Hickory High School is located in Hickory, North Carolina. It is a public school in the Hickory City School system, located in Catawba County in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina.
<p>General information
Hickory High School is located in Hickory, North Carolina and originated as the Claremont School for girls, then became co-educational and was renamed Claremont Central High School which was located at what is now the Arts and Science Center of Catawba Valley. The school was renamed Hickory High School in the 1940s and moved to its current location of 1234 3rd Street Northeast in 1972. Hickory is a 3A high school. Hickory High is the largest of all schools within the Hickory Schools' district.
Athletics
The school's sports teams compete in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA). They are in the Northwestern 3A-4A Athletic Conference. The school colors are garnet and gold, and the sports teams are known as the Red Tornadoes.
Hickory has won numerous State Championships in many different sports. Most notably was the 1996 football team that went undefeated 16-0 to win the State 3A Championship against Ragsdale High School at Kenan Memorial Stadium, on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The football team won three Western North Carolina State Championships before the NCHSAA went to an overall state champion format. The 1959 team went 12-0. The 1960 team went 10-1-1. The 1966 team went 12-0. The football team played in four consecutive state championships from 1958 to 1961. The 1958 team went 11-1. The 1961 team went 10-1-1. From 1958 to 1966 the football team played in 6 out of nine state championships. Winning 3. The football team has won numerous conference championships: 1923, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1943, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2005, and 2007.
The highest score in a game for Hickory was 121-0 against rival Newton High School.
The Girls' Basketball team has garnered many awards and records over the years. Winning 4 state championships in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2015. The 1998 team went 31-1 and the 1999 team went 32-0.
The Girls' Basketball team has a big rivalry with Fred T. Foard High School in Mountain View, North Carolina. The most recent score of the matchup being a 112-49 rout of the Tigers by the Red Tornadoes. Followed by a large win over Hunter Huss High School in December 2011, a 101-3 victory
Athletics and championships
The Red Tornadoes JV Football program has slumped from having a 10â€"0 season in 2007 their fifth consecutive and 6th in the seven years prior to so, to the 2011-12 season in which they finished with a 6-4 record. The varsity football team finished with an 8-4-1 record.
Hickory High's domination has come in the sports of tennis, golf, and men's and women's basketball in the past five years. The most recent was the 2011-12 season the Hickory High men's and women's varsity basketball teams went to the State West Regionals. The women lost to Harding University High School and the men beat the Concord High School Spiders. The State Championship game will be held Saturday March 10, 2011 at 7:30 pm at the Dean E. Smith Center at the campus of the University of North Carolina.
The Red Tornadoes men's tennis team has won 3 state dual team championships; however, 2 of the 3 have come since 2004. The men's tennis team during the period of 2002-2006 made it to the State Championship all four years, winning the championship during the 2003-2004 and the 2005-2006 seasons. During the 2002-2003 and the 2004-2005, the Team lost two close matches against East Chapel Hill High School. Also during this stretch, individuals were decorated with Individual Tennis State Championships.
The Tornadoes varsity soccer team has been to three total 3A State Championships. Runners-up in 1997. State Championship winners in 2001 (Ryan Succop was a member of this team Kansas City Chiefs kicker) and also runners-up in 2010 and 2012.
The school's current athletic director is David M. Craft.
Notable people
- Frank Barger, athletics coach and member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame head football coach from 1953-1984. Compiled a 230-105-6 record.
- Rick Barnes, head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers Men's Basketball Team. Barnes graduated from Hickory High in 1973. He played college basketball at Lenoir-Rhyne College lettering 3 years. He began coaching at North State Academy during the 1977-1978 season. The next year he took an assistant job at Davidson College under Eddie Biedenbach. Barnes was at Davidson for 2 years before moving on to George Mason where he served as an assistant to Joe Harrington from 1980-85. He joined the University of Alabama as an assistant under Wimp Sanderson in the 1985-1986 season. The next season, he was an assistant at Ohio State University under former University of Maryland head coach, Gary Williams. His first head coaching job was at Providence College from 1988-1994. From there he moved on to Clemson University from 1994-1998. He then coached the Texas Longhorns from 1998-2014. He will be entering his first season at the University of Tennessee in 2015.
- J. T. Poston, professional golfer
- Austin Johnson, National Football League player, New Orleans Saints
- Ryan Succop, National Football League kicker, Tennessee Titans, 2009 NFL Draft's Mr. Irrelevant
- Austin M. Allran, member of the North Carolina General Assembly
- Chris Washburn, former NBA player for the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks. Played college basketball at North Carolina State University. Was the #3 draft pick in the 1986 NBA Draft. He played 72 games in the NBA averaging 3.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. Was banned for life by the NBA for failing 3 drug tests in 3 years. Sports Illustrated named him the 2nd biggest bust in NBA draft history in 2005.
References
External links
- Hickory High School Website
- Official School Athletic Site
- Hickory City Schools Website
