Hackensack High School


Hackensack High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Hackensack, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Hackensack Public Schools. Hackensack High School serves students from the Bergen County, New Jersey communities of Hackensack, South Hackensack, Maywood and Rochelle Park. In March 2020, the Maywood Public Schools received approval from the New Jersey Department of Education to end the relationship it had established with Hackensack in 1969 and will begin transitioning incoming ninth graders to Henry P. Becton Regional High School starting with the 2020–21 school year.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,959 students and 132.5 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 14.8:1. There were 899 students eligible for free lunch and 180 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 242nd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology. The school had been ranked 206th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 198th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 184th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 203rd in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 266th out of 367 public high schools statewide in its 2009-10 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.

History

Hackensack High School's graduates date from the 1880s, and include Warren Terhune and William J. Snow. The cornerstone for its present location at First and Beech Streets in Hackensack was laid on December 2, 1916. The building was dedicated in 1918. By 1920, twenty-two Bergen County towns sent their students to Hackensack High School. New wings were built in the 1950s. The 1966 expansion of Hackensack High School encompassed neighboring Beech Street School and extended a two-story bridge over First Street and in 1967 the Beech Street elementary school became the "east wing" of the high school as it stands today.

Sports

The Hackensack High School Comets compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,358 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,090 to 2,568 students in that grade range. In the 2009-10 school year the school's athletic teams competed in the North Jersey Tri-County Conference, a conference established on an interim basis to facilitate realignment. Hackensack had been a founding member of the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League. Hackensack High and Ridgewood High School were the only founding members of the NNJIL to remain in the league, though Hackensack was the only school to remain continuously in the league. Since the 1912 visit of Halley's Comet, Hackensack's athletic teams have been known as the Comets; the teams were known as the "Colts" before 1912.
On February 6, 1925, the Hackensack Comets boys' basketball team won 39-35 against the Passaic High School, ending that school's 159-game winning streak. The ball commemorating this feat is kept in the trophy case in the gym named for that team's captain, Howard Bollerman Sr.. The boys' basketball team won the Group III state title in 1945 vs. North Plainfield High School and in 1952 vs. Princeton High School.
The boys' bowling team won the overall state championship in 1961, 1965 and 1989.
The field hockey team won the North I Group IV state sectional title in 1980.
The wrestling team won the North I Group IV state sectional title in 1980 and 2013.
The football team won the North I Group IV state sectional championships in 1992-1996, 1999 and 2000. The HHS homecoming football game has been held annually on Thanksgiving Day against rival Teaneck High School since 1931, alternating each year with each school as host. Vince Lombardi was offered $6,000 to coach football at Hackensack High School, but couldn't get out of his contract with St. Cecilia High School in nearby Englewood. Hackensack turned to Tom DellaTorre to coach the football team, he responded by winning 13 championships. DellaTorre later served as the schools athletic director. Upon his retirement in the early 1980s the football field was renamed "Tom DellaTorre Athletic Field".
The boys track team won the Group IV indoor relay championship in 1999.
The school won a share of the 2010 Group IV outdoor track and field title after East Brunswick High School tied Hackensack in the final event, marking the program's first state title since 1971, when they shared a Group IV title after a tie with Henry Snyder High School.

Demographics

In 2017 the graduating class numbered 429, with 46% being Hispanic, 27% being black, 20% being white, and 7% being Asian. Rodrigo Torrejon of The Journal News characterized the school's student body as being "diverse".

School song

The alma mater of Hackensack High School was written by W. Demarest and B. Pratt of the Class of 1918. It is to the tune of the alma mater of New York University, Palisades.

Administration

The principal is James Montesano. His core administration team includes four assistant principals.

Notable alumni