Wall High School (New Jersey)


Wall High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Wall Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Wall Township Public Schools.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,091 students and 110.9 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 9.8:1. There were 98 students eligible for free lunch and 10 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Rankings

The school was the 90th-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 137th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 155th of 322 schools listed in 2010, 127th out of 316 in 2008, and 121st out of 316 in 2006.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 153rd 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 on the mathematics and language arts literacy components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.

Extracurricular activities

Wall High School offers many clubs and after school activities, including the Environmental Club, Mock trial, Key Club, National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, National Music Honor Society, DECA, NNDCC: Drill & Rifle Team, S.A.D.D. and International Thespian Society.

Athletics

The Wall High School Crimson Knights compete in the Shore Conference, an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools centered on the Northern Jersey Shore, located within Monmouth County and Ocean County and operating under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 892 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as Central Jersey, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 822 to 1,068 students in that grade range.
Wall High School is known for its intense sports rivalry with Manasquan High School in Manasquan, New Jersey, with the two schools playing each other in front of crowds of 5,000 at their annual Thanksgiving Day American football game.
The football team won the Central Jersey Group III title in 1982, 1983 and 2002. The team won the 2016 South Jersey Group III state sectional championship, defeating reigning four-time champion Delsea Regional High School by a score of 20-7 in the tournament final.
The baseball team won the Group III state championship in 1983 and 2004,2019 vs and won the Group II title in 1994. Head Coach Todd Schmitt retired in 2019 with 403 wins and two state titles in 2004 and 2019 Four state sectional titles 2002 2004 2008 2019 Two Shore conference titles 2003, 2004. The 2004 baseball team won all five championships, becoming the first Shore Conference baseball team to achieve that milestone. The 2004 team was listed as the best baseball team in shore conference history
The softball team won the Group III state championship in 1997 and 2007. The softball team won the 2007 Central, Group III state sectional championship with a 6-5 win over Monroe Township High School. The team moved on to win the Group I state championship with wins over Hammonton High School and Ramapo High School in the final game.
In 2009, displays were erected and a Hall of Fame established honoring WHS soccer teams' overall success. From 1977 - 1983 the team's overall record stood at 130-13-5. Between 1978 and 1981, the team won four consecutive straight Group III state championships, defeating Ramapo High School in 1978, Dwight Morrow High School in 1979, James Caldwell High School in 1980 and Randolph High School in 1981 and had overall state rankings through those four years of #2, #3, #1 and #1 During those years, they won five straight Central Jersey Group III state sectional championships and had an NJSIAA state playoff record of 24 wins out of 25 games over a five-year span. WHS soccer team was the top-ranked team in the Shore Conference each year from 1978-1982. The teams won five Wall Fall Festival Classics over this period as well and captured six straight Monmouth County Titles as well as winning the first ever Monmouth-Ocean County Championship. They also won six straight Conference Championships. The 1992 team won the Central Jersey Group III Championship and in 1993 a Central Jersey Group II Championship was added to the overall record. The 2004 team won the Group III state championship, the program's fifth state title and the first since it won four in a row from 1978 to 1981, with a 4-1 win over Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in a game played at The College of New Jersey.
The Wall High School soccer program was founded by Harry Baldwin, a member of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame, and has produced nearly 50 All-State players. Wall High School's first soccer captain and Soccer America Professional Coach of the Year, Gary Hindley, played here. These teams had two coaches, Tom Farley and Jim Carhart, who together have coached for nearly 50 years and combined have won nearly 700 games. Farley won the National Coach of the Year title in 1979. Carhart has won regional and state coaching honors several times. Top soccer players at Wall include Tom Kain, America's top player at Duke and Walls's only Olympian, and George Gelnovatch, runner-up as the US's top player as well as All American.
The 2007 girls' tennis team won the Central Jersey, Group III state sectional championship with a 3-2 win over Princeton High School in the tournament final.
The 2008 competition cheer team took first place in the state competition, grand champion in the regional competition, and second place at the national competition. In 2009, the team won its Conference Championship, took first place in the New Jersey State Competition, first place at the National Competition in Orlando, Florida, and received the Grand National Champions title at the National Competition in Orlando, Florida.
In 2008, the Wall High School golf team won the South-Central Jersey Group III Tournament.
The Wall lacrosse team had its first season in 2006 and won the Shore Conference division championships in both 2008 and 2011.
In 2008, Wall field hockey won the Group III Championship and continued to the Tournament of Champions Championship. In 2013, the field hockey team won the Central Jersey Group II state sectional championship and continued to Group II Championship where they fell to West Essex High School by a score of 1-0. Coach Nancy Gross earned her 500th win in the 2013 season with a 7-0 win over Monmouth High School.
The boys' bowling team won the Group II state championship in 2009.
The wrestling team won the Central Jersey Group II state sectional title in 2014.
The ice hockey team made its first appearance in the New Jersey Public B state championship in 2017, losing to Glen Rock High School by a score of 9-1 in the tournament final.

Controversy

In 2015, former district superintendent James Habel was sentenced to five years in prison, forfeiture of his pension and the loss of his ability to work in a public sector job in the state, after his conviction on charges of official misconduct. Habel earned nearly $300,000 a year in salary and benefits, but took more than 100 vacation days that he didn't report so that he could cash out an extra $85,000 for the unused vacation time. The judge rejected Habel's attorney's requests for leniency, saying that Habel's actions were a prime example of "greed".
The school found itself in the middle of a national controversy when high school yearbooks were distributed to students at the end of the 2016-17 school year. In two instances, students wearing political campaign apparel bearing the name Trump had the logos airbrushed out of their student photos. A third student included a Trump quote in her yearbook profile, which was also omitted from final publication. Students noted that political apparel for other politicians were included in the current and past yearbooks. The school district suspended the teacher who oversaw the yearbook, pending a formal investigation.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are: