North Hunterdon High School


North Hunterdon High School is a four-year regional public high school serving students from six municipalities in northern Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States, as one of two high schools in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District. Students in the high school hail from Bethlehem Township, Clinton Town, Clinton Township, Franklin Township, Lebanon Borough and Union Township; the school is located in Clinton Township. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools.
As of the 2017-18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,655 students and 128.7 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.9:1. There were 19 students eligible for free lunch and 7 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
The school opened in September 1951 and has undergone several additions over the course of time. Clifford G. Singley was the school's first principal and the football field currently bears his name. Its team nickname is the Lions and its mascot's name is Reggie, in recognition of the early days, when the school was known as Regional.

Awards, recognition and rankings

For the 2001-02 school year, North Hunterdon High School was awarded the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 623rd in the nation among participating public high schools and 48th among schools in New Jersey.
In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 23rd in New Jersey and 759th nationwide. The school was ranked 654th nationwide, the 19th-highest in New Jersey, in Newsweek magazine's 2010 rankings of America's Best High Schools. In Newsweek's May 22, 2007, issue, ranking the country's top high schools, North Hunterdon High School was listed in 587th place, the 11th-highest ranked school in New Jersey.
The school was the 45th-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 66th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 60th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 43rd in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 37th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 36th 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.
In 2016, U.S. News & World Report ranked North Hunterdon as the 39th best high school in New Jersey and 895th in the nation.
In 2019, North Hunterdon High School announced that their yearbook, Regis, won first place in the American Scholastic Press Association's annual yearbook competition and second place from the Garden State Scholastic Press Association's annual yearbook contest.

Athletics

The North Hunterdon High School Lions compete in the Skyland Conference, which includes public and parochial high schools covering Hunterdon County, Somerset County and Warren County in west Central Jersey, operating under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,262 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North II, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,114 to 4,800 students in that grade range.
Since 1976, North Hunterdon High School's football team has competed in the annual Milk Can Game against rival Voorhees High School. After the conclusion of the game, a golden milk can is awarded to the winner, which earns bragging rights and ownership of the can until the next year's game. With a 14-7 win in 2018, North Hunterdon has won seven consecutive games in the series and holds an overall record of 30-12-1 in the 43 Milk Can games played between the two schools. The football team won the Central Jersey Group III state sectional championship in 1975. In 2017, the Lions football team won the North II, Group IV state sectional championship, the program's second state title, with a 21-20 win against top-seeded Phillipsburg High School in the final game of the tournament at MetLife Stadium; the Lions finished the season with a record of 11-1, their only loss being to Phillipsburg, during the regular season.
The wrestling team won the Central Jersey Group III state sectional title in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1993-1997, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003, and won the North II Group IV title in 2009; the team won the Group III state championship in 1982, 1984, 1993 and 2002. The program's 13 sectional titles are tied for tenth-most among all public schools.;
The girls' basketball team won the Group III state championship in 1985, 1986 and 1987, and won the Group IV title in 2010. In 2010, the Lady Lions varsity basketball team went 27-3, winning the Group IV title, the program's fourth state championship, with a 53-36 win over Eastern Regional. The team lost in the Tournament of Champions to Neptune High School by a score of 53-47.
The field hockey team won the North II, Group III state sectional championship in 1986 and 1993.
The girls' softball team won the 2007 North II, Group IV state sectional championship with an 8-0 win over J. P. Stevens High School. The 2008 team repeated as sectional champions with a 9-8 win in extra innings over Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
North Hunterdon won the boys team foil state championship in 2002. The boys fencing team took home the épée state title in the 03-04 season. In the 08-09 season, the boys fencing team took home the foil state title. The girls fencing team has taken home foil district champions in 05-06, and 06-07 seasons in addition to a sabre district championship title during the 05-06 season.
In 2012, the boys' cross country team won the Skyland Conference Cross Country Championship.
From 2012 to 2014, the girls' lacrosse team won the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament championship in each of the three years. They won their first tournament title in 2012 against their rivals, Hunterdon Central, 14-10, on their home field. Once again in 2013, the girls lacrosse team defended its HWS title, winning against previously undefeated Sparta High School by a score of 20-12, in the tournament final played on their home field. The team won their third consecutive title in 2014, with a 21-7 win against Voorhees High School in the final game of the tournament playoff.
The girls' tennis team won the 2017 Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament, knocking of Hunterdon Central Regional High School, which had won the tournament each of the five previous years.

Notable alumni