Pascack Hills High School

History

Before the $2.9 million facility opened in September 1965, the district received a $12,000 grant from a unit of the Ford Foundation that would allow the school to use IT&T computer systems run by a senior program analyst from that firm that would allow students to select classes on their own, with a system of folding walls that could be adjusted to handle student groups of varying sizes. The school spent its first five decades relatively unchanged in terms of architecture. In 2006, an extra gym was added. Most recently, the new science wing was opened as well as a new entrance building. This school is one of the first locally to provide every student with a laptop, which can be taken home, and be used in school everyday. Every classroom is fitted with a wireless access point (IEEE 802.11 a/g/n), which provides the students with internet. For the 2007-08 school year, the school upgraded all the laptop computers to Apple MacBooks.

Awards, recognition and rankings

Pascack Hills High School was the 7th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology. The school had been ranked 18th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 7th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 12th in 2008 and was ranked 8th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. The school's peak rating by New Jersey Monthly was in 2001 at 2nd. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 46th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 29 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (93.0%) and language arts literacy (97.0%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 345th in the nation among participating public high schools and 27th among schools in New Jersey.

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 62nd in New Jersey and 1,782nd nationwide. In Newsweek's May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Pascack Hills High School was listed in 1194th place, the 40th-highest ranked school in New Jersey.

Campus

Pascack Hills High School's athletic facilities include a regulation size track, a turf football field named for long-time principal Bart DiPaola, four tennis courts, a combination softball and baseball field that can be utilized for soccer, and two gymnasiums, which house basketball and volleyball.

Academics

Students at Pascack Hills High School are required to take four years of English, three years of mathematics, two years of world language, three years of science, and three years of social studies in order to graduate. In addition, the class of 2014 and beyond must successfully complete a half year of the state-mandated Financial Literacy course. The school offers Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, and ESL courses for their world language program. The AP courses offered to students for the 2010 to 2011 academic year are AP English III, AP English IV, AP US History (divided into the students' sophomore and junior years), AP World History, AP Calculus, AP Computer Science, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP Spanish Language, AP French Language, AP Studio Art, and AP Art History. The school also offers an array of Virtual High School courses via an online option. "Virtual schooldays" are part of the plan.

Athletics

The Pascack Hills Cowboys compete in Colonial Division A of the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference (NJIC), made up of private and public high schools located in Bergen County, Hudson County and Passaic County, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 637 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 495 to 762 students in that grade range.

The school participates as the host school / lead agency in a joint gymnastics program program with Pascack Valley High School, under an agreement that expires at the end of the 2016-17 school year; Pascack Valley is the host school for boys' / girls' swimming and ice hockey.

In 2004, the football team joined the Bergen-Passaic Scholastic League (BPSL), to play against other schools of similar enrollment size. Citing lower enrollment, and the loss of Hillsdale and portions of River Vale to Pascack Valley as a result of redistricting, Pascack Hills left the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League (NBIAL) for football only and played an independent schedule for two seasons, as PHHS was classified by the NJSIAA as a Group I school (the smallest of the four classifications) and all of the other schools in the league were Group II or Group III schools. Prior to the NJSIAA's realignment that took effect in the fall of 2010, Pascack Hills was a member of the NBIAL for most sports. Pascack Hills is the only former NBIAL school in the NJIC, joining Queen of Peace High School and Rutherford High School as the only two schools moved to the NJIC that had not come directly from the Bergen County Scholastic League National / Olympic divisions or from the BPSL.

School colors are brown and white with orange. Sports offered include cheerleading, dance, cross-country, football, boys' and girls' soccer, tennis, volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, bowling, ice hockey, swimming, wrestling, Winter Track, baseball, softball, and lacrosse.

Football

In 1979, the football team completed an 11-0 undefeated season and won the Group III state championship, the program's first title, with a 24-14 victory over Hoboken High School in the championship game, played at Giants Stadium. That Hoboken team was coached by Ed Stinson, who would eventually become the Cowboys head coach during the 1980s.

In 2005, under the leadership of Head Coach Brooks Alexander, the football team reached the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons, losing to #3 seed Bogota High School in the first round by a score of 41-7. In his six-year tenure, Alexander has become one of the most successful football coaches in school history and only the second football coach in school history to lead the Cowboys to the playoffs on two separate occasions, the first being Bill Lally in 1978 and 1979. At the end of the 2005 season Alexander was named the All-Suburban Coach of the Year.

In 2006, the football team reached the playoffs for the second year in a row, this time being beaten 9-3 in a close defensive battle against the #4 seeded Hasbrouck Heights High School Aviators. The Cowboys finished 2006 with a 7-3 record. Senior defensive leaders Dan Avento (Monmouth University) and Evan Lampert (Rutgers University) were recruited to Division I schools. The Cowboys clinched their first Conference championship since 1996 by claiming the B.P.S.L. King Division title. Coach Alexander was named both the B.P.S.L. Coach of the Year and the National Football Foundation Coach of the Year.

In 2009, the football team once again reached the playoffs under Coach Alexander. With a regular season record of 7-2 (losses to Hasbrouck Heights High School and Bogota High School), the Cowboys would go and play Ramsey High School (the future 2009 state champions) and lose by a score of 35-6 in the North I, Group II tournament.

In 2010, the Cowboys won the N.J.I.C. Conference Championship. Once again the Cowboys made the State Playoffs. They lost to Ramsey, for the second year in a row, in the first round of the North I Group II state playoffs. The Cowboys finished the season with a win over Glen Rock High School at the return of the Thanksgiving Day Game, finishing the season with a 7-3 record. Once again, Head Coach Brooks Alexander won Coach of the Year honors, the fourth time he has been named Coach of the Year.

Wrestling

Pascack Hills was the number one ranked wrestling team in the United States in 1977, and was selected by The Record as its Team of the Century. Coach Bucky Rehain received numerous awards during his long successful career, including recognition by the National Wrestling Coaches Association in 1984 as its Coach of the Year. The team is coached by David Bucco, a standout wrestler from Paramus High School.

The wrestling team won the North I Group III state sectional title in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1984, and won the North I Group II title in 1999.

Volleyball

In 1999, the Pascack Hills girls' volleyball team achieved their first all-state victory and was also ranked number one in the league. In 2009, the PHHS Volleyball team won the Group I state championship in two games against Science Park High School.

In 2010, the Pascack Hills girls volleyball team was ranked number one in the league and third in the state tournament. Coaches Shawn McDonald and Janet Goodman lead the team to an impressive overall season.

Basketball

In the 2001-02 season, the Pascack Hills boys' basketball team accumulated their highest win total in school history and posted a 33-5 record. Nolan Leonard became the fourth Hills player to surpass 1,500 career points in a second half comeback victory at home versus Westwood Regional High School. The Cowboys posted an undefeated home record and suffered three losses on neutral courts. The season climaxed with a Group II state sectional championship over a physically larger Manchester Regional High School squad at the Northern Highlands gym. The Cowboys' season ended with a 94-78 loss to Roselle Park High School in the opening round of the Group II State Tournament.

In 2006, the boys' varsity basketball team reached the Final Four of the Bergen County Jamboree, the annual county tournament. It was only the second time in school history that the team reached the semifinals of this tournament which goes back 60 years.

On March 5, 2007, the boys' basketball team won the North I, Group II state championship, edging Westwood Regional High School by 66-65 in overtime, in a game played at River Dell High School. Senior forward Evan Lampert was voted First Team All-County and finished his career with 1,000 points, the 1,000th point was scored in the Group II state championship.

Tennis

The boys' tennis team won the Group II state championship in 1986 (defeating Moorestown High School in the tournament final) and 2009 (vs. Chatham High School), and won the Group I title in 2005 (vs. Florence Township Memorial High School) and 2006 (vs. Pennsville Memorial High School).

The tennis team won the 2006 Group I state championship, defeating Florence Township Memorial High School 3-2 in the semifinals and Pennsville Memorial High School 4-1 in the finals.

The boys' tennis team won the North I, Group II state sectional championship with a 4-1 win in the tournament final over Dwight Morrow High School.

The 2011 team won the North I, Group II state sectional championship 3-2 with a win vs. Mountain Lakes High School.

Both teams are coached by Eric Ganz, who is also the voice of Pascack Hills football.

Baseball

The baseball team won the Group III state championship in 1987 and 1988, defeating Cherry Hill High School West in the finals of the tournament in both years.

The 1987 baseball team was the first to secure titles as NBIL League Champions and Bergen County Champions defeating Park Ridge High School 15-1, as part of a 28-5 season in which they captured the North I, Group III sectional title and won the Group III state championship over Cherry Hill High School West by a score of 6-4.

The 2006 baseball team took the North I, Group I sectional title, edging Emerson High School 3-2 in the tournament final.

Softball

The softball team won the 2007 North I, Group II state sectional championship with a shutout victory over Pascack Valley High School (1-0) in the tournament final. In 1985 the softball team won the North I, Group III state sectional championship with a 3-2 victory over Ramsey High School in the tournament final.

Dance

The Pascack Valley Regional Dance Team consists of girls from Pascack Hills and Pascack Valley. There is a JV and Varsity team. The Varsity team has won the NDA national championship in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013. The coaches are Dena Noon and Val DeSantis. The Dance team currently holds many regional, state, and national titles.

Soccer

In 2007, the girls soccer team, seeded 11th, won the North I, Group II state sectional championship with a 2-1 overtime win (4-2 on penalty kicks) over top-seeded River Dell Regional High School in the tournament final. The win was the team's first sectional title.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of Pascack Hills High School include: