Morris Hills High School


Morris Hills High School is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school located in the borough of Rockaway, in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as one of the two secondary schools of the Morris Hills Regional High School District. The school is located on the former Gunther Estate and opened to students on September 9, 1953. The high school serves students from Wharton, Rockaway Borough and parts of Rockaway Township. Students come to Morris Hills from Copeland Middle School, Alfred C. MacKinnon Middle School, Thomas Jefferson Middle School, as well as local private schools.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,279 students and 118.4 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 10.8:1. There were 257 students eligible for free lunch and 91 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
The campus of Morris Hills houses The Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering a science-oriented magnet school operated as a joint effort with the Morris County Vocational School District and open by competitive application to all students from Morris County.
The other high school in the district is Morris Knolls High School, which serves students from Denville and portions of Rockaway Township.

Awards and recognition

For the 1996-97 school year, Morris Hills High School was named a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.
The school was the 71st-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 42nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 70th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 106th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 101st in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 64th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 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.

School media

The Morris Hills Hilltopper, the school's official newspaper, is published four times a year in color. Students write all articles and take the majority of the photos, as well as set up the design and comics.
SEED Magazine is the school's annual literary magazine. All students are allowed to submit prose or poetry, or visual works of art.

Extracurricular activities

Morris Hills houses a large variety of extracurricular activities for its students, ranging from bible club to its very own DDR Club. Many have gained recognition or awards for their duties in the community or their overall excellence in their field, including the Morris Hills Stage Crew, which placed third in the ITS Statewide festival in the 2005-2006 year. Any student is permitted to join any club. A partial list of clubs include:
The Morris Hills High School Scarlet Knights compete 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 940 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 786 to 1,074 students in that grade range. The school had previously participated in the Iron Hills Conference.
Interscholastic sports offered at Morris Hills include baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, fencing, field hockey, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrestling.
The football team won the NJSIAA North II Group III state sectional championship in 1975. In 2016, the team won the North II Group III state sectional title, the program's second title and its first in 41 years, with a 27-14 win in the tournament final against Parsippany Hills High School.
The wrestling team won the North II Group III state sectional title in 1987.
The field hockey team won the North I Group IV state sectional championship in 2001.
The boys' track team won the Group II state indoor relay championship in 2006 and 2008.
The boys' basketball team made the state tournament for the first time in 10 years in 2006, though it lost in the first round to 6th-seeded Passaic Valley High School 67-45.
The boys ice hockey team, established in 1958, was one of the first high school teams in New Jersey along with the Morristown School, Montclair High School, Livingston High School, and West Orange High School. They won the state championship for the 1960-1961 season. They have also won seven divisional titles including two Charette Division titles, four Haas Division titles, and one Halverson Division title.
Morris Hills also has a successful baseball program, winning 135 games in a span of six seasons with a Morris County Tournament Championship, a North I Group III state sectional title, and five Iron Hills Conference championships.

Cross country / track and field

Perhaps the most successful athletics program at Morris Hills is its men's cross country and track and field teams, both of which have been very successful in the state, due in very large part to the efforts of head cross country coach Sean Robinson, who took the position in 2002.
Robinson took the head indoor track and field coaching position in 2006. In that year, the Scarlet Knights won every major championship they entered, the first time that had happened in county history. The Scarlet Knights repeated the feat in 2008, 2009 and 2011.
Robinson was coach during Morris Hills' county track and field championship victory in 2006, the first time the Scarlet Knights had won since 1977.
Since becoming head coach, Robinson has led the Scarlet Knights to 6 NJSIAA state championships, 11 NJSIAA Sectional Championships, 2 NJSIAA State Relay Championships, 9 Conference Championships, and 7 County Titles. He also has 2 State Coach of the Year, 1 NFHS State Coach of the Year Honor, 5 Area Coach of the Year Honors, and 7 Excellence in Coaching Awards under his belt. He was inducted into the NJSCA Hall of Fame in March 2015.
Morris Hills has also had over 34 All-American honors distributed to its XC/TF athletes since 1999, largely with the success of the school's 4 x mile relay, 4 x 800 relay and shuttle hurdle relay teams. At the 2009 Nike National Outdoor Track Championship the Morris Hills 4x800 won the race to secure the title of national champions after having the US#2 All-Time Performance of 7:31.60 at the Penn Relays. Keith Lindsley, the 2007 NJSIAA Athletic Assistant Coach of the Year, is the current sprint/hurdles coach. Morris Hills was selected to participate in the inaugural Nike Team National Cross Country Championship in 2005, where they finished 13th.
The following is a list of every championship title in Morris Hills cross country/track and field history.
Type of title# of Cross Country titles# of Indoor Track and Field titles# of Outdoor Track and Field titles
County18115
Sectional23612
Group755

Marching band

In 1998, the Morris Hills High School Marching Band, under Director Michael Sopko, was recruited to film an MTV Commercial for the MTV Video Music Awards. The marching band was chosen after being spotted by MTV associates during their annual competition at Giants Stadium. In the commercial, the marching band played clips from nominated songs and ended in a human formation of the MTV symbol. The commercial was aired several times daily leading up to the awards ceremony.
The band was named the 2010 USSBA Group 2 Open New Jersey State Champions.
In 2016, Band Director Michael Sopko retired from his position as the band's leader. Richard Hartsuiker, a former Roxbury music teacher, replaced Mr. Sopko and continued Morris Hills' musical traditions, by directing the Marching Band, directing the Concert/Jazz Bands, and assisting with the Spring Musical.

Administration

The school's principal is Todd Toriello. His administration team includes three assistant principals.

Notable alumni