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Spring Woods High School

Principal	Wayne Schaper, Jr.
School type	Public school (U.S.)
Location	Houston, Texas, United States
Enrollment	2,200 students
Campus surroundings	Urban
Mascot	Tigers
School colors	Black, Gold

Spring Woods High School is a secondary school in Houston, Texas. The school, serving grades 9 through 12, is operated by Spring Branch Independent School District.

Spring Woods serves several neighborhoods, including Campbell Woods, Royal Oaks, Spring Meadows, Shadow Oaks, and a portion of Spring Shadows.

Contents 1 History 2 Feeder patterns 3 Recent Successes 4 Spring Woods Media 5 Spring Woods High School Speech/Debate (Sigma/Delta) 6 Notable alumni 7 External links

Spring Woods High School was opened in 1964 during the boom in the western suburbs of Houston on the former grounds of the Spring Branch Country Club, followed by Spring Oaks Middle School and Westwood Elementary School a short distance away on the same former golf course. Currently the second oldest functioning high school in the district, Spring Woods serves the northwest part of Spring Branch ISD (generally an area north of Interstate 10 and west of Gessner Road). Expanded and renovated several times, Spring Woods boasts an architecture with wide courtyards in which classrooms face inwards, yet open to the outside air, a different approach than Northbrook and Stratford, the two newer schools in the district, which are mostly enclosed but are still kept dry and warm when weather becomes an issue. SWHS opened about the same time and with a similar design as Westchester High School, which closed in the 1980s, but is currently home to a district-run charter school called Westchester Academy for International Studies.

It is generally believed that the choice of the Navy Hymn as the tune of the school song is in tribute to World War II Navy hero and President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated the year before Spring Woods opened. The song was played at his funeral.

The demographics of the feeder region have shifted dramatically, turning Spring Woods from an exclusively suburban middle-class high school to a diverse student body, a majority of which are Hispanic and low income students. In terms of sporting prowess, the school is not known for winning at football, with its last trip to the playoffs taking place in 1997, but it has had some success at baseball and soccer over the decades.

Elementary schools that feed into Spring Woods include Buffalo Creek, Cedar Brook, Pine Shadows, Shadow Oaks, Sherwood, Spring Branch, Terrace, Westwood, and Woodview.

Middle schools that feed into Spring Woods include Spring Branch, Spring Oaks, and Spring Woods.

Some students from Cornerstone Academy (Charter School) are zoned to Spring Woods.

(Many of these schools only partially feed into Spring Woods, based on the geographic location of the residents in the district.)

Spring Woods has been a U.S. Department of Education Exemplary School and was rated among Texas' best by Texas Monthly. The Spring Woods theater department was the first in Texas to perform the high school version of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, being invited to Lincoln to perform at a national convention in 2004 and again in 2005 with Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. The theatre department also attended the Edinburgh Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland to perform The Pirates of Penzance for their final performances. Spring Woods also recently completed a massive construction project, including a new auditorium and mini-theater, along with a new fine arts wing and façade.

The school's newspaper, the Regit, has won numerous awards, including team journalism winner of district 21-5A two years ago. Tiger TV is the school's broadcast news station, with weekly shows on Channel 40.

The school's Speech/Debate Team is known as Sigma/Delta. This year the debate team qualified six people to compete in the prestigious Texas Forensic Association State Tournament. Under the direction of Coach Victoria Beard S/D has received much recognition for their great success.

• Roger Clemens, baseball player, Cy Young Award winner [1]
• Ted Poe, state judge and United States Congressman
• Dusty Hill, musician, ZZ Top
• Gordon Walton, game developer
• Kimberly Tomes, 1977 Miss USA
• Roberto Orci, Screenwriter/Producer
• Tate Armstrong, member of 1976 US Olympic Gold Medal Basketball Team
• Robert Ferguson, football player, Wide Receiver Green Bay Packers
• Greg Koch, football player
• Brandon Sonnier, Hollywood Director (The Beat)

• Spring Woods High School