Cary High School


Cary High School is one of six high schools in Cary, North Carolina. Established in 1896, it was among the first public high schools in North Carolina. Students in grades 9-12 attend Cary High. Cary High is a part of the Wake County Public School System and operates on a traditional calendar, with a block schedule.

History

Cary High School was established in 1896, as among the first public high schools in North Carolina. The school was originally located in downtown Cary on Academy Street, and moved to its current location in 1960.
The school was the first to be desegregated in Wake County outside Raleigh in 1963 when six African-American girls, chosen to be bright, outgoing, and "strong-willed enough to take what was inevitably coming to them," came to the school amid intense verbal opposition from Whites. Some White parents sued the school system over the integration, and the suit was thrown out by the North Carolina Supreme Court.
The original site housed Cary Elementary School until it reopened August 13, 2011, as the Cary Community Arts Center.
A new auditorium, gymnasium, music classrooms, and a classroom building have recently been completed on the main campus.
The original mascot was a White Imp after the UNC White Phantoms and the Duke University Imps. The "white" was dropped to avoid racial connotations when the school was desegregated.

Student life

The Cary High School Marching Band, established in 1920, is a corps-style marching band. The band hosts Cary Band Day, an annual festival featuring marching bands from the North Carolina and Virginia area. The band marched in the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York.
The drama and choral departments put on a fall play and a spring musical most years.
The Cary High Speech and Debate team is a member of the Tarheel Forensics League and competes statewide.

Athletics

Wrestling

Cary High School's wrestling team through the leadership of former Coach Jerry Winterton won twenty state championships, eighteen consecutive regional tournament titles, and twenty-eight consecutive conference tournament titles. Coach Winterton was inducted into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Hall of Fame in October 2014.

State championships