Hendersonville High School (HHS) is one of three public high schools located in Hendersonville, Sumner County, Tennessee. The principal is Bob Cotter, a former principal for the alternative school R.T. Fisher. Two middle schools feed into Hendersonville High: Ellis Middle School and Hawkins Middle School.
The school's colors have been Black and Gold ever since the first Commando football team in 1941, when the Vanderbilt Football program provided the first ever Commando football team with older, used jerseys. The black and gold colors have remained ever since. Hendersonville is known as the Commandos because 54 men were sent to fight in World War II. When they came back as veteran commandos the name stuck with the school and became the official mascot. This can be easily seen at Hendersonville Athletic events, with fans often wearing Commando Army gear, or camouflage, in tandem with school colors.
Hendersonville participates in 6A level sports as a part of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, and maintains athletic programs including track, swimming, softball, bowling, baseball, wrestling, golf, hockey, soccer, football, cross country, marching band, and basketball. The school has a storied rivalry with two schools, Gallatin High School and Beech Senior High School. It also has a relatively new rivalry with Station Camp High School.
Also there is a Marine corps JROTC that students can take as one of their electives.
Taylor Swift attended until she left the school to begin homeschooling on her tour bus. The school's auditorium was renamed "Taylor Swift Auditorium" in Swift's honor after she contributed funds to refurbish the lighting and sound equipment.
The city of Hendersonville has also been named among the top 10 cities for families to live in the United States by Family Circle Magazine. The magazine gave Hendersonville High School a gold star for 315 seniors who logged around 20,000 hours of community service. Academically, Hendersonville has the distinguished honor of receiving a 9/10 rating on greatschools.net.
The Hendersonville High School Band of Gold is widely regarded as the best in Hendersonville with Station Camp High's marching band being their main competition. The 2013-2014 Band of Gold won the most prestigious honor in the schools recent history by winning "Best Overall" at Middle Tennessee's "Bandapalooza" which is held annually. This group also sent one player, Paul (PJ) Scott, to the All American Marching Band program. The band program is also notorious for sending a large number of students to All-County band as well as Mid-State band programs both hosted by the MTSBOA.
Athletics
Hendersonville is known statewide for its very successful sports teams. Year(s) in bold indicate year(s) the team won a TSSAA state championship.
- Baseball
- Boys' Basketball
- Girls' Basketball
- Bowling 2002, 2003, 2004
- Girls' Bowling 2008
- Cheerleading 2014, 2015
- Football
- Boys' Golf 2010, 2011
- Girls' Golf
- Boys' Soccer 1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1998, 2010
- Girls' Soccer
- Ice Hockey
- Softball
- Boys' Tennis
- Girls' Tennis
- Boys' Track (1974)
- Girls' Track
- Wrestling
- Volleyball
- Boys' Swimming
- Girls' Swimming
The above teams have played in 25 contests and won 12 state championships, the most in Sumner County Schools.
Football
Hendersonville's home football games are held at Paul Decker Field. The on-campus stadium is named after retired principal Paul Decker, and has a capacity of 5,500 spectators. Before home games, players walk around the field in what is known as the "Commando Walk". In inclement weather, the Commandos practice in the Steven Chaussey field house, a 60 by 40 yard (55 m by 37 m) practice facility. They also work out in their workout facility called the "Iron Bunker".
Cheerleading
The Hendersonville High School Cheerleading Squad has been involved with many State, Regional, and National Championships going back before the 1980's. They have 4 National Championships, and have taken home many TSSAA State Championships. Their lasted State Championship was for the 2014/15 year.
Golf
The 2010 HHS boys' golf team won the 2010 state Championship.
The 2011 HHS boys' golf team went on to repeat as state champions defeating Brentwood by 10 strokes.
The 2013 HHS boys' golf team won the state championship defeating Farragut by 4 strokes to win the title for the third time in four years.
Soccer
The Hendersonville High School The boys' soccer team has now won five Tennessee State Championships as of 2010 including 1983, 1986, 1989, 1998, and 2010. Hendersonville Soccer also has a soccer-specific facility, called "The Field of Dreams", located in Drakes Creek Park.
Swimming
Hendersonville High School swimming has had over 37 swimming All-American performances over the past decade. Swimming has produced more All-Americans than all other sports combined at Hendersonville High School.
Ice hockey
The HHS Ice Hockey team has been in existence since the year of 2000. The first coach was Chris Morris, who was followed by the current coach Tim Rathert. The team finished 23-15-0 last season.
The HHS Commandos have qualified for the state tournament, the Predator's Cup, for the past five years. They play in the Greater Nashville Area Scholastic Hockey league. In 2011, they represented GNASH and state of Tennessee at the USA Hockey High School national tournament, held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Notable alumni
- Max T. Barnes, songwriter, record producer, studio musician
- Carlene Carter, singer-songwriter, daughter of June Carter Cash
- Zac Curtis, pitcher for the Seattle Mariners
- DeWayne Dotson, retired football player, linebacker, selected by Dallas Cowboys in Round 4 of 1994 NFL Draft
- Steven Fox, golfer, 2012 U.S. Amateur champion
- Jeff Jarrett, professional wrestler, founder of TNA Wrestling
- Lennon Murphy, songwriter, singer, producer
- Thomas Wesley Pentz (Diplo), record producer, DJ; attended Hendersonville High School for two years
- Thomas Richardson aka, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich,
- James Wilhoit, professional football kicker for the Kansas City Command of Arena Football League, former University of Tennessee kicker
- Rachael Price, lead singer of band Lake Street Dive
- Taylor Swift, Grammy Award-winning country/pop singer-songwriter
References
- http://www.tennessean.com/viewart/20130921/HENDERSONVILLE01/309210093/School-system-halts-world-studies-field-trips-after-mosque-controversy
External links
- Official school website
- Official school football website
- Official school soccer website
- Official school baseball website
