Trinity High School (Euless, Texas)


Trinity High School is a public high school in Euless, Texas. The school serves grade levels 10–12 and is a part of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District.
The school is named "Trinity" as an homage to the three cities comprised by the school district in which it is located: Hurst, Euless, and Bedford. The school's mascot is a Trojan. The Trinity High School football team has won the Texas 5A Division 1 State Championship three times.
Trinity High School is also notable as the most diverse public high school in Texas and the fifth most diverse public high school in the country. In 2017, the school was rated "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency, with a 5-Star Distinction for Academic Achievements in ELA/Reading, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Post Secondary Readiness.

History

Trinity was established as the second high school in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District. The campus sits on a hillside in west central Euless, less than 500 feet from the Euless-Bedford city limit.

Campus

Trinity High School is made up of eleven distinct buildings, most of which are named for the department they house. The nine original buildings were: the Fine Arts Building, the Academics Building, the Library, the Science Building, the Physical Education Building, the Cafeteria, the Driver's Education Building, a small two-story building called D-Building, and an Administration Building. The Physical Education building formerly included a natatorium that was mothballed and eventually demolished in the 2010s. The late 1990s brought three major changes to the campus: a system of covered walkways was built to connect most of the school's buildings, a new band hall was added to the Fine Arts Building, and a wing was added to the Academics Building. This new wing became the new face of the campus because of its large and prominent façade and provided new offices for the principal, assistant principals, and secretaries. The original Administration Building was converted to house the counselors' offices.
In the first few years of the new millennium, two new buildings were added to the Trinity campus. The two-story N-Building lies on the campus's southern edge and houses the Foreign Language Department and many classes of and the office of the coordinator of the International Baccalaureate program. Just a little further into campus from the D-Building is the new W-Building. The W-Building houses special education classrooms and is specifically designed to accommodate the needs of students with physical disabilities. An activity center named for former principal B.J. Murray opened in 2013 with a 70-yard indoor field, offices, locker rooms, and a weight room dedicated after Trinity alum Ryan McBean. The center is colloquially referred to as "the Mac".

Student body

During the 2016–2017 school year, Trinity High School enrolled 2,574 students in grade 10, grade 11, and grade 12. Ethnicities represented include white, Hispanic, African-Americans, Asian and Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander, two or more races, and Native American. Forty-eight percent were economically disadvantaged.
Euless is home to one of the largest Tongan populations outside of Tonga; the school is known for welcoming and celebrating students from diverse backgrounds. One of the school's most visible cultural celebrations is the varsity football team's performance of the Sipi Tau before and after each game.
Trinity High School receives students from three feeder schools: all students from Euless Junior High school and Harwood Junior High school attend Trinity along with roughly half of the students from Central Junior High school. Students in the attendance zones for Bell Manor, Lakewood, Meadow Creek, Midway Park, North Euless, Oakwood Terrace, Shady Brook, South Euless, Spring Garden, Viridian, and Wilshire elementary schools attend Trinity High School.
The State of Texas defined "college readiness," or readiness to undergo university studies, by scores on the ACT and SAT and in the 11th grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests. Holly Hacker of The Dallas Morning News said that the school was "high-performing" in that regard.

Academics

Among Tarrant County high schools, Trinity High School ranks eighth in average points above passing on the 11th grade TAKS test.
On The Washington Post's 2016 list of America's most challenging high schools, Trinity High School is ranked 1497th out of approximately 22,000 public high schools, based on a ratio of 1.886 college-level exams taken per graduate. Using similar criteria, the school was ranked 304th in the nation on Newsweek's 2007 list of the top 1,200 high schools in the country
Among Trinity's class of 2016, the average Old SAT score was 1442, and the average ACT score was 21.8. In 2016, the school had 7 National Merit semifinalists and 2 semifinalists in 2017.
Trinity High School is an International Baccalaureate World School. The program graduated its first group of seniors in 2004.
Subject2005
School
2006
School
2006
District
2006
State
Reading/ELA86%93%93%87%
Mathematics74%82%85%75%
Science73%77%80%70%
Soc. Studies92%96%94%87%
All Tests61%70%79%67%

Athletics

Trinity High School has been ranked in the top 1% of "Best High Schools Sports" at the local, state-wide, and national levels. Trinity hosts its home football games at Pennington Field, which they also share with L.D. Bell High School. Most athletic activity at Trinity occurs in the "P" building, as well as the activity center.

Achievements

Band program

Mr. William D. Reavis was the first director of bands and fine arts at Trinity from its inception, a position he held until 1972. Before the school's opening, he composed the music and words for Trinity's alma mater and fight song. The band quickly became successful, continually winning sweepstakes at UIL competitions. In January 1972, Trinity's symphonic band was invited to represent the United States by Mexico's Department of Cultural Exchange, performing at Three Rivers High School before playing three concerts in Monterrey, Mexico.
The band continues to participate in UIL competitions, where the band continues a tradition of performance. In 2017, they resumed membership in Bands of America and participated in the Super-Regional Championship in Atlanta at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where they placed 15th.

Drama

The Trinity Drama Department has also had its share of success, advancing to the State finals for UIL One Act Play in 1987, 1990, 1991, and 1992. They won the State Championship in 1992.

Photography

The Trinity Photography Department is a 6 time State Champion program. In 2008 Trinity had at least 9 finalists in the Best of College Photo Contest. At the Texas A&M Photo Shootout and the Association of Texas Photography Instructors Winter Conference in Arlington the Trojans brought home 33 awards. In 2008 alone the Trinity Photo Department won over 100 awards. They also had a special appearance in the nationally broadcast Dallas Cowboys End of Year Special in 2008. The Trinity Photography Department won State Championships in 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2019.

Choir

The Trinity Choir program has seen success after success in National Competitions and at home. In 2007, the Trinity High School Choirs won 10 out of the 11 awards at the Disney Festival and received Sweepstakes ratings in the UIL Competition. The show choir, Harmony, is an award-winning 14-16 member auditioned ensemble and perform throughout the Metroplex including places such as The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Nationalization Ceremony for immigrants, and the Ft. Worth Petroleum Club.

Yearbook

Trinity's Triune Yearbook has received National Awards for its 2007 publication. Including the Gold Medalist from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the highest ranking category. They have been nominated to receive the prestigious CSPA Crown Award presented only to the top 30 yearbooks in the Nation. They received the All-American rating with 5 marks of Distinction from the National Press Association, the NSPA's highest ranking. Triune has been selected as an elite NSPA Pacemaker Finalist recognizing the top 25 books nationally. They have also been selected by Taylor Publishing as a top 5% outstanding yearbook that will be shared with yearbook staffs around the country.

Trojan Crew

Formerly called Trojan Men, the now co-educational Trojan Crew waves the schools banner during football games, the school scores a touchdown, the Crew runs the letter flags and Nike flags down the field in support, raising the spirits of the players and the student section.

Notable alumni

Championships

YearOrganizationAward
1978Rodeo TeamChute Dogging Championship
1979Rodeo TeamSaddle bronc Championship
1987Debate TeamState Mock Trial Championship
1990Men's GymnasticsUIL State Championship
1992Drama DepartmentUIL State Championship One Act Play
1992Journalism DepartmentUIL Silver Star Award for Newspaper
2002Men's GymnasticsUIL State Championship
2005Women's football NSCAA Team Academic Award
2005American FootballUIL State Championship
2006Women's SoccerNSCAA Team Academic Award
2007Girls LacrosseUIL Division II State Championship
2007FootballUIL State Championship
2007Women's SoccerNSCAA Team Academic Award
2008CheerleadingNational Champions
2008Criminal JusticeTexas Public Service Association State Championships
2009Girls LacrosseUIL State Championship
2009FootballUIL State Championship