Ramapo High School (New Jersey)


Ramapo High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school located in the New York City suburb of Franklin Lakes, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The school is a part of the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff. The other high school in the district is Indian Hills High School, located in Oakland. Students in eighth grade in the three sending districts have the opportunity to choose between Ramapo and Indian Hills by February in their graduating year.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,222 students and 112.1 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 10.9:1. There were 18 students eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 24th-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 17th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 19th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 23rd in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 28th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 53rd 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 the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 46th in New Jersey and 1,479 nationwide.

University programs

The school, in tandem with Indian Hills High School, offers several special programs similar to college majors, wherein students are accepted into one of the programs and take a series of honors-level courses, in lieu of electives. Ramapo offers one University Program: Engineering.
Engineering – Introduces students to the world of Engineering which has courses designed to give students a taste of various engineering fields, as well as helping them become familiar with the tools of an engineer, such as AutoCAD. This program is also tied to an extracurricular club, Robotics club, in which members of the engineering program build a robot to compete in a competition with other schools.
Communications and Theatre Arts students take classes together. District superintendent Dr. C. Lauren Schoen announced that the Communications and Theater Arts programs are being discontinued from Ramapo. Parents and students believe the cuts are due to the school's overall lower enrollment than Indian Hills.

Athletics

The Ramapo High School Raiders compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 817 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. Prior to the realignment in 2010, Ramapo competed in the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League.
The school was recognized as the Group III winner of the NJSIAA ShopRite Cup in 2005–06. The award recognized the school for achieving a tie for 3rd in girls soccer, 2nd in girls volleyball, a tie for 3rd in football, 1st in softball, 1st in boys golf, 1st in boys lacrosse and 2nd in boys tennis. The school repeated as the Group III winner of the NJSIAA ShopRite Cup in 2006–07. The award recognized the school for achieving 1st place in girls' soccer, 2nd in boys' soccer, 3rd in girls' tennis, 3rd in boys' fencing, 2nd in girls' indoor track and field relays, 1st in girls' indoor track and field, 2nd in softball, 2nd in boys' lacrosse and 1st in girls' track and field.

Baseball

The boys' baseball team won the Group III state championship in 2001, defeating Toms River South High School in the final game of the tournament.

Bowling

The 2009–10 boys bowling team won the NBIL Division 1 championship over Paramus Catholic High School, while finishing the season ranked fifth in North Jersey. The team also finished tied with Don Bosco for 8th overall at the county tournament, and came in fourth in a tough group at the state sectionals. In the 2010–11 season, Ramapo continued upon the previous year's success, with a fifth-place finish in the county tournament, second place in the Big North division 5, and a North 1-A Group 3 sectional championship, defeating Pascack Valley High School, resulting in a season-ending ranking of third in North Jersey and 17th in the state.

Cheerleading

In 2012 and 2013 the cheerleading squad won the Contest of Champions Nationals.

Fencing

In 2009 Ramapo had the fencing state individual champion Adrian Bak, a member of the US national fencing team, who led Ramapo to a team sabre state title. In 2011, Charles Copti continued the trend and went on to win the state individual championship for the Sabre weapon.

Football

The football team won the NJSIAA North I Group III state sectional championships in 1974, 1983, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009 and 2012. The 2009 team won the North I Group III state championship beating archrival Wayne Hills High School 16–8 at Giants Stadium, for the team's first title since 2003.
After falling behind by a score of 26–7 at the half, the 2012 football team went on to win the North I Group III state championship by a score of 37–34 over Sparta High School after scoring 20 unanswered points in the third quarter and kicking a 48-yard field goal with seconds left in the game to break a tie.
Also in 2015, the Ramapo Raiders beat River Dell Regional High School in the North I Group III state championship by a score of 45-15, earning the team's 10th state title in school history and the 5th state title under the direction of Coach Drew Gibbs. The 2015 football team finished the season with an 11-1 record.
In 2018, the team won its first NJSIAA bowl game title by beating Summit, 42-22, in the North Group 3 final at MetLife Stadium, completing the program's fourth unbeaten season all-time and becoming the first school in New Jersey history to finish 13-0.

Golf

The 2010 boys golf team won the state Group III championship.

Gymnastics

The 2014 gymnastics team scored a 111.3 at the North Jersey Gymnastics League A-Division, which was the highest score in the state in 2014.

Lacrosse

The Ramapo boys' lacrosse team won the 2006 Group II state championship with a 12–10 over Montgomery High School and advanced to the Tournament of Champions where they lost to Ridgewood High School by a score of 10-6. The 2010 team advanced to the Group II final, in which they lost to Princeton High School. With three goals in the game's final 84 seconds, Ramapo tied the game and took the Group II final into overtime, where they defeated Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School by a score of 12-11 to win the 2017 tournament.

Soccer

Boy's soccer

The boys' soccer team won the Group III state championship in 1990, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2011 and 2012. The 2007 boys' soccer team won the North I, Group III state sectional championship with a 2–0 win over Morris Hills High School in the tournament final. The win was Ramapo's fifth sectional title since 2002. The team moved on to win the Group III state championship with a 1–0 win over Ocean City High School. The win was the team's fourth state championship, and their first since 2002.
The 2007 boys' and girls' soccer teams went to the New Jersey Group III state championships, the girls losing and the boys winning with a 1–0 victory against Ocean City High School. In 2008, the boys soccer team won the county title over Don Bosco Preparatory High School but lost in the state semi finals to Millburn High School, while the girls team lost in the county championship to top-seeded Immaculate Heart Academy and won the state title by defeating Freehold High School by a score of 3–1 in the finals.
The 2011 boys soccer team was at one point ranked #16 in the country. They finished the season with a record of 22–1 and won the Group III state tournament over Timber Creek Regional High School by a score of 3–1.
In 2016, the Ramapo Raiders boys' soccer team was ranked 17th in the nation by USA Today / NSCAA. The team won the Group III state tournament with a win against Toms River South High School in the tournament final by a score of 3–0 and finished the season with a record of 22–0, the first team in the state without a loss since Ramapo did it in 2012.

Girl's soccer

The girls' soccer team won the Group III / IV combined title in 1982 and 1983, won the Group III state championships in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2006 and 2008, giving the team 12 state titles, the most of any public school. The girls' soccer team tied Freehold High School 0–0 in the 2006 Group III championship game held at the College of New Jersey, with both teams sharing the co-championship. In 2007, the girls soccer team won the North I, Group III state sectional championship with a 2–0 win over Northern Highlands Regional High School in the tournament final, the team's 14th sectional title in the preceding 16 years.
In 2015, the girls soccer team won the NJSIAA Group II state championship by a score of 2-0 against Holmdel High School in the tournament final.

Softball

The softball team won the 2007 North I, Group III state sectional championship with a 2–0 win over Paramus High School.

Tennis

Boy's tennis

The boys' tennis team won the Group IV state championship in 1972, 1973 and 1974, won the Group III title in 1977, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1992. The team won the overall state championship in 1973, 1974 and 1985. The program's 13 state championships are tied for the fourth most of any high school team in the state.

Girl's tennis

In 2007, the girls tennis team won the North I, Group III state sectional championship with a 3–2 win over Northern Highlands Regional High School in the tournament finals. The win was the team's second consecutive title, and the 21st in team history.

Track and field

The 2007 girls' track team won the State Group III indoor and outdoor titles, led by senior Kesley Ramsey, junior Amy Salek, sophomore Erin McKenna and sophomore Meagan Downey. The first three, along with junior Colleen Sullivan, finished second in the Penn Relays distance medley relay in a Bergen County time of 11 minutes, 56.59 seconds.
The 2009–10 Spring Track Boys Sprint Medley Team placed first overall in the Bergen County Relays in Division A, posting the 19th fastest time ever run in the County with a 3:32.7 and a 1:53 800 anchor leg by junior Bradley Paternostro. At the East Coast Relays, the sprint medley team came in first with a time of 3:28, posting the seventh-fastest time in county history. The SMR will compete in nationals in North Carolina as well as Bradley in the open 800m race. Bradley was awarded the Bernard Smith Award for the Best Male Track Athlete of the meet, also running the anchor leg of the 4x400 boys relay which placed 4th. Also, Ramapo earned 2nd place in the 4x100 and a 4th-place finish in both the 4x200 and 4x400. At the 2010 State Sectional Meet, Paternostro won both the mile and 800, and the team placed fourth overall. At the 2010 Bergen Meet of Champions, Bradley won the 800 and anchored a 5th overall 4 × 400 m relay. In 1974 the mile relay team took 1st place at the league championship meet. During the 2018 season, the boys team won its first ever major relay meet, winning the Comet Relays Large School Division.
The 2010 boys cross country team won the league championship, marking the first time in 12 years that the boys had accomplished this feat.

Wrestling

The 2009, the wrestling team won the first league title in program history by defeating Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan in a 28–28 tie. The tie was broken from the "Second Tie Breaking Criteria: Most Matches Won". Ramapo had 8 wins while Northern Valley-Old Tappan only had 6. The wrestling team won the title for its division in the league the following year. There are currently five wrestlers who are part of the "100 Win Club". They include 2005 graduate Jimmy Schulz, 2009 graduate Chris D'Amico, 2010 graduate Alex Scheinert, 2011 graduate Nick Madormo and 2016 graduate Wilfredo Gil.

Academic teams

The debate team won the 2007 state title in the JP Morgan Chase Lincoln Douglas Debate tournament. They also were victorious at the league and county level to take their first ever triple crown of debate.
The DECA team dominated the regional competition in 2008, only to be upset in the states. In February 2009, the team led Bergen County high schools and were awarded first place in the regional competition before earning fifth place in the state competition.
Members of the Academic Decathlon team reached the third round of News 12 New Jersey's The Challenge. The Academic Decathlon team was also awarded first place overall in the regional competition, and second place at the state level. A pair of 2009 graduates each won the gold medal for highest score in their grade divisions at both competitions. The 2011 Academic Decathlon team came in first place overall in the regional competition, and fourth place at the state competition. Team co-captain Madeline Feinstein won the gold medal for highest overall score in the region and the gold medal for highest overall score in the state at the varsity level. Team co-captain Mackenzie Mosera won the gold medal for highest overall score in the region at the scholastic level. Sean Foley won the silver medal for highest overall score in the region at the honors level.

Theatre arts

Ramapo's performing arts program consists of the Gold Masque Theatre Club. Performances such as Into the Woods and Les Misérables have received Papermill Playhouse recognition.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are