York Community High School is a public secondary school in

Elmhurst, Illinois Elmhurst is a city mostly in DuPage County and overlapping into Cook County in the U.S. state of Illinois, and a western suburb of Chicago. As of 2021, the city has an estimated population of 47,260. History Members of the Potawatomi Nativ ...

, United States. It is a part of the Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205. Most of the students reside in Elmhurst; however, the district also draws a small number of students from Addison,

Bensenville Bensenville is a village located near O'Hare International Airport in DuPage County, Illinois, with a portion of the town in Cook County. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 18,813. First known as Tioga, it was formally establish ...

, and Oak Brook. York is the only high school in the district, which as a unit school district also includes an early childhood center, eight elementary schools, three middle schools, and
transition center.
ref name="Dist 205 Facts"/>

History

Prior to 1918, Elmhurst operated a combined high school and grammar school, which was destroyed by fire in December 1917. York was established in 1918. The building saw many additions from 1950 through 1990, including a third floor, a four-classroom fourth floor, swimming pool, and additional facilities. In 2000, the voters of District 205 passed a referendum to rebuild the school. Construction started soon after and the new building, which was first opened in 2002, has separate academic, service, student commons and athletics areas (including a new fieldhouse).

Academics

In 2017, York had an average composite ACT score of 24.5 and graduated 95.5% of its senior class.url= In 2017, 54% of the senior class had taken at least one

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

exam during high school, and of those who took an exam in 2017, 91% passed at least one of their exams. In 2011,

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

ranked York Community High School 257 out of 500 in its annual list of America's Best High Schools. Overall, according to the US News 2017 High School rankings, York Community High School is ranked 687 of all public high schools in the United States and ranked 18 of all high schools in the state of Illinois.

Athletics

York High School competes in the West Suburban Conference. The school is also a member of the

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fe ...

(IHSA), which governs most sports and competitive activities in Illinois. Rob Wagner is the current athletic director at York High School. The school sponsors interscholastic teams for young men and women in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, cross country,

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, swimming & diving,

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

, and

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with th ...

. Young men may compete in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

, football, and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat s ...

, while young women may compete in

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

, and

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

. While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school also sponsors teams for young men and women in

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

, and a poms team for young women. Also while not sponsored by the IHSA, York has a men's hockey team. York Community High School's athletic program was ranked 17th overall in the nation by

ESPN RISE ''ESPN HS'' was a high school sports magazine published monthly during the school year in 25 markets around the United States. Founded as ''SchoolSports'' magazine in 1997, the publication changed its name to ''RISE'' in 2006 and was purchased b ...

's FAB 50 list. York Community High School's men's cross country team has won 28 state championships under coach Joe Newton: 1962, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1978AA, 1980AA, 1981AA, 1982AA, 1983AA, 1984AA, 1986AA, 1989AA, 1990AA, 1991AA, 1992AA, 1993AA, 1994AA, 1999AA, 2000AA, 2002AA, 2003AA, 2004AA, 2005AA, 2006AA, 2010-3A, and 2012-3A. He retired in 2016 because of problems with mobility and movement from his home to practice. Currently, the team's head coach is Charlie Kern. The head coach of the women's cross country team is Lauren DeAngelis.

Arts

York Community High School offers a variety of performing arts programs. Its music program includes a full orchestra, three individual orchestras, three full bands, and three concert choirs. Students have the opportunity to join music groups such as Jazz Band, a cappella singing groups, and percussion ensembles. Musicians have the opportunity to compete annually in the Illinois Music Educators Association (ILMEA) competition; students are chosen to go first to a District level concert, and if chosen they can also continue to go to ILMEA State, held in Peoria, Illinois. York also has a theater department that puts on three productions a year. The drama department went to the Illinois High School Musical Theater Awards (IHSMTA) in 2017 for their production of "West Side Story" and received the award of Best Production in the state. The dance programs at York include the Advanced Dance Class and the York Dance Company. Many clubs surround art as well, through painting, photography, drawing, or other forms of art.

Notable alumni

* Travis Nelson Murphy is the most successful Olympic luger, having won six gold medals and a bronze attained in four consecutive Olympics (three golds and a bronze in singles, and 3 golds in team relay). *

David Cohn David Cohn (דייוויד כהן; born March 28, 1995) is an American-Israeli basketball player. He plays for the Newcastle Eagles in the British Basketball League. Cohn earlier played in Israel and Germany. He plays the point guard position. B ...

(born 1995), American-Israeli basketball player * Martin Forest Eberhard (born 1960) is an American engineer and business executive. He founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors). * Lee A. Daniels was an Illinois State Representative (1975–2006), who served as Speaker of the State House (1995–97).Akouris, Tina; ''York Dukes: Dukes know how to court success'' (High School of the Week); 21 May 2008; ''Chicago Sun-Times''; accessed 4 August 2009
/ref> * George J. Eade was a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

four-star general. * Robert Goldsborough (1955), murder mystery novelist. *

Ron Guenther Ronald E. Guenther (born October 3, 1945) is a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois from 1975 to 1978, compiling a recor ...

is a former athletic director for the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...

. * Garth Lagerwey, a former professional soccer player who is currently an executive with

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

. * Fred Lorenzen, former stock car driver and member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. * Timothy P. Marshall (1974), civil engineer and meteorologist, tornado expert, pioneering storm chaser * Betty Okino is an actress and former gymnast. She was a member of the bronze medal-winning gymnastics team at the 1992 Summer Olympics. * Ken Paulson is the president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum, Newseum and Diversity Institute; he is the former editor and senior vice president/news of USA Today and USATODAY.com.Oppenheimer, Jerry; ''Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel''; accessed 13 March 2010
* Gary Rydstrom is a multi-

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

winning sound mixer, sound effects editor, and director. His work in sound includes films such as '' Backdraft'', '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', and ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...

''. * Donald Sage was an All-American cross country and track runner for

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. * Ian Michael Smith is an actor, known for his starring role in Simon Birch. Graduated in 2005. * Floyd Swink was a botanist and author of books on the flora of the Chicago region. *

Tim Stratton Timothy William Stratton (born July 15, 1979) is a former American football tight end. He played his college football at Purdue University and won the inaugural John Mackey Award in 2000. Playing for the Purdue Boilermakers from 1998-2001, St ...

was a tight end at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

and was the inaugural winner of the John Mackey Award (2000), presented annually to Division 1A's best tight end.

Notable staff

* Joe Newton was the boys cross country coach from 1959 to 2016. He was also the boys track & field coach, having coached state championship teams in both sports. He was a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHS) Hall of Fame. He was also an assistant marathon coach at the 1988 Seoul Olympics

References

External links

York Community High School
- Official Site
Long Green Line
- Documentary film about York High School's boys cross country program {{Authority control Public high schools in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1918 Elmhurst, Illinois Schools in DuPage County, Illinois 1918 establishments in Illinois