West Morris Mendham High School


West Morris Mendham High School is home of the Minutemen, and is a four-year comprehensive regional public high school that serves students in ninth though twelfth grades as part of the West Morris Regional High School District. Established in 1970, the school is located in the heart of Mendham Borough, New Jersey, United States. Students hail from the surrounding Morris County school districts of Chester Borough, Chester Township, Mendham Borough and Mendham Township.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,222 students and 95.3 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.8:1. There were 9 students eligible for free lunch and 1 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Its sister school, West Morris Central High School, is located in Washington Township. Students from Washington Township attend West Morris Central. The two schools maintain an athletic rivalry, which has survived decades of conference and schedule changes for all sports. Mount Olive High School was broken off from the original three-school district in 1977 and along with its sister school West Morris Central is one of two public high schools in New Jersey to offer both the IB Diploma and Career Programs.
Mendham was certified to offer the International Baccalaureate diploma in January 1998. The school was one of only 16 schools in New Jersey to offer the IB program in 2007.

Awards, recognition and rankings

In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 284th in the nation among participating public high schools and 22nd among schools in New Jersey. In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 5th in New Jersey and 246th nationwide. The school was ranked 562nd, the 13th-highest in New Jersey, in Newsweek magazine's 2010 rankings of America's Best High Schools, with 2.224 AP/IB tests taken per graduating senior. The school was ranked 474th in Newsweek's 2009 ranking of the top 1,500 high schools in the United States and was the 11th-ranked school in New Jersey; The school was ranked 751st nationwide in 2008. In Newsweek's 2007 ranking of the country's top 1,200 high schools, Mendham High School was listed in 390th place, the fourteenth-highest ranked school in New Jersey while Central was ranked 117th in the nation and 3rd in the state. The school was listed in 148th place, the fifth highest ranked school in New Jersey, in Newsweek magazine's May 8, 2006, issue, listing the Top 1,200 High Schools in The United States.
In New Jersey Monthly's September 2018 rankings, West Morris Mendham was ranked 7th 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 45th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 26th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 38th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 29th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.
In 2017, the Washington Post ranked West Morris Mendham High School as the most challenging public, non-charter high school in New Jersey and ranked 217th in the nation. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 61st out of 409 public high schools statewide in its 2017 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics and language arts literacy components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.
Newsweek named the school #180 overall among the nearly 30,000 public high schools in the U.S. in their rankings of "America's Top High Schools 2015" released in August 2015; The school was ranked 38th in New Jersey and 22nd among comprehensive schools in the state.

Athletics

West Morris Mendham High School offers over 30 athletic teams ranging in level from freshman to varsity, competing in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,029 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015–16 school year as North II, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 778 to 1,062 students in that grade range. Prior to the NJSIAA's 2010 realignment, the school had competed as part of the Iron Hills Conference, which was made up of public and private high schools in Essex County, Morris County and Union County.

Softball

The softball team won the Group III state championship in 1985, defeating Collingswood High School in the tournament final.

Cross Country

The girls' cross country team won the Group III state championship in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015; the boys' cross country team won the Group III state title in 2011, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Boys soccer

The boys' soccer team won the North II Group III state sectional title in 1988, before losing to Steinert High School in the Group III state championship game. In 2015, the Minutemen defeated Toms River High School South by a score of 4-0 in the Group III title game, winning the first state championship in the program's history.

Football

The football team under head coach Richard Attonito won three Colonial Hills Conference titles and matriculated future NFL linebackers Jim Collins and Carl Zander. In 1975, the team won the NJSIAA North Jersey II Group I state sectional championship.

Boys lacrosse

The varsity boys' lacrosse team was crowned sole state champions in 1994, winning the New Jersey Tournament of Champions against Ridgewood High School. The team won the Group II state championship in 2010 with a win against Princeton High School.

Girls lacrosse

The girls' lacrosse team won the 2007 Group II state championship with a 17–4 win vs. Hopewell Valley Central High School. The team won the 2008 Group II title, again defeating Hopewell Valley, this time by a score of 8-7 in the championship game. In 2010, the team defeated Shawnee High School 12–6 to become the Group III state champions.

Girls volleyball

The girls' volleyball team was runner-up in the state in 2007. In 2013, the team went on to win the Morris County Tournament, and in 2014, the team was the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference champions.

Boys basketball

The team won the Group II state championship in 2000 and won the Group III title in 2010 (vs. Kingsway Regional High School.
In 2010, the boys won the Group III state championship with a 44–41 victory over Kingsway Regional, but fell short to University High School in the quarterfinal round of the Tournament of Champions.
The team won the 2011 final to give the program its ninth title in the 42-year history of the tournament, more than any other school.
Jim Baglin coached the team from 1979 until 2016, accruing 685 victories and 9 Morris County Tournament titles. He was inducted into the NJSIAA Hall of Fame in 2017.

Ice Hockey

Mendham Ice Hockey won the Halvorsen Division title in 2009, 2013, and 2014.

Girls basketball

The team won the Group II state championship in 1998 and 1999, defeating Sterling High School in the tournament final both years.
In 1998, the girls' basketball team finished first in New Jersey with a perfect 32–0 record, winning the Tournament of Champions over previously undefeated Columbia High School by a score of 67–62, making Mendham the first public school to take the title since 1990.

Girls soccer

The girls' soccer program won the Group II state championship in 1992, 1993, 1998 and 1999. The team has won the Iron Hills Conference Championship. In 2007, the girls' soccer team won the North II, Group III state sectional championship with a 2-0 win over Scotch Plains High School in the tournament final.

Boys tennis

The boys' tennis team won the Group II state championship in 1981 and 1982.

Girls tennis

The team won the Group III state championship in 2004 and 2012.

Fencing

Both the boys' and girls' fencing teams annually place at the top five in the state. In 2011, the girls finished second in the state, and the boys finished fourth. 2009 graduate Emilee Kovolisky placed 4th at the international fencing competition in Barcelona during the summer following her senior year. In 2012, the Mendham Boys won the state championship, defeating Columbia High School, which had won the state title the previous two years and had been riding a streak of 49 consecutive dual match victories.

Field hockey

The field hockey team won the North II Group III state sectional championship in 1975 and the North II Group I title in 1993.

Wrestling

The wrestling team won the North IV Group I state sectional championship in 2017, defeating rival school West Morris Central High School.

Academics

The West Morris Regional High School District offers four different levels of classes.
Each of the four levels in classes differs in the level of rigor, with studies being the least rigorous and Honors/AP/IB being the most rigorous. Students and their parents are free to decide the level of the students classes.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are: