Basile High School is a public upper-elementary, junior and senior high school (grades 5–12) in

Basile, Louisiana Basile is a town in Acadia and Evangeline parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population was 1,214 in 2020. The Acadia Parish portion of Basile is part of the Crowley Micropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Most of the city limits ...

. It is a part of Evangeline Parish Public Schools.

History

A public school existed in the town of Basile from 1909 to 1913, however, education there only went up to the ninth grade. Students who wished to continue to tenth and eleventh grades had to attend the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

-run Evangeline Preparatory Academy, a private school. In 1919 the Basile Graded School was built for a cost of $6,000. In 1925, Evangeline Parish and Acadia Parish reached an agreement to jointly control Basile High School, because for some time more than half of the students had been from Acadia Parish. That same year, the first brick public school building was constructed by P.O. Oliver and Sons of Lake Charles. The school's first graduating class, in 1926, had only one student. The school's first principal was Mr. J.A. Babin. In 1936 an election was held to fund the construction of a combined gym and auditorium, as well as to establish an agriculture program. In 1953, the school was accredited by the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...

for the first time. From the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...

until 1969, Evangeline Parish maintained a dual education system, with one set of schools for White students, and another for Black students. Basile High only allowed White students to attend. In 1969, the Federal courts caused the schools to be integrated, and Black students from nearby William W. Stewart were allowed to attend for the first time. In response, the Evangeline Parish School Board considered closing BHS, along with all the Parish schools, a move which was opposed by the Evangeline Parish Teachers association. By the fall of 1971 the high school had an enrollment of 430 White and 132 Black students. In 2012, the school system was granted unitary status. In 2011, Basile was one of only 36 high schools in Louisiana that met the full requirements of the Louisiana Promise initiative, including having an 80% graduation rate and improving by 10%. In 2018, Black students were 1.6 times more likely to be disciplined than White students. While 24% of the student body was non-White, the composition of the gifted and talented programs were 100% White. Ms. Madelyn Miller, who had previously served as assistant principal, was named interim principal in 1995 becoming the first female and first Black person to hold the office at Basile High School.

BHS Band

The Basile High School band was organized in 1938 with Ms. Belle Cox as band director. The band's first uniforms were simple red capes lined with white satin and were created by the school's

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences (often shortened to FCS or FACS), is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and f ...

department. Traditionally, the band marches in the Cotton Festival parade in

Ville Platte Ville Platte is the largest city in, and the parish seat of, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,303 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 8,145 in 2000 United States ...

, the Swine Festival parade in Basile, as well as local

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

and

Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ; also known as Shrove Tuesday) is the final day of Carnival (also known as Shrovetide or Fastelavn); it thus falls on the day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to it being ...

parades.

Athletics

The Basile Bearcats compete in Class 1A of the LHSAA. The school's original colors were scarlet and white, however, by the 1950s this had changed to the modern red and white school colors. Basile had no official mascot in its earliest days. According to an article in the local newspaper, an open contest was held sometime in the late 1930s to select a school mascot. The final two choices were "Phantoms" and "Bearcats". Students allegedly chose the "Bearcats" because of the popularity of a semi-professional baseball team called the

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Bearcats. Today, while even the official Basile High School website and much of the artwork around the school depicts the Bearcat mascot as a fierce, almost

Black panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

-like creature, the actual "bearcat," or

binturong The binturong (''Arctictis binturong'') (, ), also known as the bearcat, is a viverridae, viverrid native to South Asia, South and Southeast Asia. It is uncommon in much of its range, and has been assessed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on th ...

, is a member of the

mongoose A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family has two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to southern Europe, A ...

family. The wrestling team won the Louisiana state championship in 1991, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In 1950, BHS won the Louisiana 6 man football state championship. In the 1990s, BHS attracted attention because they rescheduled school athletic events to avoid conflict with the opening of squirrel hunting season.

State Championships

Six-Man Football *(1) 1950 Wrestling *(5) 1991, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2025

Notable people

* Tommy McClelland, athletic director,

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

. * Ronald G. Richard, retired Major General,

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

References

External links

Basile High School
{{authority control Schools in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana Public high schools in Louisiana Public middle schools in Louisiana 1925 establishments in Louisiana