Crenshaw High School


Crenshaw High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located on 11th Avenue in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, California.
The school first opened in 1968 and currently enrolls around 750 students.

History

Crenshaw High School opened in January 1968. The school drew students from several neighborhoods, including Baldwin Hills and View Park-Windsor Hills, as well as a few other neighborhoods. The school's student body began with students from wealthier communities. Most of the students who attended Crenshaw High lived in or near this neighborhood of Los Angeles. The total school enrollment at Crenshaw high school, as of the spring of 2020 is less than 700 students.

Background

Crenshaw High's rival is Susan Miller Dorsey High School. Several areas, including the wealthy unincorporated Los Angeles County community of View Park-Windsor Hills, are zoned to Crenshaw; some sections of View Park-Windsor Hills are jointly zoned to Crenshaw and Westchester High School. On August 15, 2005, Crenshaw High School lost its accreditation due to administrative fraud. The accreditation was restored on February 1, 2006.
The school is renowned for its outstanding Men's basketball program, coached for over thirty years by Legendary Head Coach Willie E. West Jr., who retired in 2007 and was succeeded by Ed Waters. The Cougars play home games at the Willie E. West Jr. Pavilion Gymnasium. The Crenshaw Cougars have won numerous L.A. City and California State basketball titles. Crenshaw also won the International High School Basketball Tournament in Ahus, Skane County, Sweden in the 1985 basketball season. In 2004 Kirk Douglas and the Amateur Athletic Foundation donated stadium lights for the Crenshaw High School football stadium. The Crenshaw High School Varsity Football team won its first "Championship Division" Los Angeles City championship in 2005 defeating Woodland Hills Taft High School. However, a "AAA" Championship was won in 1992, defeating Chatsworth High School. Both Championship titles were under the leadership of Head Coach Robert Garrett.

Principals

The first principal of Crenshaw High School was Mr. Robert Case who opened the high school in January 1968. Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Sidney V. Thompson was the school's second principal. Ms. Jewell Boutte was principal in 1988 when she was awarded the prestigious Milken Educator Award for innovations she brought to the school.
Ms. Carrie Allen, formerly an administrator for the Pasadena Unified School District in Pasadena, California became principal in 2009. Ms. Allen was replaced in the summer of 2011 by Dr. Sylvia Rousseau. Dr. Rousseau was formerly the principal at Santa Monica High School and the Superintendent of a Local District in LAUSD. She has also served on the faculty at USC's Rossier School of Education. In 2013 Mr. L. R Corley became principal and served as principal until June 2018. In July 2018, Peter Benefiel became the new principal.

Sports

Football

The Crenshaw High football team, City Section champion, played in the state championship bowl game on December 19, 2009, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Concord's De La Salle High School defeated Crenshaw's football team 28-14 to win the state title. They ended the season 14-1. The Crenshaw football team went on to and win back to back championships, under the leadership of Head Coach Robert Garrett. In 2017, Crenshaw returned to the state championship, hosting Placer High School and winning 46-43.

Titles

Crenshaw has 6 State titles in football:
1992 AAA champs
2005 Div 1 champs
2009 Div 1 champs
2009 State Runners-up
2010 Div 1 champs
2013 Div 1 champs
2017 State champs

Basketball

Under the leadership of Coach Willie West, the Crenshaw High Men's Basketball team won a world basketball championship in the 1985 basketball season. Some world basketball highlights include high scoring games with the team scoring 191 points vs. Ireland's high school basketball team and Crenshaw scoring 197 points vs. Cyprus High School of Magna, Utah. Throughout the school history the Crenshaw's men's basketball team has participated in The Les Schwab Invitational, a national tournament played in the state of Oregon along with tournaments all over the United States, even including the state of Alaska.

College recruits

Many standout athletes for Crenshaw in basketball, baseball and football have gone on to have success in college and professional careers, with Crenshaw High being often serving as a pipeline to NCAA Division I colleges such as UCLA, USC, Duke, Florida and Oregon amongst other colleges.
Crenshaw was featured in the family television series Moesha. It also used its gym for the 2006 film starring Hayden Panettiere and Solange Knowles and Love and Basketball. In 2001, the book And Still We Rise, written by Miles Corwin, chronicled the lives of twelve seniors in the Crenshaw High Gifted & Talented Magnet program in their quest to obtain an education—amidst formidable obstacles. It was also featured in the 2018 film A Wrinkle in Time.