Allegany High School is a public high school in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland, United States. Allegany High School was built as Allegany County High School in 1887, hence it is often referred to as 'Alco'. As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 671 students and 43.3 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 15.5:1. There were 252 students eligible for free lunch and 30 eligible for reduced-cost lunch. Students were 93% white, 5% African-American and 2% Asian.
History
Allegany High School was initially a secondary education school held in the Maryland Avenue Schoolhouse. The school had many different locations including the building on Greene Street, which was used as a combined middle/high school until the spring of 1926. At that time, the building now known as Allegany High School had been completed and was prepared to accept Greene Street’s high school students. Middle school students remained on Greene Street until the school later burned down in 1932. “Camp Hill,” the site of the present day Allegany, was a federal army camp during the Civil War. The “Camper” mascot is a source of much confusion. The most widely accepted theory is that Civil WarGeneral Lew Wallace and his men began calling the site "Campobello" that during their time here. The word Campobello is derived from Latin, meaning "camp of war".
Athletics
The football team plays their games at the Greenway Avenue Stadium, shared with Fort Hill High School. Allegany High Schools last football state championship, its 8th in all, was in 2005 when they went 14–0 and beat Snow Hill High School in the 1-A Maryland state championship. Allegany plays Fort Hill every year in the annual Homecoming game, which is the last regular season game for both teams. In 2007, NFL Films came to Cumberland and filmed the entire week of Homecoming as well as the game itself.
Extracurricular activities
The 'Alco White' Mock trial team is one of the many organizations in the school. In the 2005–2006 season, the team won the circuit and the regional championships, advancing to the Maryland state Mock Trial Final Four competition in April 2006. The 2006–2007 team lost in the finals to Severn School. The 2007–08 team advanced to the semi-finals, but were defeated by Severna Park. The 2008-2009 team won the Maryland State Mock Trial Championship, the program's first state title after making it to the final four in the previous three competitions. The Allegany marching band is currently under the direction of Larry T. Jackson, and is a part of the Tournament of Bands circuit, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, and Virginia. The band had a chapter championships winning streak of 17 years and has finished in the top 10 at the Atlantic Coast Championships for the past 19 seasons. The team finished in 2nd place in 2015 and 3rd place finalists in 2016. In addition to the band programs the school sponsors indoor color guard and indoor percussion groups. The Allegany Visual Ensemble was the 2011 Winter Guard International Pittsburgh Regional Scholastic Regional A Champions.
