HERE lT l$: The most selective ranking in all of sports. Of

the more than 3B,OOO high schools in the U.S., fewer than

one in a thousand made SI's list honoring schools with the

nation's top athletic programs. Our criteria emphasized all-

around excellence during the last 10 years and included state

titles won and college athletes produced. Meet the winners.*:g i:.i.ALANSsipNUCK S

.1irr'i l.i ! ;',';t;.r: li:':l t.,l Dt)Ut; HUF-F

F YOU cruise downAtlanticAvenue on the west side ofLong Beach, Calif., past theGoodwill shop, the

carnircrinand panndzrin,rhe ",liquor stores and church€S, *

past the beauty parlor specializ-ing in hair weaves, you eventuallycome to the imposing edifice ofLong Beach Polytechnic High. Foras long as anyone can remember,the school slogan has been embla-zoned above the front entrance inbold green lettering: HoME oFSCHOIARS & CHAMPIONS. Giventhe grtry surroundings,which have

Billie Jean(Moffin) KingClass of t961

been immortalized in thegangsta rap of alum CalvinBroadus, a.lca. Snoop Dogg,this ethos seems like wish-firl thinking or clever p.r. Yet

those nords have a pro-found effect on the kidswho pass beneath them.

"Oh, God, I loved thatsign. i loved its message,"

says BillieJean King, the tennis legend whograduated from Poly in 196i (back whenshe was known as Billie Jean Moffitt)."Every morning I would pause in front ofit and just breathe it in to remind me of mypurpose. Whenever I'm back home in longBeach, I drive by the school just to get a

giimpse of it for inspiration.""That sign is no joke," says Willie

lltcGinest, the New England Parriots'two-time Pro Bou4 linebacker and Poly ciass

of '90. "scHoLARS & CHAMPiONS is notjust paint, man. It's been wrinen in bloodand sweat."

Champions? No doubt about that. Basedon its across-the-board sports success overthe last 10 ysxl'r, Long Beach Poly has been

chosen by SI as the high school with thenation's best overa-ll athletic program, head'ing a top 25 made up of schools from 19

states (page 6OJ. With apologies to USC,the Jackrabbits have the most celebratedfootball program in Southern California.Since 1996 Poly has gone undefeated threetimes and won five championships in the

"-{=E"@

5 Sarah Beth MooreSENIORSwimming

6 Travon PattersonJUNIORTrack and field

7 William AloSENIORFootball

I Kevin Buggs

JUNIORBasketball

9 Shana WoodsJUNIORT?ack and field

l0 Amanda SalazarSENIORCross-counfir

ff Ethan Durham

JUNIORCross-country

12 Taren ArnoldSENIORVolleybaII

l3 Terrence AustinJUNIORTrack and fiel,:

l4 Desean JacksotiSENIORl.ootball

l5 Armando Arza?e

JUNIORBasebaLl

fg Nikki NomuraSENIORSoccer

&g

LONG BEACH POLYEnrollment: 4,750

I Tim DengSENIORVollryball

2 Tava Tedesco

JUNIORCross-country

3 Kazunori MiyaharaSENIORWater pola

4 Belinda TheamSENIORBadminton

58 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

t@

-*

il Gabrielle Bournes I 22 Melissa Roth

JUNIORSoftball

23 Brent SummersSENIORSwimmtng

24 George HarrisSEN]ORGoIf

25 Jasmine DixonFRNSHMANBasketball

26 Alex Oberjuerge

27 Heidi BoettgerSENIORTennis

28 David ChlebowskiSOPHOMOREBasketball

29 Tomer KonowieckiSENIORSoccer

30 Kevin CastilloJUNIORBasebaII

32 Stephanie MendezSENIORSoccer

33 Sean DucarSENIORWater polo

34 Pierre BattonSENIORTennts

35 Lisa FollmuthSENIORVolleyball

36 Samantha JinadasaSENIORBadminton

37 Patrick TrauberSENIORGoIf

38 Pedro RamosSENIORCross-country

39 Ashley ParishSENIORWater polo

40 Alfredo Manzo

JUNlORWrutling

4l Jezreel ApelarJUNIORMascot

42 SamanrhaPhongSENlORGolf

43 Andy GhinJUNIORWrestling

44 Briana GeorgeSENIORSoftball

45 Laura SimanonokSENIORWater polo

46 Blaine PalsgroveSENIORSwimming

SENIORTrock and field

i Nhan Nguyen:IENIORBadminton

I Gina Adamos

JUNIORGoI!

20 April PhillipsSENIORBasketball

2l Kim PobleteSENIORTennis

SENIORTennis

3i Eric KielSENIORVolleybaII

ferociouslv competitive California Inter-scholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Sec-

tion. {There is no state football toumamentin California.) In the school's 1to-year his-tory four-dozen grads har,e gone on to theNFL, including eight lr'ho were on openingweek rosters in 2oO4: X{cGinest, OaklandRaiders defensive back Marques Anderson,Arizona Cardinals running back LarryCroom, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Ka-reem Kelly, Cardinais quarterback ChrisLewis, Kansas Ciry Chiefs wide receiverSamie Parker, New York Giants defensi'r,r

back Omar Stoutmire and San Francisco49ers defensive end Brandon Whiting. Polyhas also produced NFL rookies of the yearMark Carrier, Leonard Russell and GeneWashington, the last of whom is now theleague's director of Football Operations.

The track program hasn't turned out as

manSz well-knowrr names, but at the highschool level it is even more dominant than

the football squad, with rhe boys' andgirls'teams haring rvon a combined ser,en

state titles since 1997. The girls' relayteams (4x1oo,4x2oo and 4x4oo) setseven nationai records during an18-month stretch in 2003-04. ledby junior Shana 1&bods, who alsoowns three national age-grouprecords in the heptathlon. Thebasketbail teams aren't trad either.In March the girls w'on the CIFsouthern section, powered byfreshman Jasmine Dixon, a 5' 10"guard whom Poly principalShawn Ashley refers to as *this

says, "l didn't rvant to come to school. i

put my hood up and beelined to class. Ir'"like nor only did we let the whole studenibody dov'n, rve also let dorvn their par-

ents lvho s,'ent to Polli their broth-ers rvho went to Polv. theircousins. . . ."

Of course footbaii, basketballand track are the kinds of sportsat wtrich a big, urban school mightbe expected to excei, but Poiy isalso a powerhouse in the countryclub games. The boys' golf teamwent undefeated in the leasue last

GeneWashingtonCkr*s of 1965

school's next franchise athlete." The bo-_vs'

team had woft Tl straight Moore Leaguegames before falling to Long Beach Jor-dan in January. At Poll', losing nanscendsdisappointment and produces somethingcloser to shame. The day after the hoopsstreak ended, senior guard Chris Peys

-vear, and the boys'tennis team hasbeen to the CIF section finals two yearsin a rorv. Even the cross-countr-y and bad-minton teams kick serious butt, each hav-ing won three srraight leagr.re titles.

But what is ali the more remarkableabout Polf is that many of the athletesreally are scholars, just as the sign savs.

DEMATH A @yat*villz, Md.)Enrollment: 1,016

Best known for its nationally ranked basketball teams

and former hoops coach Morgan Wooften, this all-boys

Catholic schooljust outside Washington, D.C., has been

nearly as successful in football. The Stags have won 16

league titles, and this year 17 players received Division I scholarships.Though Wootten retired in 2OQ2, DeMatha has remained a basketballpower. lt finished this past season 29-2 and was ranked No. 9 by USA

Today. Despite lackluster facilities-the wrestling team practices in an

old auto warehouse, and the football team is forced to play games at anearby school-DeMatha has been strong in most sports, and last year

39 of the school's 180 graduating seniors received athletic scholarships.

SAINT THOMAS AOUINAS Gort t anderdote)Enrollment: 2,L38

With alums such as tennis great Chris Evert, formerDallas Cowboys receiver Michael lrvin and Olympic400-meter runner Sanya Richards, Saint ThomasAquinas has long been the preeminent program in Flori-

da. In fact, the Raiders were named the state's best sports program forl9 of the past 20 years by the Florida Athletic Coaches Association. The

school also has hard-core fans: Last year they filled 23 buses for thenearly six-hour trip to Gainesville for the Class 5A state championshipfootball game. The school's best sport, however, is soccer. The girls'team was 29-3 this season and won the state title, and the boys'andthe girls'teams were ranked No. I in the nation in '97 and ,98.

PUNAHOU (Honotulu)Enrollment: 1,730

.ituu.s!?"^ Never mind that the school's most accomplished

F'@i"? student-athlete, rising star golfer Michelle wie,,1 ,.,re,:*i doesn't play on any of its teams. Punahou is the

-'t rL $' power of the Pacific. The Buff 'n' Blue has won 318

state titles in 20 sports. lts strength is in boys'and girls' swimmingand diving (with a combined 80 state titles), and boys'volleyball (ar

least 25 alums have won NCAA championships, and eight are cur-rent AVP tour pros). Punahou also has a strong football tradition: ltsalums include Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow.former New England Patriots running back Mosi Tatupu and formerDallas Cowboys lineman Mark Tuinei.

CH ERRY C REEK (Greenwood Vittage, CoIo )Enrollment: 3,653

While the Bruins have won 162 state titles in every-thing from pompons to football, they are best knownfor their dominance in tennis. over a 28-year span,

trom1972 to 2000, the boys'team won 316 consec-utive dual matches, a national record for that sport. Cherry Creek is

also a power in girls'swimming, with 2l state titles, As a senior In

1991, five-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Amy Van Dykec lvon

two individual state titles (she also won a pair as a junior) and helped

the Bruins earn a state team championship. Another famous alum,

Houston Astros closer Brad Lidge, led Cherry Creek to a siate base-

ball title as a senior in 1995.

60 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

Senior Pat Traughber, the No. 2 player onthe boys' goif team, is currently takingfour advanced-placement courses (calcu-lus, chemistry, statisrics, and English), yet

his 1,380 on the SAI wasn't even the high-est score on his team. The star of the bad-minton squad is junior Samantha Jina-

dasa, who carries a 3.7 GPA ("unweight-ed," she points out) with a schedule thatincludes calculus and three other AP class-

es. In her minimal free time she is part ofa biomedical-research program, workingwith doctors at Cedars-Sinai hospital inlos Angeles studying methods to improve

POLY PROTOTYPI Jackson. who's headedto Cal on a football scholarship, is also a starin baseball and scored 1,280 on his SAT.

the success rate of kidney transplants. Oh,by the way, last March Jinadasa finishedsecond at tie Pan Am Games. competingin mixed doubles with her brother Nick,a 2OO3 Poly grad.

"Is it cool to be a badminton player atPoly? Definitely-as long as you winj'Jina-dasa says. "It doesn't matter what you dohere as long as you do it well. We're proudof our mathletes [academic competitors],we're proud of our band. The things thataren't cool at other high schools are lookedat differently here because thev achievetremendous success."

At Poly even the football stars piayagainst type. Senior wideout Desean Jack-son was the Los Angela Times's player ofthe year in 2AO4" thanks to his game-breaking elusiveness and leadership skills,z

MATER DEI Gonto ena, calif)Enrollment: 2.200

Classes came lo a standstill on March 4 to celebratea schoolwide holiday: Heisman Day. The Monarchs

held a rally to honor trophy-winning alums MattLeinart (class of '01), who led USC to its second

straight national title in January, and John Huarte (class of'61).Mater Dei is only the third high school to produce two Heisman win-ners. Aside from the strong football program-coach Bruce Rollinson

has twice been named national coach of the year-the Monarchs are

also among the best in the state in boys' basketball, in which theyhave won two of the last five state championships and earned fiveconsecutive sectional titles from 1999 to 2003.

PARKVIEW Tilburn,Ga.)Enrollment: 2,620

This suburban Atlanta school is no stranger to na-tional exposure-the 1997 state championship football team appeared on a Cheerios box, and in 2OOO

the Panthers' boys' and girls' soccer teams were fea-lured on Coke bottles. Parkview has won five state boys'soccer titlesover the past 12 years and had a 57-game unbeaten streak between1993 and'95. Those teams produced several stars, including JoshWolff, now a forward for the U.S. national team and the Kansas CityWizards. Parkview also has a strong baseball tradition and has had lFplayers drafted since 1986, among them top Atlanta Braves outfieldprospect Jeff Francoeur, a first-round pick in 2002.

EDfNA (Minn.)Enrollmznt: 1,675 (gtades 1O-12)

The NHL may be in a deep freeze, but fans in the Min-neapolis area had plenty of hockey to cheer about thispast winter. The Homets boys' team, coached by former

North Stars defenseman Curt Giles drew between 1,500

and 1,800 fans a game and won the Classic Lake Conference title. Edina

has earned a Minnesota-record nine state championships in boys'hock-ey (the girls' hockey team was second in its conference this year) and

has been almost that good in girls'Alpine skiing, with seven titles since1997 The Hornets' strongest sport, however, is tennis. The boys have

won 2l state championships. The girls won 15 straight state titles from'78 to'92 and have a current streak of eight in a row.

BOLLES Qacksonvitle)Enrollment: 778

Bolles swimmers have made a splash inside and out-

side the Sunshine State. Current or former starshave swum in every Olympics since 1972, and l0have won medals. Though its combined 43 state ti-

tles in boys'and girls'swimming and diving head its list of achieve-ments, Bolles has had plenty of success in other sports. The Bulldogshave earned two of the last four state football titles (they won Class

2Ain2OO2 and Class 3A in 2004), and coach Corky Rogers holds theFlorida record for most football victories (326). Bolles's most promi-

nent alum, however, is Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones,a 1990 graduate.

which propelled a young team to the CIF

championship. Yet the most impressive

line on his r6sum6 mightbe his 1,28o on

the 9{T. Having spumed USC, Oklahoma,

Florida and lSU, Jackson ',r'i11 suit up in

the fall for Cal, drawn in part by the vi-brant academic environment in Berkeley.

Jackson, whose oider brother BYron

played for the Chiefs in 1993, is one ofseven piayers kom this yea/s team to have

earned Division I-A scholarships, which

is slighdy lower than usual, as typically a

dozen or soJackabbits score full rides inany given year. "Coming from Poly, you're

more *t8active to colleges because they

know.vou can handle the schoolworktooisays McGinest, who was a B student inhigh school before going on to become an

Ali-America and earn a degree in public

a<lministration at USC. To keep its foot-

ball players on uack, Polyhas studyhallswith an emphasis on preparing for the

SAT and meeting I.ICAA academic re-

quirements. Every si-tweeks players must

Lz-

*.{:t +1:

6EACH e"C.

*€€e z.-.

give &eir tutors a progress report, which

is prepared by one of their teachers and

covers grades and anirude.

The engine that drives the school's em-

phasis on academics is the districtwidemagnet program PACE (Program ofAd-ditional Curricular Experiences)' Elery

FAST LlilE Woods, who holds threenational records in the heptathlon, is the

latest in a long line o{ Poly track stars.

year more than 8O0 kids {rom across l"ongBeach apply for 175 spots in PACE. En-trance standards are so tough that last

]€ar an applicant'rvho had a 3.6 GPA and

ranked in the 9oth percentile in state stan-

dardized tests for math and English *'asnot accepted. The kids who get in are as

competitive in athletics as they are in aca-

demics. PACE coordinator Riehar<i Gar-

retson esrimates that in any given year

SOYo-71o/" of his students piay on one ormore teams, and they have a profound ef-

fect on &e ambitions of the entire student

body. Says principalAshley, "College is all

the PACE kids ever talk about, all they

ever think aboug and that becomes pafi ofthe culture of the school. It makes college

a tangible goal and a reachable destina-

tion for sfttdents who might otherwisenerer have considered it."

7

Enrollment: 3,795

The Greyhounds have run laps around opponents

q$gffi il:iH :;l:,lllli,,ill3li H:Jff I,nT::won or finished second in 20 of the 2l sports in

which they field teams. Of course, a top Hoosier State school must

be good in basketball, and this year, led by Duke-bound power for-

ward Josh McRoberts, Carmel went 2l-4 and finished second in

its section. The Greyhounds' best program is girls' swimming and

diving, which competes in a state-of-the-art aquatics center and

has won l9 consecutive state titles, the longest active streak in the

nation in that sport.

DE LA SALLE Gonmrtcalif.)Enrollment: 1,o07

lf you think De La Salle is just a football power,

you're wrong. Sure, the all-boys Catholic schooljust eaot of San Francisco has won 13 straight North

Coasf section titles (California does not crown a

state champion in football) and five IJSA Today national litles in

the last seven years. And the Spartans' l5l-game winning streak

from 1992 to 2004 was the longest in football at any level. But over

the last decade, besides having the dynasty of dynasties, the Spar-

tans have also won 36 section titles in nine other sports. The bas-

ketball (2000) and cross-country (1996) teams can also claim

something that iheir football counterparts cannot: a state title.

N EW TRIER (winnetka, ItI)Enrollment: 3,95O

The Trevians-named for soldiers from the city of

Trier in the Roman Empire-have won more state

ritles (85), boys'championships (55) and girls'

crowns (30) than any other program in lllinois' The

Trevians are strong in just about every sport, but the most domi-

nant team of late at this suburban Chicago school has been girls'

soccer, which has won two straight state titles and had a 60-game

winning streak snapped in April. Somehow New Trier has put to-

gether this empire without having an army of big-name athletes.

The best-known grad to reach the pros was former Cleveland

Browns linebacker Glay Matthews.

PARKERSBURG (w.va.)Enrollment: 1,425

Wrestling is the hottest ticket each winter in Park-

ersburg. The Reds have won l9 state team titles on

the mat, including back-to-back crowns in 2003 and

'04, and their match against archrival Parkersburg

South usually draws 3,500. The girls'volleyball team won its lOth

state title and went 67-0-l this season, setting a state record for

most victories in the sport. But football is what really revs up the cily

of 30,000. Parkersburg has won the most football championships(seven) in the state, and its most noted alum is football Hall of Famer

Earle Neal, a three-sport star who led the Cincinnati Reds to the l9!9

World Series and coached the Philadelphia Eagles to two NFL titles

SPOR'TS II,LUSTRATED

A recent Harvard study made headlinesu"ith the depressing statistic that the over-all graduation rate at California highschools is just 71Yo and that 43% ofAfrican-American and 40% of Latino stu-dents in the state drop out. At Poly 90%of incoming freshmen go on to graduatellast year 192 Paly students matriculatedto the University of Caiifornia system. Ac-cording to Poly that was the most foom anyhigh school in the state. This is all themore impressive considering that Poly's4,75o students-the largest enrollment inthe Southern Section-are a muitihuedsnapshot of urban America: 35% Asian,25% African-American, 7 5o/o Latino

^ 73To

wlrite and 12%oPacific Islander.About the only homogeneity at Poly is on

the playing fields. The bols' and the girls'basketbail teams are almost entireiy black,the golf teams mostly white, the coed bad-minton squad overwhelmingly,{,sian, thelinemen on the football team naditionallySomoan. But even amidsr this aooarent

sameness there is variety; the badmintonteam comprises players of Cambodian,Vietnamese, Chinese or Sri far*an descent,

and coach Steve Meckna can shout en-couragement in three languages.

Long Beach is California's fifth-largest cin'. with a population justunder 5O0,000. Like any largemetropolitan area, it has its goodand bad neighborhoods, but theschool's proximit-v to both ex-tremes makes the differencesmore jarring. Ten minutes to theeast of the Poly campus is the ex-

clusive enclave of Napies Islaad,

the underclass, $'e've got every race anclethniciry yet waiking doviryr the haliways.it's all lol'ej' says senior Pierre Batton, a

standout tennis player who carries a busi-ness card embossed with the citvof Long Beach seal and the spifl'vtit]e VICE-CHAIR OF THE COM'MiSSION ON YOUTH AND CH]L.DREN, a position he volunteeredfor. "We all mingle so weil because

we truly believe we're all part ofone family-Poly."

It hasn't always been that way.

In the early '70s Poly was torn

WillieMcGinest

:!:lY'which along with other nearby wealthyneighborhoods supplies a surprising num-ber of students, drawn by the PACE pro-granr's record of getting its participanrsinto the most exclusive coileges. The shinyexamples of German engineering dottingthe student parking lot onlv add to theschool's stew.

"We've got everyone from rich kids to

apart by a series of race riots, andin the wake of tire violence there rvere dis-cussions about shutting down the school.Instead, a new emphasis was put on cre-ating a magnet progran ro artracr acade-mic overachiel'ers and to foster unity. Toeiiminate racial prejudice the school beganbusing sophomores to the San Bernadinomountains every October for a weekendretreat featuring seminars and bonding ex-

SAI NT XAVI ER @oukvirrc)Enrollment: 1,365

There's never a sure thing at Churchill Downs, but

-,.t!l1|f,o.ro" across town you can always count on the st. x swim

+ team. In February this l4l-year-old all-boys Catholicschool won its lTth consecutive state title-and 4lst

championship overall, a national record for swimming. The Tigers also

excel out of the pool. Graduates include Paul Byrd (Los Angeles An-gels), Chris Burke (Houston Astros) and Scott Padgen (Houston Rock-

ets). Since 1994-95 the Tigers have won 39 state championships, led

by tennis (eight of the last nine), soccer (five), and football and golf

(four each). But football is the biggest draw, and Saint Xavier's annu-

al football game against rival Trinity attracts more than 35,000,

MARIST (Attanta)Enrollment: 1,036

Marist is the little school that could, Though it has

the enrollment of a Class 2A school, it not only com-petes in 4A but also has won every Director's Gup,glven to the best all-around sports program in that

class, since the inception of the award in 2000. Athletics is part of theculture-77% of the students participate on one of the 69 varsity,jayvee, freshman, and seventh- and eighth-grade teams. While boys'basketball (two state titles) and football (22 straighr playoff ap-pearances) are both strong, the War Eagles' best teams are girls'tennis, winner of the last l0 state titles, and girls' cross-country,which has won eight in a row.

Hf GHLAND PARK @arras)Enrollment: 1,904

In a state that takes its high school sports seriously,no school surpasses Highland Park. The Scots have

won a Texas-leading 33 state championships in nine

sports over the last l0 years. Alums include ChrisYoung (Texas Rangers), golf siblings Hank and Kelli Kuehne, andOlympic swimming gold medalists Bruce Hayes, Mike Heath andShaun Jordan. Highland Park's best sports are girls'cross-country(six state championships), boys' and girls' golf (eight titles com-bined) and boys'and girls'tennis (five total). The football team isn'rshabby either. The Scots rank third in gridiron victories (658) among

all Texas schools.

HO0VER rer"..rEnrollment: 2,115

This Hoover cleans up. In the last l0 years the largest

1lE-rIilL school in Alabama has won 38 state championships,

lbltE and over the past five years the Buccaneers havefinished fourth or better 50 times in l9 soorts. In

2003-04 alone Hoover won six state titles (football, boys' indoortrack, boys' swimming, girls' outdoor track, softball and girls'golf). NcBucs team has been more dominant than football. which has wonthree staight state crowns and four of the last five. The school has

superb equipment thanks to a booster club that raises more than

$750,000 annually. Says athletic director Jerry Browning, "Theycall us Hoover University,"

6{ SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

periences like evening hikes. These ger-au'avs remain an important part of theschool's culture of inclusiveness.

Of course Poly is n0t immune to therealities of the surrounding mean streets.Since 2O03 a tremorial concert has been

held for deceased students, and amongthe car-crash and drolur-ring victims therehas been a handful of kids lost to gang r."i-

olence. Luckily for the school, that kindof rvar{are almost never plays out on cam-pus. "This schooi is the star of the neigh-borhood. The peopie here are protectiveof it because they're so proud clf it," saysAshley. "Three blocks awav there mightbe some serious issues, but even the gang-bangers respect what q.e're trying todo here."

Though Snoop Dogg often looks backwistfully in his rh;'mes atrout the Crips,the colors that command the most loyal-L-y* in central Long Beach are Jackrabbitsgreen and goid, not blue and red. Theschool ties begin at an earlv age, with foot-

SAINT IGNATIUS Gbvetand)Enrollment: 1,411

When it earned the state soccer title last November,this all-boys Jesuit school completed a rare feat:winning a state championship in each of the nineboys'sports sanctioned in 0hio. The Wildcats have

won l9 titles, all since 1988, including nine in football. (Last yearthey also won a national crown in crew, which is not a recognizedsport.) Saint lgnatius has produced standouts such as LeCharlesBentley (New Orleans Saints), Matt Kata (Arizona Diamondbacks),Chris Hovan (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Dave Ragone (HoustonTexans), but its most successful alum is lgg0 graduate Tim Mack,the 2004 olympic gold medalisr in the pole vaull.

FAYETTEVILLE ra.r.rEnrollment: 2,0O6

Located across the street from the University ofArkansas, this school has won a state-best 24 titlesin l0 sports since 1996. The Purple Bulldogs'girls,gymnastics team has won eight straight state cham-

paonships, and the girls' soccer team took four straight from lgggto '01. Since 1996 the boys' basketball team has made five appear-ances in the state semifinals and went to the title game in March.Fayetteville has also won four state championships in indoor track,which is not a recognized sport in the slate. Alum Wallace Spear-mon, currently a star at the University of Arkansas, is the top_rankedcollege 200-meter sprinter in the U.S.

Fertile Ground$erra High has prcduced a remarkable list of superstars

HE ATHLETtc Golden Age atJunipero Serra High in San Mateo, Calif., lasted sevenmonths in 2001 and'02 and had nothing to do with the Padres'performance. The995-student school rode high on the accomplishments ofthree alumni. In August

'01 former Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Lynn Swann (class of '70) was inducted into the pro

Foolball Hall o{ Fame. Two monlhs later San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds (classof '82) completed his record-setting 73-home-run season. And the following February. Tom

Brady (class of'95) led the New England Pa-lriots to victory in Super Bowl XXXVI.

With such impressive alums one might thinkthat Serra would be a perennial power, but byand large it isn't. Since Swann led the Padresto back-to-back West Catholic Athletic League football titles in '68 and '69, they have won onlytwo more. "The tradition here is more in the players than the championships,', says footballcoach Patrick walsh. The one sport in which serra has been dominant is baseball. The padres

have won lB league championships and two srate titles (lg9l and'g8). The remarkable figure,however, is the number of Serra graduates who have signed pro contracts: 49. Bonds isn'teven Serra's career home run king. Thal title belongs to New York Mets first-round dratt pickGregg Jeffries (class of '85), who hit 26*four more than Bonds. - Andrea Woo

€&Swann Brady

WEST MONROE rz".tEnrollment: 1,982

ln 2001 USA Todayranked West Monroe as one ofthe top l0 places to watch a high school footballgame. And why not? In the last l0 years the Rebelshave won four stare (1996-98, 2000) and two na-

tional rirles (98, '00). Notable alums include Bradie James (DallasCowboys) and Shaun King (Arizona Cardinals). And don,t even rhinkabout walking up on game night and buying a ticket for a decent seat:All 5,400 reserved seats (the stadium seats 8,b00) for every homegame will be sold by the end of May. The Rebels, who also excel insoftball and girls' basketball, would be higher on this list if they hadn,thad eight runner-up finishes over the last decade.

BEN DAVIS Gnaianapous)Enrollment: 2,496 (grades 10-12)

It's fitting that Ben Davis's teams are called the Giants.The school has the largest three-grade enrollment inIndiana, and its teams often tower over the opposition.Since 1995 Ben Davis's teams have won eight state

championships and finished as the runner-up four times. The Giants,strongest sport is football, in which they have won seven titles since1987; among their alums is former New Orleans Saints kicker MortenAndersen, Ben Davis plays a little basketball too: The boys'team wonback-to-back state titles in'95 and'96, and the girls,squad, led by ShyraEly (a second-round draft pick by the WNBAs San Antonio Silver Starslast month), earned two straight in 2000 and ,01.

Bonds

ball a beacon for bols *'ho might other-wise be drawn to the sort of violence thatdoesn't invoive shoulder pads. Polyhosts

a sprawiing Pop Warner progtam, do-nating its playing fields and, oftentimes,its coaches. (Snoop regulariy pays forequipment and uniforms.) By the timethese kids reach high school, they havebeen indoctrinated in the Poly way, inwhich u.inning is important but hardlythe only emphasis.

Among the strong fa&er figures in thefootball program is head coach Raul Laru,Poly class of'84. {Seven of the school's20 varsity head coaches are alums.) Laramoonlights as a Los Angeles Countv pro-bation of6cer, and his football programis run with all the discipline &at job titleimplies. Th'o avuncular assistants, Her-man Davis and Don Norford, are amongthe most respected men in Long Beach's

,African-American communit"v. They are

close friends, who botb graduated fromPoly in 1964, and they hale been imbued

+LliE-.,

with a deep desire to give back to theschool that has given them so much. "Ourmission is not to make football players,

it's to make menj' says Norford, who in1996 was named the national high school

coach of the year by the NFL. "Peopie on

the outside think'*'e only care abnut win-

Oll THE FISE Dixon, who has been called

the school's "next franchise athlete," led

Poly to a state district title as a freshman.

ning, but to us it's more important tobuild character. to teach right from\tr'rong, to teach these kids to take re-sponsibiiitv, to teach them to reach outto each other."

In the wake of last December's $una-mi, the football team organized a liftathonin which fellow students pledged 25 cents

for each weight-room repetition. A check

for nearly $200 was subsequently sent tr:

the Red Cross. On a recent Saturdaymorning several football players wereamong the numerous Poly athletes whoworked as volunteers at a communityfood drive held on campus.

This willingness to share is almost es-

sential, given Poly's meager athletic fa-cilities. The vast outfield of Tony Gnv]'nn

Field is rhe only decent-sized stretch ofgrass on the entire campus. (Gw},nn, a

BAYLOR (chattanoosa)Enrollment: 670

In a hypothetical matchup between this Baylor and

Baylor University, the high school might just hold its

own. The llz-year-old private school, which sits on a

picturesque campus that rivals that of many col-

leges, has long been a force in Tennessee sports, with 5l state cham-

pionships. The Red Raiders are dominant in golf (the girls'team has

won l0 straight state titles, and the boys'squad has claimed eight

of the last ll), but that's not surprising, considering the campus has

a six-hole shorl course on which the teams practice. Overall, Baylor

has won state championships in 17 sports in the last l0 years, in-

cluding boys' and girls' soccer, baseball and softball.

LA CUEVA (Albuquerque)

Enrollment: 2,15O

How do you say "the powerhouse" in Spanish? We

suggest La Cueva (though the school's actual trans-

lation is "the cavel. Since the fall of 1994 the Bears

have won 47 state championships in 15 sports. Few

programs run off streaks the way the Bears do. The boys'trackteam has won eight straight state titles; the boys'golf team has

taken five in a row; and the football team is the two-time defending

champ and currently holds a 26-game winning streak. La Cueva's

best sport is baseball. The Bears are shooting for a third straight

state title, and last month they set a national record with their 70th

consecutive victory.

DUNCANVILLE rro ;Enrollment: 3,750

Duncanville has adopted the nickname City of

-- Champions for a reason-namely the Panthers'*fi'Gn|td& girls'basketball team. The Panthers, who count

Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings among

their alums, have won two state titles since 1997 They have reigned

in their district an astounding 67 times, and from 1987 to l99l won

134 straight games. The boys'teams aren't bad either. In 1999 the

school that produced Chad Allen (Texas Rangers) and Greg Os-

tertag (Sacramento Kings) was one baseball victory away from

sweeping the state's football, basketball and baseball titles, which

would have been a first in the state.

MOUNTAI N VIEW (Mesa, Ariz)Enrollment: 2,719

Though the school hasn't been around for long, Moun-

tain View has quickly established itself as king of the

hill in Arizona. In the last decade the Toros have pro-

duced scores of top athletes, including Todd Heap

(Baltimore Ravens) and Shea Hillenbrand (Toronto Blue Jays). More

stars are on the horizon: Mountain View has had 15 scholarship athletes

in each of the last two years. And over the last l0 years, the Toros have

won 2l state championships in l0 sports, including football (four),

boys' track (four), boys' basketball (three), girls' track (three), and

boys' and girls' cross-country girls' swimming, girls' volleyball, girls'

basketball, wrestling and baseball (one each).

| 8s

66 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

1977 Poly grad rn'ho lvent on to have a 2o-vear l,lall oi lr,r;::ecareer with the San Diego Padres, was a renox.'ned singicr: ir;l-ter, and at his namesake park it's 495 feet to dead center" rr.irr.:.ccenterfielder DeseanJackson runs down every fly ball.) (ir:.i :rrrField is used not only for baseball but also for football pr.:rrtice and soccer games. Football's annual f<rray deep into ilrcsectionai playoffs means that early-season soccer games ar.often rescheduled, and rvhen the soccer team had a long post-season mn this vear, the varsity baseball team had to cede thcfield and cancel several home games.

The $20 MillionStadium Boom

ln Texas and elsewhere, schools are in *1.arrns race to build big-bucks facllities

I N 0NE RESPECT the new high school football stadium in Den-

f ton, Texas, is like any other in the United States: li has a reg-I ulation playing field and a pair of goalposts. Bui that's whtiethe similarities end. The $18.3 million, 12,000-seat faciliry hastwo VIP suites that can accommodate 22 people each and a

S900,000 scoreboard with a video screen that shows reoravs.

The stadium, which was constructed last year with voter,approved bonds and is used by Denton, Guyer and Ryan highschools, is one of the many athletic Tai Mahals that have beer:

erected over the last six years for high school teams in the suburb-s

around Dallas-Fort Worth, The list of tacilities is impressive..In Fort Worth, 16 miles south of Denton, Northwest High is se r

to open a $19.5 million, 9,500-seat football stadium thai fea-tures 950 club seals and a two-tier oress box with fwo commu-nity rooms..In Southlake, 23 miles south of Denton, Carroll High plays rr.' afour-year-otd, $15.3 million stadium thal Major League Socce;-'sDallas Burn borrowed as ifs home field in 2002. Carroll. whosefootbalf team was ranked No. I in the nation by USA Todaylastfall, also has an 8O-yard-long indoor practice facility rhar in 2001

was occasionally used by the Dallas Cowboys..In North Richland Hills, ll miles south ol Southlake, a six-year-old, 12,000-seat stadium is home to foorball teams from Birdville,

Haltom and Richland high schools. The $t1.9 million complex, which

includes a banquet room that seals 800, was chosen as the siteof the field hockey competiiion by the Dallas Olympic Committee

in its bid for the 2012 Summer Games.

The afhletic-complex craze isn't limited Io Texas. In Indiana s

Washingron Township school officials have recommended the saic

of Sg0 million in bonds, $50 million of which would go ro bliiliing-new athletic facilities. In Tulsa the Union school districl erecled a

5,662-seat, $22 million multiuse indoor facility in 2003. According

to McGraw-Hill Construction, a firm lhat tracks building in the U S.,

about $440 million was spent in 2004 on athletic faciiitres for scc-

ondary and high schools. Approxirnately 65% of thal occurrcn tn

Texas. California and Arizona

'ihere is plentv ol inconve n jence to go around. J'he sr.t"inr-mlng tcam has to use an off-can"Ipus public pool trecausePciv's is too small to accommotlate ail the ssimurers. l'lean-u'hile, the vaunted rrack teams pr-actice on a dirl oval sqrieezedtttlo a crou'cled cornel of the campus; the straighta\\.ays areless Lhan ilo I'ards long. \\,heri the cross-coulttry runlters scroirt from Polr"^ thev dodge debris on ciacked pavement for a

mtle and a half before encoLrntering an].thing that resemblesthejr sport's usual terrain. No u'onder rhe boys' squad wonfive straight CIF secrional chainpionships ft'om I996 to 2000.

ff"r.'',="*

rc

P*OSTYLE Carroll'sirldoor practice facility(above) was used by theCorvboys, and its stadium

losred MLS_s Bu:n

The center of the activi-ly. however. is suburbanDallas-Fort Worth. By nextyear l5 new high school

footbail stadiunts will have opened in that area since 2003, at acr.lst of SlB0 miilion. Why there? Some school officials from thearea cite population growth; others point to ihe need lo replace di-lapidared stadiunrs. But almost everyone inentions keeping up withihe neighbors. "When their teams conle into our place to play, fansfrom i:ther towns say. Why don'f we have something like this?' "

says Denton school dislrict athletic director Ken Purcell.The arms race is escalaling ai a lime when school funding in

Texas is extremely tight. Last year, after more than 300 Texasschool districts brought a lawsuit claiming that the state's fund-ing system did not provide enough money lo adequately educalechildren, a state disfrict judge ruled in lheir favor and ordered thestate to come up with a new system by this fall.

Critics of rhe high-end arhletic complexes say thar schoot dis-tricfs should spend more on educalion and less on athletics. Schooiofficials defend the projefis by saying they produce revenue andwere voled on by the community. In Denton two bond measureswere passed lo build the athlelic complex: the second. approvedin 2002, also earmarked money to build new schools and recetveo76% of the vo1e. "l believe athletics is pafl of education,,' purcell

says. "We don't ask how much il costs ro build the English class,rooms. Seventy-six percenl of our taxpayers voted for this. Andfast I f ooked, this is America. Majority rules." -Gene Menez

ADVERTISEMENT

"if vou can run ).our \\'ay or-rt of thisneighborhoodl \fou can pretty muchrun an\,'lr'here." savs coach \likeFilliponi

'l'his ll'e-shall-{)vercome mind-setdominates Polv's collective psyshg. 1tfact, -rttidents and coaches seent totake a perverse pride in rheir scrappvsurroundings. Norford. who doublesas the boys' track and field coach,m,rJe a point of taking a visitor to secPolv's humble tack. School had justlet out for the day, and the campus!\'as s\4rarmirg with rowdy scholarsand champions, but the dusfy oval u.asdeserted except for one buffed olderg.:nrleman toilirrg unCcr an inrense

sun. Earl X{cCr:llor_igh plaved six 1.car,"as a tride receiver fbr the Derroit l.icnsin the latc 196Os and early '7Os, burhe has come back to his alma materto serve as an assistant track coach.As he painstakingly placed the hur-dlc's, it rvas obvious that working atPoly i-s a labor of love.

Aftel playfully heckling tuIcCui-lough, Norford madc a srt'e eping ges-ture that encompassed both theschool and the sagging houses beyondit. "It's not nluch to look at, is it?"Norford said. "The onll'thing specialirbout this place is the tradition andthe kids. And the kids*they're morethan a little special." u

Best by Statel{sre are ?h* ?*p schoal$ frcnr ail 5C state* plus fhe*istrict *f C*lun:l:ia (for more on rhern g* t* S!.c*nr)

@-- Sratas iislei/ a1p haheticalll

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Cf clro

CT.:rct

'':/' ';/ 7: '' ,',

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f Hoover (:llr.7

2 Sewice (Anchoragr.l

3 Mountain View l,l7esa.;lni;4 Faye$evllle iArk.)5 Long Beach f.h/t.j Poly

6 Cherry Creek

( (| ru trt'Lttti! I'illdgc. {-'r1..,1

7 Daniel Hand 1,1?ritlnrrr. (.'oarr;

B 51. Mark's ilt'ilningurt. Del.)

I St. Thomas Aquinas

{l'itrt lauderdab)

l0 Parkview (I-ilrun. Ud.l

ll Punahou (Ilttto[Ltlu. HaN.aii)

12 Bishop Kelly (lloise. rtlaha)

f 3 New Trier f *'tnt nttl;a. Ilt.)

t4 Carmel i/ad..l

l5 lowa Cityl6 Bishop Miege

(Shawtt illi stiot t. Ktns. )l7 St. Xavier fL'!s,ill,

l8 West Monroe at.a.;

l9 Eangor (ttatne)

2O DeMatha {I-lvrtn*,ilte. IId.)2l Brockton arV,r.{r.l

22 Maryuette (t|ich.)23 Edina /-\Ilna.)

24 Tupelo arts.l

o35 St. lgnatius fcb'ehut)36 Jenks foHQ.)

37 Jesuit (]rortLtr{]. Ore.)

38 North Penn (Ianxlale. pa.)

39 La Salle lProsdena'J

40 Bishop England

f Citarlruron. .S. (,-../

25 St. Joseph's {.9. txlit, 4l Stevens (Raprd aint .s.D.J

26 Capital (Itekna. tfonr.) 42 Baylor lchaunnooga.tt,til.)27 Lincoln f_\'cr.) Sourheasf 43 Highland park o)dl&t,28 Green Vaf ley 44 Mountain View @rctt. Litatt)

{I/atrds^oa. -\ia:l 45 Essex fl.rrcrJuilrtion, \,t.)29 Manchester 1.\'.1t..,1 Central 46 Brentsville Oistricr30 Eergen Cafholic l.\'okc-n,rl1r. lh./

(t)rudeu^ \.1.) 47 King's {.!,aft/.,3f La Cueva {.111)uquerqut) 48 St. John's (vitshingtrtrt. D.C )32 St. Anthony's 4g Parkersburg lilli?.J

{South [{unttngon. \-.\'.) 50 Arrowhead lA,ttLa*1- *It.)33 East Chapel Hill frc) 5 f Canrpbell County

34 Red River (;rurzJ iirrkr -\ttt.) (;i1tuft.. J4if.)

TCNAY'S MiLiTARYPRESENTS

C$A{]IIIIft TIIIINtrII,UIiXCN

BEN TOMESJENSEN BFACH HIGH

\TRESTLING:i'ili ! rl{ \( ii : :iJliiitl.

!7HEN BEN TOMES STARIED THEwrestling program at Florida's [ensenBeach High l:rst fall, the new school hadno senior c.lass and only three bols withvarsirv wrestling experience. Throw in a

couple ofhurricanes, and Tomes hadsome serious otrstacie.s to overcome.

No problem. Tomes knows how tobuild a winner againsr daunting odds.This winrer, Jensen Beach won a 23-teamtournarnent. and I]ve lr.resders made rhe

state tournalnent. "Ben is an outstandingeducato!" says R.J. Costello, rhe JensenBeach athletic director. "He ha a unrqueability to deal positively with challenges."

In 1999, Tornes crcated a wrcstlingteam ar Custer High in Milwaukee with

a $400 budget

and a classroorn

lbr practices-

Custet went onto win three

consecutlve

confbrence

championships.

At a low-incomeschool rhar had a

sub-J0o/o graduadon rate and an 860/o

habiual rruancy rate,94o/o of thewrcsders who spent a full ycar in hisproglani carned a degree. "I knen thesc

studens were capable of accomplishinggrear things both in and out of theciassroom, but rhey desperatelv needed

a posrrive environmenr ro perfbrm in,"savs Tomes, who scouted achleres

from suspension lists.

Last fall he received an e-mail froml.uke Boggs, a former Custer JVu,'resder who was starioned in South

Korea with the Air Irorce. Boggs soughr

guidance on starting a team for hisfellow servrcemen. Tomcs hears liommany of his lormer wrestlcrs, bur rhispassing ofa torch stands out. "I didntrealize the love and passron for wrestlinghad affected Luke a; rnuch as it dicl,''Tbmes says. "lts a validation of whatmy goal is all abour as a coach."