Great Oak High School is a public high school that lies at the base of Wolf Valley in

Temecula, California Temecula (; , ; Luiseño language, Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and was Municipal corpora ...

, USA, in the Temecula Valley Unified School District. In 2009 and 2010, Great Oak High School was listed in

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

's annual top 1000 high schools in America. As of 2022, GOHS is ranked #1,097 nationally and ranked 157th in the State of California. Great Oak High School has been a

California Distinguished School California Distinguished School is an award given by the California State Board of Education to public schools within the state that best represent exemplary and quality educational programs. Approximately 5-10% of California schools are awarde ...

since 2009 and is also a California Gold Ribbon School. In addition to an array of AP courses, Great Oak also offers the

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry int ...

. It has been an

IB World School The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry int ...

since 2006.

Athletics

Great Oak High School's athletic teams are known as the Wolfpack and compete in California's CIF Southern Section. The school has boys'

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, girls' and boys'

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 (appro ...

, girls'

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 Summ ...

, girls' and boys'

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, girls' and boys'

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, 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 water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

, girls' and boys'

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

, girls' and boys'

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

, girls' and boys'

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, cross country, boys'

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

, baseball and softball, and girls' and boys'

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact 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 w ...

. During the 2015-2016 school year, the school was able to include a Boys' Volleyball team which will compete against other schools in the CIF section.

State titles

* Girls' Cross Country: 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014 - Division 1,

California Interscholastic Federation The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have s ...

State Champions. 2nd at

Nike Cross Nationals Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) (formerly known as Nike Team Nationals) is an invitational cross country meet that serves as the unofficial team national championship of United States high school cross country. Sponsored by Nike, It was designed to he ...

in 2014 and NXN Nationals Runner * Boys' Cross Country: 2014, 2015, and 2017 - Division 1,

State Champions. Ranked #3 in the nation for the boys. During the 2015 CIF State Finals in Fresno, they won the state title in a record-breaking time. They went on to win the 2015 Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon. • Boys’ Baseball: 2019 CIF — Division 3 California State Champions

Competition Cheer, Dance and Step Teams

Great Oak High School has varsity and junior varsity Competition

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 exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

teams that compete in the Southern California Varsity/USA and Jamz competitions. Also competing for GOHS are varsity and junior varsity dance and step teams. The Great Oak Step Team is nationally recognized and in 2015 received 3rd place at the National Step Association nationals in Florida.

National Titles

* Varsity Competition Cheer: 2015 National Champion (Varsity Show Cheer Level 2 Large), 2015 Jamz School Nationals, Las Vegas, Nevada. * Varsity Competition Cheer: 2014 National Champion, 2014 Jamz School Nationals, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Activities

Great Oak High School features more than 120 clubs and student organizations to appeal to a wide variety of extracurricular interests. Of these, five are competitive (Cybersecurity, Academic Decathlon,

Mock Trial A mock trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisti ...

, Science Olympiad, Speech & Debate,

Mu Alpha Theta Mu Alpha Theta () is an International mathematics honor society for high school and two-year college students. As of June 2015, it served over 108,000 student members in over 2,200 chapters in the United States and 20 foreign countries. Its main ...

) and three are academic (

California Scholarship Federation The California Scholarship Federation (CSF), started in 1921 by Charles F. Seymour, seeks to recognize students living in the state of California who possess high standards in academics. Members of the California Scholarship Federation are eligi ...

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is one of the oldest, largest, and most widely recognized cocurricular student organizations in American high schools, with 1.4 million members. The purpose of the NHS is to create enthusiasm for scholarship, to ...

Spanish National Honor Society Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine ** Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

). Great Oak High School's Speech & Debate Club regularly competes within the Citrus Belt Speech Region. They are currently ranked 19th in the National Forensics League Southern California District. In Debate they compete in

Congressional Debate Congressional Debate (also known as Student Congress, Legislative Debate) is a competitive interscholastic high school debate event in the United States. The National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA), National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) ...

Parliamentary Debate Parliamentary style debate, colloquially oftentimes just Parliamentary debate, is a formal framework for debate used in debating societies, academic debate events and competitive debate. It has its roots in parliamentary procedure and develops d ...

, and Public Forum Debate. For Speech the events they compete in are Original Oratory, Original Advocacy, Oratorical Interpretation,

Duo Interpretation Duo Interpretation, or often simply called Duo Interp, or just Duo, is an official speech event of Stoa USA, the National Speech and Debate Association, the National Catholic Forensics League, National Christian Forensics and Communications Associ ...

Thematic Interpretation Thematic interpretation is an approach to heritage interpretation originally advocated by Professor William J. Lewis (University of Vermont) and subsequently developed by Professor Sam H. Ham (University of Idaho). In the thematic approach, an inte ...

Dramatic Interpretation Dramatic Interpretation (often shortened to "Dramatic Interp," "Drama" or just "DI") is an event in National Speech and Debate Association (and NSDA-related) high school forensics competitions. In the National Christian Forensics and Communicatio ...

Humorous Interpretation Humorous Interpretation (often shortened to "HI", or "Humor") is an event in competitive middle and high school forensics leagues such as the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association and the National Speech and Debate Associat ...

, and

Impromptu An impromptu (, , loosely meaning "offhand") is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ''ex tempore'' improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano. According to ''Allgeme ...

. In 2010-2011, they sent two students to the California High School Speech Association's State Tournament while in 2011-2012 they sent one. In 2022, Great Oak Cybersecurity won the California Mayor's Cyber Cup (CMCC) which was honored by the Temecula City Council. At the California High School Speech Association's 54th State Tournament Great Oak had its first finalist win. One student placed 7th in the Speech Tournament against over 1,000 speakers from all over the state.

Campus accommodations

The school, which opened in August 2004, has 124 classrooms, of which several are specialized to meet the requirements of the curriculum including 6 open-use computer labs; 2 business computer labs; 14 science labs; a library; a foods and nutrition kitchen; ROTC with office and wardrobe rooms; 3 art rooms (1 ceramics); a computer repair classroom; a TV Video production studio; a print shop; a drafting room; construction technology; automotive repair shop; a gymnasium (which includes a dance room, a wrestling room, and a weight room); and the performing arts complex (which includes a band room, a choir room, and a

black box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

drama room). The campus also includes athletic fields for baseball, softball, and soccer, outdoor basketball and volleyball courts, sand volleyball courts, 8 outdoor tennis courts, and a stadium with a synthetic turf football/soccer field and rubberized track. A swimming complex was completed in 2005, and an addition was completed during the 2017-18 school year. During the summer of 2015, the school installed solar panels throughout campus and the senior parking lot to increase energy efficiency and save money.

Notable alumni

* Connor Brandt — soccer player * Demetric Felton — football player * Brennan Jackson — American football outside linebacker * Stephanie Malherbe — international soccer player for South Africa * Cindy Marina — Miss Universe 2019 contestant * Xenia Martinez — singer *

Nick Ponzio Nicholas James "Nick" Ponzio (born 4 January 1995) is an American-born Italian shot putter. He competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Shot put. Ponzio received an eighteen month competition ban to run from February 2023 to August 2024 for a wh ...

— Olympian, professional track and field athlete, 3x Italian national champion * Jabin Sambrano — American football wide receiver * JC Stevenson - track & field athlete *

Cassidy Wolf Cassidy Marie Wolf (born July 5, 1994) is an American TV host, model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Teen USA 2013. Pageants While attending Great Oak High School in Temecula, she was crowned Miss Greater San Diego Teen USA. Wolf was cr ...

— Miss Teen USA

Incidents

* In September 2023, LGBTQ+ students of Great Oak protested a flag policy (via a student walk out) that banned all flags except the US and California State flag, believing it to be targeting the

Pride flag A pride flag is any flag that represents a segment or part of the LGBTQ community. ''Pride'' in this case refers to the notion of LGBTQ pride. The terms ''LGBTQ flag'' and ''queer flag'' are often used interchangeably. Pride flags can represen ...

References

{{Portalbar, Schools, California, Education Educational institutions established in 2004 High schools in Riverside County, California International Baccalaureate schools in California Public high schools in California Temecula, California 2004 establishments in California