkview girls' tennis team won the state championship in 1980.

Track and field

Parkview High School boys' track and field won the State Championship in 2009. The Parkview High School boys and girls won the Region Championship in 2011.

Volleyball

Parkview's volleyball varsity teams held the title of Area Champions in 2007. The team made it to the Sweet Sixteen in 2007, 2008, and 2009 and has made the playoffs every year since.

Wrestling

Parkview wrestling has won four state championships. The team won both the dual and team individual state tournaments in 2004 and 2006.

DECA

The Parkview chapter of DECA has 250 members, making it Parkview's biggest club and the 5th largest DECA chapter in the nation. Parkview members compete regularly in DECA marketing competitions, winning the Region Title in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. DECA members qualify to compete at the State Competition and the International Career and Development Conference almost every year.

Academic Decathlon

In 2013, Parkview's Academic Decathlon (PAD) went to the United States Academic Decathlon's (USAD) 2013 Nationals Competition in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was the first time in its history the school had done so, because in prior years, the team was not successful against its rival, Berkmar High School, at the state competition. Even though PAD was the runner-up at the state competition, because of the subjectivity of the Interview and Speech portions of the competition, the PAGE (Professional Association of Georgia Educators) Foundation's Academic Decathlon (GAD) decided to send Parkview to Nationals in 2013 alongside Berkmar. Parkview placed first overall in district, and second overall at state. In the 2014-2015 competitive season, Parkview's Academic Decathlon won first in state and proceeded to Nationals in California. Parkview's Academic Decathlon is currently led by coaches Melodie Carr and Amy Hammond.

Science Bowl

Parkview's Science Bowl Team won the state title and participated in the national competition from 1999–2003, 2006, 2007, and 2009. The team's best finish at the National Science Bowl was fifth in 2007.

Science Olympiad

Parkview's Science Olympiad team has won the state competition seven times (1995, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010) and has won second place three times (1995, 2002, 2009).

Technology Student Association

Parkview's TSA chapter won first place at Georgia State Leadership Conference in Athens in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and came in second place in four of the five years before that (2008-2013). They won 2nd place in 2017, being overtaken by South Forsyth.

Odyssey of the Mind

The school hosts the Lilburn regional for the Georgia Odyssey of the Mind competition every year. The school has won regionals and state multiple times, the most recent being first on Problem Four in 2011. The OM team also won the Odyssey of the Mind World Championships in 1999.

Ultimate frisbee

Parkview has had an ultimate frisbee club team since 2009. The team's only head coach has been Dustin Smith. The team finished third in the 2012 Division II Georgia State Championship Tournament.

Band

The band program is currently under the direction of Jason Atha and Lance Kindl. In 2005, Parkview High School Band, under the direction of Allen Beach and Richard Magner, was awarded the John Philip Sousa Foundation's Sudler Flag of Honor. This is an international award recognizing concert bands of outstanding musical excellence. Parkview is one of four schools in the state of Georgia and 68 in the world to receive this award.

Parkview has also been placed on the Historic Roll of Honor of High School Concert Bands. This lists recognizes "historic high school concert bands of very particular musical excellence." The Georgia State Legislature passed Georgia Senate Resolution 1313 and Georgia House Resolution 2063 honoring the Parkview High School Band.

The Parkview High School Marching Band was the Grand Champion of the 2010 Golden River Marching Festival in Tallapoosa, with an overall score of 94 out of 100. The color guard and drum majors also received the highest scores in the competition.

In April 2011, Parkview High School Marching Band won the WSB-TV Best High School Band Contest. The tournament featured 64 high school bands from across Georgia, and the Parkview Band performed their baseball-themed show on Turner Field before an Atlanta Braves game.

Orchestra

Parkview has three orchestras: Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra. Following Mrs. Sampson's retirement in 2016, Mr. Hague, former Grayson High School Orchestra director, is the director of Parkview's Orchestra. His wife also taught in the Parkview District.

Theatre

Parkview High School is a member of the prestigious International Thespian Society. Members who join Parkview's honors thespian society are inducted into Troupe 4805.

Parkview School District

Statistics

Parkview's enrollment for the 2013-2014 school year numbered 2,820 students, of whom 36.5% were White, 25.6% African American, 19.6% Asian or Pacific Islander American, 13.3% Hispanic, 0.3% Native American, and 3.9% of two or more races. 33.1% of students came from households with incomes below the federal poverty line. Parkview has a 18:1 student-teacher ratio.

Notable alumni