Fossil Ridge High School (Fort Collins, Colorado)


Fossil Ridge High School is the newest of four public high schools in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. The school opened in August 2004, and was intended to help better distribute students in Fort Collins and alleviate pressure on Rocky Mountain High School.

History

Voters approved the opening of Fossil Ridge High School in 2000, and the school first opened to students in August 2004 with 475 students in grades 10 and 11.

Athletics

Fossil Ridge High School participates in the 5A Front Range League and offers all major sports to students. In 2016, Lindsey Noble and Erinn Hogan won the state championships for the women’s 3 doubles tennis team at the school; placing the team 3rd overall in the state championships for women’s tennis.

Swimming

The boys' swim team won state championships in 2015, 2016 and 2017 while head coach Mark Morehouse was awarded National High School Coach of the Year honors by the National High School Coaches Association following the 2016 championship win. The girls' swim team won state championships in 2011-12, 2014-15, and again in 2016-17.

Cheerleading

The cheerleading program consists of three teams, two of which are competitive. There is a freshman team, a junior varsity team and a varsity team. The junior varsity team has won the UCA Mile High regional and the UCA Southern Colorado regionals multiple times from 2015-2018. The junior varsity team won CSCA State in 2017 in All-Girl and in 2018 as CO-ED. The varsity team won the Front Range League competition for the fifth consecutive year holding the title from 2014 to 2018. In the 2018-2019 season, they won the large varsity division of the UCA Mile High & Southern Colorado regionals and made CHSAA state finals for the second time in school history and placed 5th at State. They then went on to Nationals that same season with an upgraded routine and hit to win Colorado’s first national high school cheerleading championship. They competed in large varsity division I and led by.1 to take the gold.

Hockey

The boys' hockey team won their state championships during the 2011-12 season. Even though they are known as the "lambkins", another high school mascot located in Colorado, the team plays for the whole Poudre School District.

Unified sports

Fossil Ridge High School has a unified sports program, which pairs students with and without disabilities together on teams. The Colorado Special Olympics named Fossil Ridge the 2015 Project Unify School of the Year for their work to create an inclusive environment through unified sports.
Fossil Ridge was the first high school in Fort Collins to begin a unified basketball team, an activity that has since spread to every other comprehensive high school. They again set a precedent in 2014 by launching a unified flag football tournament, which led to unified flag football teams being created at all the main city high schools in the fall of 2015.

Activities

Fossil Ridge offers extracurricular activities including official, school sponsored clubs such as yearbook, a school newspaper, a student council, community outreach organizations, and multiple musical groups. Student-initiated clubs with more unique themes are also common since any idea can be turned into a club if a student wishes to do so. This includes clubs like Sleeping Club, Garfield Club, and NBA Club.

Band

The marching band at Fossil Ridge won the state championships in 2012, 2013, 2018, and 2019. and took second place in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Robotics

Fossil Ridge has a FIRST Robotics Competition team which started in 2012, dubbed "Ridgebotics" by its members. In 2012, the team received the Highest Seeded Rookie Award, and achieved 13th overall. In 2013, they were the 8th seed, but did not advance to Nationals. In 2014, they placed 45th due to electrical and coding difficulties. In 2015, the team advanced to the quarterfinals, achieving 26th in the placement rounds. In 2016, the team advanced finished 10th in qualification matches, and finished 8th in the elimination rounds. In 2017, the team finished 3rd during qualification rounds, and finished 2nd overall in elimination rounds, placing the team in the World Championship. They finished 25th in their division, which there was 6 of. This was Ridgebotics best finish yet.

Knowledge Bowl

Fossil Ridge's Knowledge Bowl team won the Colorado state title in 2012 and 2013. The team took second place in the state in the interscholastic academic competition in 2014, and claimed the state title again in 2015 and 2016.

Newspaper

The school's monthly newspaper, Etched In Stone, won the Colorado High School Press Association's 2012 Best In Show: Website Award, as well as the National Scholastic Press Association's Pacemaker Finalist Award. etchedinstone.org has had over 150,000 hits since launching in September 2012.

Theater

In fall 2016, Fossil's theater department staged a sold-out production of Nick Dear's Frankenstein, and performed The Addams Family in spring 2017. The Addams Family won a High School Musical Theatre Award for Best Leading Actor for Austin Hand as Gomez Addams, and was also nominated for Best Costume Design at the Bobby G Awards at Denver Center for the Performing Arts in 2017. The school's Improv team also ranked first in the state in the International Thespian Society's state conferences in 2015 and 2016.

Sabercat Studios

The head of the film program at Fossil Ridge High School is teacher Brendan Gallagher. Projects include the triennial Lip dubs, the 2013 Ridge Life Movie, and the 2014 Moment in Time project.
Students in Ridge TV learn editing and sound production software, professional production skills, and develop segments for a weekly school-wide broadcast. Students create, over the course of the year, short films in the SaberCats Studios that are premiered in the annual FOASS film festival. Students then move on to compete in the Fort Collins High School Film Festival, viewed by the general public at the Lyric Theater in Fort Collins.

Ridge WRX

Established in 2019, Ridge WRX is a project based learning class where students meet traditional classroom standards by completing projects in the community. These projects are sponsored by local businesses, or are the students own ideas that they wish to pursue. The goal of the program is to provide an alternative learning opportunity to all upperclassmen with real world applications.

School Design

Fossil Ridge High School was the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design high school in Colorado. The building was constructed out of environmentally friendly materials and has double-pane windows and solar panels. The school also has energy-efficient lighting, heating and cooling systems, and sustainable landscape design.
The new building received the international annual design award of the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International for 2006, the "James D. MacConnell Award" for outstanding new educational facilities.
As a result of its design, Fossil Ridge's energy savings are about 60 percent. The school saves approximately $100,000 a year in utilities. The Discovery Channel hosted a special highlighting energy saving at the school and its importance in modern society. The building's design inspired students to create an eco-friendly club that educates the school community on the benefits of conservation and how to reduce ecological impact.

Notable alumni