Jay M. Robinson High School


Jay M. Robinson High School, often referred to as Robinson, JMR, or JRob by students, is a comprehensive public high school located in Concord, North Carolina. It is the fifth high school of the Cabarrus County Schools system, opening its doors in August 2001, the county's first new high school since 1966. The school's enrollment dropped with the openings of Cox Mill High School and Hickory Ridge High School.
The school was constructed under the name Southwest Cabarrus High School, but was renamed in 2001 after the death of Jay Robinson, Chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Education and former Cabarrus County Schools administrator.

Campus and Facilities

Robinson sits in the southwest sector of Cabarrus County, one mile northeast of Charlotte Motor Speedway. Designed by Yates-Chreitzberg-Hughes Architects, the single-floor school is constructed around two central courtyards that can only be accessed from the interior of the school. At over, it is the largest school building in the county and one of the largest public buildings in the county. Robinson is locally characteristic for its distinctive architecture, wide hallways, and massive commons areas near the front of the school.
David S. Wright Auditorium, named for Robinson's first principal, hosts numerous functions throughout the year including concerts by high school and college groups and assemblies for community groups such as Elevation Church. Due to its large size, the school system often uses it for meetings for large numbers of staff members.
Athletic facilities located on the campus include Bulldog Stadium and a fieldhouse, a gymnasium and adjoining practice gymnasium, tennis courts, and a baseball/softball complex.

Academics

Robinson offers a full range of classes in all subjects required under the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Advanced Placement courses are offered in U.S. History, World History, European History, American Government and Politics, Calculus AB and BC, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics, Psychology, Music Theory, Studio Art, Spanish, English Grammar and Composition, and English Literature. Many online classes for college credit are provided by Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. In 2006 Robinson added an on-campus AFJROTC program, which has become one of the best in the county, it only having lost the in-county competition between the AFJROTC units twice. Students at Hickory Ridge and Concord High Schools are involved in the Robinson AFJROTC program as well. The school also hosts broadcasting classes, with a 6-minute show airing each day. The marching band, named "The Pride of Robinson", is one of the most successful marching bands in the state of North Carolina, winning over 30 awards in 2006. Blair Smith was the Director of the Bands of Robinson since the school opened, he soon retired after the 2016 school year. Andrew Carter is the newest director of bands for the band.
Robinson also offers the following Career Technical Education program areas: Personal Finance, Marketing, Sports & Entertainment Marketing, Health Sciences, Teen Living, Family & Consumer Sciences, Drafting, Automotive Service Technology, Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Masonry, Robotics, Electrical Trades, and Technology. Many of the CTE teachers bring 'real world' experience to the classroom. Within the CTE department is the JMRHS Academy of Engineering and Automation which opened to incoming freshmen in fall 2015.
Robinson was recognized by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as a "School of Distinction" under the state's ABC standards for public education for the 2005-06 school year.
Its high school newspaper is the Paw Print, which is a member of the High School National Ad Network.

Academic Clubs

Robinson offers a wide range of academics-related extracurricular activities, with clubs for nearly every academic department. The Beta Club serves as the school's honors society. In academic competition, Robinson's Quiz Bowl team has consistently been among North Carolina's top teams in the past several years and participated in the PACE National Scholastics Championship in June 2007 at the University of Michigan. The school also hosts a small number of other extracurricular clubs such as The Junior Engineering Technological Society.

Athletics

Robinson's athletic teams are known as the "Bulldogs". The school is a member of the 3A division of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and competes in the South Piedmont Conference with several other public high schools in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus County. The school sponsors interscholastic football, cross country, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, swimming, soccer, tennis, track and field, golf, baseball, and softball.
From 2005 to 2009 and 2012 to 2015, Robinson competed in the 4A classification of the NCHSAA, in the MeCKa Conference. Currently, the school is in the South Piedmont Conference, with other schools in Cabarrus County.
Robinson has several local rivals, but the three largest are with Hickory Ridge, Northwest Cabarrus and Central Cabarrus, the three schools that contributed a vast majority of the students. It also has a growing rivalry against Cox Mill.
In 2007 Robinson won its first state championship, when senior Jake Wainwright finished first in the high jump at the NCHSAA 4A Track and Field championships. In 2008 sophomore Dominic Parisi went undefeated in the 112-pound weight class to win the NCHSAA 4A Wrestling championship.
In the 2009-2010 season Robinson also won a state championship in wrestling for both the dual team tournament and the individual tournament, for Robinson's first-ever team state championship. Parisi and Garrison White won first in the state for their respective weight classes.
The 2015-2016 varsity boys basketball team earned both the South Piedmont Conference regular-season championship as well as the conference tournament. Weeks later, the Bulldogs won the NCHSAA 3A State Championship on March 12, 2016 at Carmichael Arena against the defending champion Terry Sanford 59-55. Junior Lavar Batts Jr. was named the most outstanding player of the western region, while senior Daniel Spencer was named the game's MVP.
On November 4, 2016 the varsity football team defeated Concord High School to claim the South Piedmont Conference Championship, finishing 8-1 in the conference and 9-2 overall.
On October 27, 2017 the varsity football team defeated Kannapolis to become back-to-back South Piedmont Conference Champions, finishing 5-0 in the conference and 9-2 overall.

Principals