Coronado High School (El Paso, Texas)

Coronado High School in El Paso, Texas is located on the west side of El Paso near the intersection of North Mesa Street and Resler Drive. It serves the southern part of west El Paso: east of Interstate 10, from the vicinity of Executive Center Boulevard north approximately three miles to around Coronado Arroyo, a normally dry stream bed running west down from the Franklin Mountains just north of Escondido Drive; and the portion of the Upper Valley (the part of El Paso County beside the Rio Grande west of Interstate 10) which lies south of Country Club Road. Most of the Coronado attendance zone is zoned to Morehead Middle School for grades six to eight. The elementary schools in the Coronado feeder pattern include Dr. Green, L.B Johnson, Putnam, Carlos Rivera, Western Hills, and Zach White. The Upper Valley portion of the Coronado attendance area is zoned to Zach White Elementary and Lincoln Middle School, except for the Buena Vista neighborhood around Interstate 10 and West Paisano Drive, which is zoned to Johnson and Morehead. Dr. Green, L.B Johnson, Putnam, Carlos Rivera and Western Hills elementary schools all graduate into Morehead Middle School.^[3]

Coronado High is named for Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, whose expeditions in what is now the southwestern United States took him through what is now El Paso.

Identity

Coronado High's mascot, inspired by a natural silhouette on its Franklin Mountain backdrop, is the Thunderbird, shortened to T-Bird, and its slogan is "The Pride of the West Side." Coronado's school colors are Navy blue and Las Vegas gold. The school has a strong rivalry with the Franklin High School Cougars.

Academics

The mission of Coronado High School is to advance the academic, artistic, emotional, physical, and social education of every student in order to develop productive citizens.

Coronado High School has offered the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme since 2000. Students who are accepted into the program take a series of examinations at the end of a four-year curriculum.^[2]

Campus

Coronado has six main buildings labeled A, B, C, D, E, and G Building. Along with these buildings, Coronado has a new Fine Arts building, the Lee Ross Capshaw Auditorium (named after the father of retired orchestra director Ida Steadman and retired band director Kenneth Capshaw, Lee was also a retired EPISD Music Administrator), the Jack Quarles and Don Brooks Thunderbird Stadium, Baseball and Softball fields, Tennis courts, Cafeteria, Agricultural Building, and Big Gym (which received a renovation in the fall of 2009) and the Small Gym. To the south of the Small Gym lie approximately 6 portables that also provide classes. The administrative office is located in A building just beyond the main entrance to the school.

Band

The Thunderbird Marching Band and Symphonic Ensembles are one of only fourteen high school bands in the world to have received both the Sudler Flag of Honor (For Consistent High Excellence in Concert events) and the Sudler Shield (For Consistent High Excellence in Marching events)- the two most prestigious honors bestowed upon a high school band ensemble. They were awarded as the Exemplary Band of the Year by the Texas Bandmasters Association in 2012.

The Coronado High School Marching Band has won the "Grand Champion" ranking (out of the 32 different bands from Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado) at the New Mexico Tournament of Bands competition more times than any other organization in the history of the 36-year competition.^[4]

They have also competed numerous times at the Texas UIL State Marching Contest, nationally at many Bands of America regional and super-regional marching contests, and internationally at various concert events. Some of the visited sites the band has gone to include Moscow, Vienna, Hawaii, Dallas, Toronto, San Antonio, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Orlando, and New York City. The band is directed by Mark Saenz, Daniel Holmes, and Jessica Shin.

The Coronado Jazz Bands boast consistent division one ratings at local and state Jazz Clinics and Contests, with the top Jazz Band winning 1st place at the Hanks Jazz contest numerous times.

The Coronado Wind Ensemble is the only high school wind ensemble in El Paso and West Texas to ever advance to state as a 5A Texas Honor Band. (having been in the ranks 5 times in TMEA history).

In February, 2016, Coronado had its first-ever State Qualifier in Classical Guitar, Freshman, Jarrett Christopher Maynard who scored a rare "1" in regional competition. Jarrett went on to score a Superior rating at the Texas UIL State Championships at UT Austin.

Orchestra

The Coronado High School Orchestra is nationally ranked. In 1988, 1998, 2002, 2007, and 2015 the Coronado symphony orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City.^[5] The Coronado Orchestra has traveled to various locations around the world to perform, including Italy, Japan, England, Mexico, Austria, Czech Republic and more. The Coronado Orchestra has also been selected Honor Orchestra by the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) three times and has also performed at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic twice. The Coronado Orchestra won first place in 1984 and second and third place in 2000 at the very prestigious Youth and Music Festival in Vienna. The group was directed by Ida Steadman until 2015.She is a Texas String Teacher of the Year winner, TODA Director of the Year for 1997. The group is currently directed by Susan Hernandez.

Athletics

Coronado has a wide range of athletic teams. Swimming, Baseball, Football, Tennis, Golf, Track and Field, Cross Country, Softball, Basketball, Wrestling, and Soccer to name a few.

Coronado tennis teams have continued success. They have won the UIL 5A State Tennis Team title in both 1990 and 2000. They were state runner up in the 2001 and 2007 tournaments. They also made it to the semifinals of the state tournament in 2002, 2006,2012, and 2013. They won the UIL 5A State Girls Doubles Tournament in 2001 and 2003, both times with players Nicole Fintell and Megan Schumulbach; the State Girls Singles in 1987; the State Boys Doubles in 2003; and the Boys Singles in 1991, 1992, and 2015. Head Coach Jerry Lynn Pippins record was 174-0 in Team Tennis District 1-5A play, undefeated since 1997. He retired at the end of the 2014-2015 season still undefeated in district play. The team has also had Nathan Brown reach the State Boys Singles Final in 2014 after making a quarterfinal appearance in 2013. In 2015, Brown won the state title. Duo Alvaro Hobbs and Wilson Lambeth reached the State Boys Doubles Semifinals in 2014. The 2014 boys tennis team was dubbed the 'Dream Team' by sports writers across the region, going 154-6 in competitive play in 2014.

The Men's Soccer Team won a state championship in 1996.

The Coronado Ice Hockey team was won two New Mexico state championships in 2013 and 2014.

The T-Birds have had success in baseball as well. They went to the state semi-finals in 1992 with future major league pitcher Rocky Coppinger leading the way. The team was coached by Juan Orozco.

As with many Texas high schools, Coronado has also had a long-standing tradition of football excellence. In 1966, only four years after the school was first opened, Head Coach Jack Quarles (1965 to 1976) took the team to Texas State Playoffs. They were Bi-District Champions in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2006, 2007 and 2009 and Area Champions (state quarterfinals) in 1973, 1975, 1979. They made State Playoffs again in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010 under Coach Don Brooks, who was the head coach from 1977 through 2011. Coach Bob Anderson became the 3rd head coach in school history in 2012. In his first season the team went 4-6. In 2013, the Thunderbirds went 8-3 in winning the 1-5A district championship.

The football team won a district championship in 2006, also winning a bi-district championship with a 39-23 win over Midland High School. The football team won Bi-District Championships in 2009 vs. Midland Lee (49-27) and 2010 vs. Amarillo High (27-13). In each of these years they lost the Area Championship game to Abilene High (The eventual state champion in 2009). The 2009 team won the district championship with a perfect 10-0 season.

MCJROTC

Coronado High School is currently in the process of establishing the only Marine Corps JROTC program in the El Paso County. In the mean time, a group of students have established the CHS MCJROTC Prep program to educate and provide students with experience on the workings of JROTC. The program has been involved in several community outreach events.

Notable alumni

• Jerry Bailey - professional jockey^[6]
• Rocky Coppinger - Major League Baseball pitcher^[7][8]
• Alan Culpepper - distance runner^[9]
• Oscar Leeser - mayor of El Paso, Texas, since 2013^[10]
• John Moyer - bassist for the alternative metal band, Disturbed
• Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala - former members of the band, The Mars Volta
• David Rodriguez - professional boxer^[11]
• Kirk Wilson - professional soccer player
• Todd Womack - comedian^[12]
• Stephen Espinoza^[13] - Showtime executive
• Omar Villaa - Politic

References

External links

• Official site