"Honoring The Class of 2009"

It has been an honor to work with the Class of 2009 during my first year as principal at Seneca High School. This is a very special group of students that I hope will continue to be an active part of the "Bobcat Family" for years to come. I would also like to congratulate this group for already setting a record with approximately 4.5 Million dollars in scholarship money! The class of 2009 is a great group of Bobcats, and we will miss you!

"Spring Is In Full Swing"

The Spring season has arrived at Seneca High School this year and our students, faculty and staff continue to strive to implement our new mission statement developed by our faculty, SIC and administration. The new mission statement is as follows:

Through the pursuit of excellence in academics, arts, and athletics, the mission of Seneca High School is to create lifelong learners who are prepared to compete in a global environment and actively participate in diverse societies.

The following are some of the achievements that have taken place recently throughout our school and community that serve to support our new mission statement:

• SHS Honors Women's Choir and Honors Women's Chorale had 21 students make All-State at this years Choral Festival.
• SHS Bobcat Battalion repeats as the County JROTC Champion.
• SHS faculty begins implementation of comprehensive curriculum mapping and assessment model.
• SHS Spring Sports teams are off to a great start. The seasons are in full swing and multiple SHS teams are in contention for Region Championships.
• SHS TTI program is preparing to participate in the Special Olympics this Spring.
• SHS Arts program has artwork displayed at the Blue Ridge Arts Center in Downtown Seneca.
• SHS is undergoing a face lift inside. Our outstanding district painting crew is in the process of painting our school complete with a new "Bobcat" color scheme. A special thanks goes out to Richard Alexander and his staff from the SHS family.
• Multiple Athletes have signed athletic scholarships with the College or University of their choice.
• SHS Lady Bobcats Basketball team won a Region Championship and remained undefeated through the 3rd round of the State Playoffs.

This is just a snapshot of some of the recent accomplishments of the Bobcat Family. Please come out to join us for any of our upcoming events in Academics, Arts and Athletics. Feel free to contact the school for a schedule of events.

Great Job Bobcat JROTC

The Bobcat Battalion Drill Team competed in the third of three round-robin afternoon Shootout drill competitions against cross-county rivals Walhalla and West-Oak High Schools. When the dust had settled, Seneca High entries had claimed 1st place trophies in three of five team events, tied for 1st in another, and captured 1st and 3rd place awards in an exciting, fast-paced Knockout event. Based on accumulated points through all three competitions, the Bobcat Battalion had successfully defended its title as Oconee County JROTC Drill Team Champions by the narrowest of margins.

The Shootout format was instituted several years ago to create a continuing head-to-head drill competition series between the three JROTC programs in Oconee County high schools and to determine an overall county team champion. This series has proved to popular and intensely competitive. Events are often decided by only a few points.

Last year, the South Carolina National Guard established a traveling championship trophy. Seneca captured the inaugural trophy and repeated as champions with yesterday's outstanding performance.
Congratulations to the Bobcat Battalion drill team--Oconee County Drill Team champions!

"Congratulations Coach Holder"

Congratulations to Coach Amanda Holder on being selected as the High School Playbook Coach of the week. The lady Bobcats remain undefeated with Pickens and Rival Daniel High School coming into town this week for home games. Please come out and support the Bobcats.

SHS Faculty and Staff Step Up!!!!

The faculty and staff at Seneca High School deserve to be praised for their "Jeans Program." Teachers donate money to be able to wear jeans in casual days such as spirit week, homecoming and various other business casual Fridays. This program is a great incentive for the teachers, however the true beauty is the cause that the money goes to. 100% of the money raised goes to help students of need during the holidays. The program has become such a success that even those that do not wear jeans donate to the fund to support the cause. This year our teachers raised over $4000 for students throughout our school. We distributed over eighty $50 clothing gift cards to students with need this holiday season. This year we even had a member of our staff donate blankets and each of the eighty students that received gift cards also received 2 blankets as well. I have never been more proud to be involved with with a faculty and staff in my career. With the economic situation facing our community this year, there couldn't have been a better time for our faculty to go the extra mile. Please join me in thanking our outstanding faculty and staff when you see them for all that they do for our students and community. I will attach some pictures from the Christmas Shopping experience that some of our students were able to participate in through the Seneca High School Jeans Program. A special thanks goes out to our guidance department and Patti LeCroy for heading up this program.

Continued Success at Seneca High School

Wow! That is the word that comes to mind when I consider the level of achievement from our students at Seneca High School. We recently received confirmation that we have 15 students that have qualified as Palmetto Fellows scholarship recipients at SHS. This is outstanding for two main reasons. We only have 18 students that are eligible to qualify, and this is the early qualifying period. Our other three students are very close to qualifying and we look forward to cheering them on throughout the spring. Congratulations to the students and families of the early qualifiers.

Seneca Rotary - "The Lunch Group"

The Seneca Rotary (Lunch Group) is an outstanding supporter of the Seneca area schools. They recognize a student of the month from each area school monthly, as well as providing scholarships to seniors at Seneca High School. Nanelle Cook, our teacher of the year, was also honored last week by the club. SHS is very thankful for all of our local civic organizations and their continued support.

Great Week for Bobcat Student Athletes

On the heels of Tameka Jackson's state championship in cross country, Bobcat Athletics had two outstanding student athletes sign National Letters of Intent to play the sports that they love in college. Emily Nicholson signed to play soccer at Southern Wesleyan University. Olivia Piccirillo signed to continue her outstanding softball career at Coastal Carolina University in Conway. Each of these young ladies are outstanding athletes. However, they also understood that in order to make it to the next level they had to place an emphasis on their grades. Congratulations to two outstanding Bobcat student-athletes and their families.

State Champion Bobcat

It is an honor to congratulate Tameka Jackson on winning the AAA State Championship for 2008 individual girls cross country. This is an outstanding accomplishment for Tameka. We are very proud of the way that she has represented Seneca High School. It is not often that a freshman can win an individual state title in any sport. This is truely an outstanding day for SHS athletics. Tameka's time was 18:22. This was not only the fastest girls time in AAA, it was the fastest girls time the entire day. Congratulations to Tameka and her family.

"Thanks to the City of Seneca"

The City of Seneca went to bat in order to promote Seneca High School on the city's new water tower. The tower is on the campus of Oconee Medical Center. I would like to personally thank Greg Dietterick, our City Administrator, and Dan Alexander, our Mayor, for their dedication to promoting Seneca High School. The City of Seneca has taken great strides to support Seneca High School this year. We cannot express our gratitude enough. There has been a huge amount of positive feedback throughout the community from students, parents and business leaders that are really impressed with our representation on the new water tower. Please make sure to thank your city officials when you see them for their continued support of Seneca High School.