Toms River High School South is a comprehensive four-year public high school, and was the first high school established in Toms River in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as part of the Toms River Regional Schools. The original Toms River High School graduated its first class in 1891 and the current building opened for students in 1951. In 1969, when the high school was found to be too small, a second high school, Toms River High School North was opened and South was appended onto the school's original name, and a third high school in the district, Toms River High School East, was opened in 1979. The school day starts at 7:15 AM and lasts six hours and 20 minutes. Toms River high schools have some of the earliest daily closing high schools in New Jersey, closing at 1:35 PM every day. As of the 2017-18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,374 students and 103.4 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 13.3:1. There were 320 students eligible for free lunch and 72 eligible for reduced-cost lunch. The school colors are maroon and White. The school has four mascots: Indian, Indian Princess, Super Maroon, and Spirit. For the 2014-15 school year, the mascots are Indian XLVII, Princess XLVI, Super Maroon XXXVII, and Spirit XVI. The mascots appear at every football game of the High School South Indians, which also feature the longtime "Voice of the Indians", P. David Correll Sr., as public address announcer. Michael Citta is the current principal.
Awards, recognition and rankings
For the 1993-94 school year, Toms River Alternate School - High School South was named as a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve. The school was the 230th-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 229th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 269th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 264th in 2008 out of 316 schools.
Athletics
The Toms River High School South Indians compete in the Shore Conference, an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools centered at the Northern Jersey Shore. All schools in this conference are located within Monmouth County and Ocean County. The league operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 991 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as South Jersey, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 794 to 1,076 students in that grade range. The school participates in a joint ice hockey program with Toms River High School East as the host school / lead agency, under an agreement that expires at the end of the 2016-17 school year. The field hockey team won the South Jersey Group IV state sectional championship in 1975 and 1984, and won the South Jersey Group III title in 1991; the team won the Group IV state championship in 1975. The football team won the NJSIAA state sectional championships in 1978 in South Jersey Group IV and in both 1983 and 1991 in South Jersey Group III. Each year, students, parents, teachers, alumni and administrators gather for the annual Toms River High School North vs. Toms River High School South football game. The game is considered to be the biggest event of the year for students. The annual event began in the fall of 1972. The boys' cross country team won the Group III state championship in 1980. The baseball team won the Group III state championship in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2003 ; the program's five state championships are tied for seven-most in the state. The girls' soccer team won the Group III state championship in 2001 and 2002. In 2009, the boys' soccer team upset Toms River High School North in the state semi-finals, and went on to win the Group IV state championship for the first time in program history, with a 1-0 victory over Clifton High School in the final game of the tournament. In 2009-10 school year, the Toms River High School South boys ice hockey team won the Public A state tournament as a 16th seed, which is the lowest seed to ever win the state championship, having knocked off the number one seed Morris Knolls High School in the first round, and beat the number 3 seed Randolph High School in the finals. The wrestling team won the South Jersey Group III state sectional championship in 2013.
