Granite Bay High School

Granite Bay High School
Location
Granite Bay, California United States
Information
Type	Public
Established	1996
School district	Roseville Joint Union High School District
Principal	Jennifer Leighton
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	2,169
Color(s)	Green, silver & black
Mascot	Grizzly bear
Newspaper	Granite Bay Gazette
Website	gbhs.rjuhsd.us

Granite Bay High School is located in Granite Bay, California. Granite Bay High School was founded in 1996 and was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the United States Secretary of Education in 2002 and a California Distinguished School in 2007.

Extracurricular activities

Marching band

GBHS's Emerald Brigade consists of the award-winning marching band and colorguard, jazz band, concert band, and winter programs. The 2007 program gave the Emerald Brigade its first-ever undefeated season.

The band regularly travels to the following competitions: Oakmont (Roseville), Del Oro (Loomis), Foothill (Pleasanton), Folsom, and Lincoln (Stockton). In the year of 2011 they took up WBA (Western Band Association) for the first time, where they came in First Place in the 4A Division placing them 6th place in WBA.

The band has approximately 135 members and performs at home football games and at parade/field show competitions throughout Northern California.

The concert program has traveled to Disneyland numerous times and performed at the world-famous Carnegie Hall in New York in the spring of 2007. The band was also invited to play at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC in 2005. The concert band plays at the annual Delta College and Golden Empire Festivals.^[1]

Choir

Granite Bay had six choirs up until the 2008-2009 school year, but it currently has only one. The choir has had considerable success and has won many awards at competitions and festivals.^[2] In 2012, 9 students from the Granite Bay Madrigal Choir were invited to sing in Carnegie Hall under the direction of Dr. Lynn Gackle. It is currently under the direction of Megan Cooper.^[3]

Competitive forensics

One of Granite Bay's programs is the competitive forensics team, which offers students the opportunity to compete in a variety of speaking events, ranging from dramatic interpretation to policy debate. The Granite Bay Forensics team is a member of the National Forensics League.

In April 2010, Dominic De Marco and Alexander Wagner won the California State Championships in Public Forum Debate, becoming the first state champions in the program's history.^[4]

In April 2013, Nicolas Ontiveros and Justin Habashi won the CHSSA California State Championships in Parliamentary Debate.^[5]

In January 2014, Sai Sumana Kaluvai won the Martin Luther King Jr. Tournament in Lincoln–Douglas Debate, becoming the first person to win MLK Invitational Championship in the program's history.^[6]

Academic Decathlon

Granite Bay High School hosts an Academic Decathlon team. The team has had a long and successful past, winning the Placer County championship 8 of 9 years and sometimes making it to California state 2. The only exception was in 2005, when loss of members due to various reasons crippled the team. Its most notable member was Erika Vause, who achieved the highest score in the state of California in 2000. In 1999, the team won third place in Division II in the state of. 2001 - 2004 the team won county and made it to state competition led by Sharon Peterson, Laura Stamm, and then Kenan Wang, who was a California State level "Superdecathlete" in 2004. The 2005-2006 captain of the team was senior Kevin Shiiba, and in 2006-2007 was led by second-year members David Pinter and Alex Schmidley. The team placed eighth in Division II at the California state finals in 2006, and fourth in Division II in 2007 (24th in the state of California). In 2008, the Granite Bay Academic Decathlon team came in first place against other Placer County high schools and went on to state finals. They achieved 21st place at the state competition. Previous team captains have included Dennis Zheng in 2007-08, Lisa Wang in 2008-09, Kurt Chirbas in 2009-10, and Chelsey Lee in 2010-11.^[7]

Student government

Granite Bay High School has an ASB program. The 2015-2016 president is Aubrey Holt.

Media

The school also has a broadcast journalism program. Known as "Media", the class puts on weekly broadcasts. The Media program is known for its sophisticated approach in presenting the latest campus news to students. Students are divided into three teams, Black, Green, and Silver. Each team is required to put on a weekly broadcast bulletin containing news and student-produced stories relative to the school. Within the teams, students take on individual roles, such as filmers, editors, etc. Some notable members are Johnny Mass, now a professional cinematographer, and David Zagaynov, a SpaceX engineer.

Newspaper

Granite Bay High School hosts the Granite Bay Gazette. The Gazette won, in the last decade, the Pacemaker Award from the National Scholastic Press Association, Gold and Silver Crown awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the George H. Gallup Award from the Quill and Scroll Society. The Gazette has twice been named the first-place winner for general excellence by the California Newspaper Publishers Association, making it the top newspaper in the state. In October 2007, and again in October 2009, the Gazette won "Best of the West" title at the state journalism convention.

The newspaper was first published as the Grizzly Gazette and was a single-section tabloid. Over the following five years the paper flourished, turning into a multi-section broadsheet publication.

Technology programs

Granite Bay High is home to many computer technology courses which provide skills to students for future endeavors in the workplace. A program at Granite Bay High School is Granite Bay Information Technology, or GBiT. This program, scheduled as a class during the school year, provides students with the opportunity to engage in real-world technology support, web development, and management. This student-led and student-run group maintains all technology on campus and performs updates and upgrades to this technology, builds the school's web site and websites for outside customers, and provides faculty with technical training.

Young Entrepreneur Club (E-Club)

The Young Entrepreneur Club at Granite Bay High School is an after-school program that allows students to attend meetings campus with local entrepreneurs who speak about their experiences, brainstorm ideas and strategically incubate student-run ventures through advisory and technical assistance. This student-led organization consists of students who are passionate about pursuing a career in the business world or want to understand the world of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. The E-Club constantly meets and helps students who have niche businesses and mobile application ideas.

South Placer County Robotics

The South Placer County Robotics Team is composed of the following schools: Granite Bay, Del Oro, Lincoln, Oakmont, and Whitney High Schools. They are devoted to the success of their robot. Each student puts in approximately 250 hours in the six-week period they are given for the construction of their robot.

Drama

The Granite Bay High School drama department puts on three shows throughout the year consisting of one musical and a student directed play. The most recent production was "Twelve Angry Jurors" and they are currently working on the popular musical, "Into The Woods".

Football

The Granite Bay Varsity team won the Division I CIF State Bowl on December 14, 2012, defeating Long Beach Poly 21-20.

Notable alumni

• Natalie Gulbis – LPGA golfer^[8]
• Dylan Whitman - Tech entrepreneur featured on Shark Tank^[9]
• Anvita Mishra - Finished 2nd Place in the U.S National Brain Bee^[10]
• Maadhav Shah(2015)-- Robotics captain, Speech and Debate captain and has 3 degrees^[11][12]
• Adam Jennings (2001) – wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons^[13]
• Dallas Sartz (2002) – former linebacker for the Washington Redskins and the Seattle Seahawks^[14]
• Scott Daniels(2005) – reporter for KRQE ^[15]
• Armin Mizani (2005) - Keller City Councilman for Keller, Texas^[16]
• Sammie Stroughter (2004) – Oregon State University and Tampa Bay Buccaneers football player^[17]
• Alicia Parlette – copy editor and former columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle
• Miles Burris (2007) - Former Linebacker for San Diego State and 2012 NFL Draft pick of the Oakland Raiders^[18]
• Devon Wylie (2007) - Former Wide Receiver for Fresno State and 2012 NFL Draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs ^[19]
• Alyssa Anderson (2008) – US National swim team and London 2012 Olympic gold medalist (4 × 200 m freestyle relay). member^[20]
• Haley Anderson (2009) – US National swim team member and 2012 Olympic silver medalist (10K open water swim)^[21]
• Ryan Holiday (2005) - bestselling author and director of marketing, American Apparel ^[22][23]
• Pieter Hilton (2005) - Member of Typhoon
• Kevin Dahlgren – US national convicted of murdering 4 relatives in the Czech Republic in 2013^[24][25]
• Peyton Thompson - NFL player
• Josh Wymyczak (2005) - Television Producer
• David Zagaynov (2018) - SpaceX Engineer; Google Project X

References