Plymouth High School (Michigan)

History

The original Plymouth High School was built in the early 20th century on the northwest corner of Main Street and Church Street, opposite from present-day City Hall in present-day downtown Plymouth, Michigan. The district deemed the facility to be outdated by the 1960s for high school use. The facility was closed after the 1969-1970 school year.

When the first new high school opened in the present-day Plymouth-Canton Educational Park, the original Plymouth High School was converted into a middle school, dubbed Central Middle School (in conjunction with the more recently constructed East and West Middle Schools). Central Middle School remains a landmark in down town and closed as a middle school after the 2014-2015 school year. When Plymouth opened it only let in Freshmen, and the next year Freshmen and Sophomores, etc.

Originally planned to simply remain Plymouth High School, the school's name was changed to Plymouth-Salem High School after Canton opened. Although the school district serves much of rural Salem Township, Salem residents were not necessarily exclusive to Plymouth-Salem.

Plymouth High's colors of red, white, and blue, were split up, with Plymouth-Salem retaining blue and white, and the eventual Canton High School teams taking the red with white. Opened in August 2002, and constructed southwest of Salem High School, the new Plymouth High School was designed by the architecture firm French Associates. The students selected to be Plymouth High's first senior class, the Class of 2006, were polled to come up with a new nickname for the school. Their selection, the Predators (after the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League), was met with opposition from some parents who associated it with sexual predators. As a result, the school decided to use the generic "Wildcats" nickname, while still using the saber-toothed tiger logo of the Nashville Predators. Plymouth's school colors were to be purple and white (a combo of the red and blue of Salem and Canton), but were changed to black and silver. In addition to the formal online school resources, the school's parents, coaches and boosters proudly and voluntarily contribute content related to their group and team activities [1].

Plymouth-Salem retained their "Rocks" mascot; supposedly named in conjunction with the school's original identity (The Plymouth "Rocks"), or because of the large unmovable boulder that sits outside the school. It is tradition for students to spray paint this rock for school events and to celebrate important sports victories. The rock was moved during the renovations in 2008.

Campus

The campus is 305 acres (1.2 km²), although much of this is athletic fields. Students may have classes in all three academic buildings, even though each student is assigned to one "home school" from which he or she is to graduate from and play sports. Students are permitted 10 minutes passing time to walk among their classes. There has been criticism that it is unsafe for students to walk though several inches of snow, but the superintendent still gives snow days as rarely as possible. State Law, however, does require that passage between buildings be halted in the event of lightning, though this has happened only twice since the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. There is one soccer and football field at Plymouth, as well as a band complex.

Extracurricular activities

The school is home to various clubs, the Marching Band, and FIRST Robotics Team. All three Science Olympiad teams qualified for the state level competition in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. Also, Plymouth's 2007 Novice and 2009 Varsity Quiz Bowl teams won the championship in the tri-county area.

Marching band

The Plymouth-Canton Marching Band is under the direction of Director, Mr. David Armbruster and has placed no lower than 15th place in the country at the Bands of America Grand National Championships every year since 1988. They have won the Grand National Championship there three times; 1990, 1991 and 1999. The group has won the Michigan Competing Band Association Flight or Division I title 25 times as well as 14 times in a row from 1994 to 2007. There are also various academic bands and two orchestras as classes to be taken during the regular school day. In April 2007, PCEP's Open Class Winter Guard placed 4th at the Winter Guard International World Championships in Dayton, OH. The marching band appeared in the 1973 Rose Bowl Parade as well as a nationally broadcast Battle of The Bands Show, hosted by Jerry Lewis, prior to the parade.

Orchestra

There are two orchestra classes. The lower orchestra is called Concert Orchestra, while the upper one is called Symphony Orchestra. Placement into either of these is determined by audition. Symphony Orchestra typically plays AA-rated musical pieces, often playing pieces with members of the Wind Ensemble. They have been ranked as one of the best performing high school symphony orchestras in the state, consistently earning a Division I rating at District Orchestra Festival. Both high school orchestras often perform for community events, and volunteers from orchestra classes and Wind Ensemble play in the orchestra pit for the musicals. There is also a middle school orchestra program which meets in the high school during first hour in the high school schedule. All orchestra classes are directed by Catherine DePentu. In April 2009 the orchestras performed together at the Duxbury High School Performing Arts Center in Massachusetts winning second place at the festivals of music.

Choirs

There are six choir classes at PCEP. The entry-level choir for ninth-grade girls, Park Singers, is the starting choir for most students. The starting place for all guys is Parks Men. One step above Park Singers for girls is Allegro!. The only mixed choir class, Allegro! performs easy to moderately challenging selections. After Allegro!, the next highest choir for girls is Dulcissima. Dulcissima is a group of roughly 65 select female voices who perform moderate to challenging pieces for competitions, earning high marks. The highest choir for girls is the Madrigal Singers. The Madrigals perform extremely challenging selections, and have earned highest honors at state and national competitions. Equal with the Madrigals is the male select choir, Chamber Choir, which has also earned highest honors at state and national competitions. Although Chambers and Madrigals have separate classes, the two choirs rehearse together after school every week, and practice pieces that they do together. This combined choir is called the Festival Singers and is nicknamed by its members "Chambrigals". The Festival Singers travel around throughout the school year and perform for various competitions and community events. The six, award-winning choirs have a total of about 300 members (and growing), and are directed by Jennifer Kopp and co-directed by Valerie Said.

Clubs that also have to do with choir are three after school a cappella groups; Aria, Timbrewolves, and Conamore.

Sports

Tennis Plymouth High School boys tennis team won their first divisional championship in 2009-10, and the second divisional championship in 2011-2012. They have been division champs for the last 5 years (2011-2016).

Men's Golf Qualified for the State Finals the last 4 years (2010-2013) finishing 7th, 10th, 8th, and 2nd. Were also KLAA South division champions the last 4 years. In 2012 the men's team won its first regional championship and completed this feat again in 2013. The past two years the team has had two members receive all state recognition. Three graduates are currently playing at the collegiate level (one at NAIA and two at the Division 1 level).

Volleyball The volleyball team was first to win the division.

Boys Track & Field The boys track and field team joined the volleyball team in being the first to win the division.

Football In 2005, their first year of having a full graduating class, the Plymouth football team made the state playoffs, losing their first ever playoff game. The team again made the playoffs in 2007 and 2008, again losing their first games in the Pre-District round. The Wildcats made the playoffs again in 2010; yet, this time they not only won their first game, but they went on to beat Canton, Detroit Catholic Central, and Rockford on their way to the Division 1 State Final where they lost to Lake Orion 21-13.

Girls Soccer The 2010 Girls Soccer team won their first MHSAA Regional title in 2009-2010. They went on to beat Portage Central in the state semi-finals, earning the right to play in their first State Finals game losing 2-1 in overtime on a penalty kick to Novi High School.

Boys Lacrosse Plymouth, Canton, and Salem high school Boys Lacrosse previously competed under the unified team the "PCS Warriors," however they have recently split up into individual teams.

Plymouth-Canton-Salem Unified Teams

PCEP Debate Team The team has grown tremendously in the past two years, and is now placing in the top two places for the Wayne-Oakland Debate League.

PCS United Cheer In 2005, the PCS United Cheer team was formed, composed of cheerleaders from all three schools and is also a nationally ranked team.

PCS Girls Ice Hockey The Plymouth-Canton-Salem Penguins girls ice hockey team won the 2006 and 2007 State Championships.

PCEP Figure Skating The Plymouth-Canton-Salem figure skating team competes annually in district competitions as well as statewide championships. In the 2010-11 season, they came in 3rd in district competitions, and went on to tie for 4th place in the statewide competition, just 2 points behind the 3rd place team.

Lightning Robotics FIRST Robotics team number 862. This team competes at the district, state, and world levels. They have won several district competitions and recently won 1st place at the Bedford District event and also placed rank 17th at the World Championship and was also ranked 3rd at the World Championship in 2013, you can get more information at their website.

Curriculum

PCEP, with its large size, offers a wide range of classes. Students have the opportunity to work in a preschool, produce a news program that airs three times a week, and work in a theater group. The school offers band, orchestra, and choir courses, ranging from beginners to pre-professional. Within each of the schools is a writing center, and a math lab, which offers free tutoring service for students' writing, and additional help for students' math respectively.

School Store

One of the great opportunities offered, is the opportunity to work in the school store, the Den at Plymouth. Working in the school store was considered an Advanced Marketing class and was designed to train students in managing a working retail store in a real setting. Teamwork is also emphasized a great deal and an integral part of doing well in the course. The stores sell items such as fresh pretzels and cookies, sweatpants and shirts, and seasonal items that vary from store to store.