Piedmont High School (North Carolina)
| Piedmont High School | |
|---|---|
 View southwesterly from Piedmont HS toward Monroe, NC NASA World Wind "Piedmont Academics Character Excellence" (PACE) | |
| Location | |
|
3006 Sikes Mill Road; Monroe, NC 28110 United States | |
| Coordinates | 35°05′43″N 80°29′28″W / 35.0951471°N 80.4911771°WCoordinates: 35°05′43″N 80°29′28″W / 35.0951471°N 80.4911771°W |
| Information | |
| Opened | 1960 |
| School district | Union County Public Schools |
| Principal | Dr. Jonathan Tyson |
| Enrollment | 1,328 (2015-2016) |
| Website |
pmhs |
Piedmont High School is a public high school in Monroe, North Carolina. The mascot of the school is the Panther, and the current principal is Dr. Jonathan Tyson. The motto for the school is the acronym PACE, standing for "Piedmont Academics Character Excellence."
History
Piedmont was founded in 1960 as the second high school in Union County. After the Class of 2005, the school was divided, the class of 06 was able to stay to graduate, and half of the classes of 2007, 2008, and 2009 moving to newly created Porter Ridge High School depending on where you lived. On June 14, 2010 was the 50th graduating class and country music star Trace Atkins spoke.
Art
Piedmont was the first school in Union County to have an NAHS (National Art Honor Society). They also started another tradition at Piedmont: VSA, or Very Special Arts. This is a very popular event at Piedmont which is usually the week after spring break. This is the last year that this event will take place at Piedmont High, as Wingate University is taking over the project. In 2010, the event was held at nearby Parkwood High School.
Sports
The Panthers are the 1984 and 2013 2A State Baseball champions. Piedmont baseball team has put one baseball player in the major leagues being Andy Tomberlin. They have also had state champions in swimming, wrestling, and track and field. Also, the football team had a 31 game regular season winning streak from 2001-2003, winning the district title during that run. The woman's softball and men's baseball teams are currently two of the top teams in 3A.
Currently the teams compete in the Rocky River Conference, which is 2A. This downgrade was made the school year of 2009-2010. They had been competing in the South Piedmont Conference which is 3A
Currently, the biggest rival for Piedmont is Porter Ridge. Piedmont is currently 2-3 against them all time in football. Historically, though, Piedmont's biggest rival in high school football is Forest Hills High School.
Piedmont's most consistently successful sport is Wrestling. The team has had a State finals showing three years in a row, facing the same team each time Croatan, winning it in 2011-2012 with and undefeated record.
The Piedmont Varsity cheerleaders have become highly competitive and won a 5th place title at State out of 22 squads. They also won a first place title at Methodist.
Band
In 2009, the Marching Panthers attended their first Bands of America competition at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and intend to continue competing there annually. In 2012 the band competed in the Mooresville High School Blue Devil Classic, a state-level marching band competition, winning 1st place in Class 5A and the Overall Grand Champion out of 22 bands from across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, receiving a Superior Rating of 92.6%. The marching band receives numerous Grand Champions/Superior ratings at local, state, and national-level competitions. The concert band frequents in performing in an annual Music Performance Assessment competition, in which they receive Superior and Excellent ratings. Each year, select students qualify for the County, All-District, and State ensembles. The Pride of Piedmont also travels to Walt Disney World once every two years to march and perform in the Magic Music Days Parade.