Warwick Veterans Jr. High School (also known as Warwick Veterans Memorial Jr. High School, WVMJHS, or Vets, formerly Warwick Veterans High School) is a 7-8th grade secondary school in Warwick, Rhode Island. The school building is two stories high and features eight wings of classrooms, mainly divided by subject (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and 900 wing). The logo for all Vets "Hurricane" teams is a reverse-rotating hurricane symbol. School colors are blue, gold, and white. The school was a high school holding grades 9-12 until 2016, when it was converted to a junior high school. The school had an enrollment of over one thousand students, and its principal when it was converted was Gerald Habershaw.
The school was opened in 1956 as a response to a booming Warwick population â€" the previous high schools (which came to be known as Samuel Gorton Junior High and Aldrich Junior High and also Lockwood Junior High which has been converted to condos) were too small for the large number of incoming students. In the late 1960s, the 900 wing extension was added to the school. Two additional high schools were constructed to answer Warwick's population increase, Pilgrim High School in 1962 and Toll Gate High School in 1972.
Athletics
In 2000, a swim team was created. The initiators of this were Katherine McLaughlin and Kristen Carpenter-Azeveto, who swam inter-murally with Pilgrim since their sophomore year. They were co-captains for their Senior year in the 2000 and 2001 season.
The girls' field hockey team was the 2005 division and state champions. Additionally, the boys' outdoor track team were city champions for thirteen straight years and division B champions for four years. The freshman football team reached the championship game in two consecutive years (2004â€"05 & 2005â€"06) but lost both games to crosstown rivals Pilgrim High School and William E. Tolman High School of Pawtucket.
The Warwick Vets Cheerleading program was very active until 2016. The Varsity team took 1st place in the RI State competition from 1999â€"2007.
In 2007, the boys basketball team had its first thousand-point scorer in several years. In 2008, the girls soccer team made it to the Division 1 state semi-finals.
In 2010, the basketball team won their first game in over 23 years. Thanks to the leading scorer, Anita Waxen, they got their first basketball championship. In 2011, the school joined in the 2nd phase of RI Unified Basketball, a collaboration with RI Special Olympics and the RI Interscholastic League [1]. This program is a national model that promotes a Varsity level co-ed team to have students with disabilities play with non-disabled peers on the same team. In their first regular season, the team was undefeated. They went on to the playoffs as a Division I team and were defeated in the final championship round by 1 point at the buzzer and placed 2nd in the State out of 18 teams.
Other activities
Until its conversion as a junior high school, the school featured active chapters of FBLA, DECA, Student Council, Math League, Academic Decathlon, SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and other clubs.
Warwick Veterans also had a concert band that performed several concerts a year, a marching band that played at parades on Veterans Day and Gaspee Day, and a jazz band and concert orchestra that usually performed with the concert band â€" all were taught by Danielle Prior. A chorus, chorale, and jazz chorus were also part of the school's music department and were taught by Nancy Kennedy.
Notable alumni
- Bill Almon, baseball player
- Damian Costantino, NCAA record holder with hits in 60 consecutive games.
- Fred Whittingham, NFL player and coach
Controversy
The school sparked controversy after unveiling a logo that depicts a hurricane spiraling in a clockwise direction. It is common knowledge amongst Rhode Islanders and their fishermen that have been out to sea have witnessed hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere spin in a counterclockwise direction. A possible explanation points to the school outsourcing the logo creation to a logo maker in the Southern Hemisphere.
Superstitious students often blame their athletic teams' lackluster performances on the "Clockwise Curse."
References
External links
- Official Website