I graduated from Highlands High School. We have been mostly "meh" athletically, though a fairly good basketball powerhouse (won WPIAL AAAA last year) and won title in the 90's and always a factor like a Blackhawk, New Castle, Char Valley, etc...
Football? When we had success, especially lately, is when we were big school playing small schools, but lately we have usually been the smaller end of AAAA or AAAAA. Back in the day, we were always in with Penn Hills, Gateway, Central, McKeesport and really handled ourselves quite well.
But I found a site with old year books, and Highlands came about with the merger of Har Brack and Tarentum High Schools. Highlands first year was 1969. Har Brack's last year was 1968. So I was able to find Har Brack's last year book, 1968. And I was shocked by a statistic. At that time, 1968, Har Brack produced more 1st team college All Americans than any other school in the US. That completely shocked me for a decent sized, public school. I mean the Modzewleski's were from there, Cookie Gilchrist, and alot of guys who went to college and were AA's but not NFL.
But that also shows how times have changed. Some of these prep schools just produce mass amounts of All Americans, and obviously the Pittsburgh area is no longer what it was. But Har Brack was essentially Ampipe. Heavily Polack, Italian, Blacks, Slovaks, Germans, blue collar and middle class, probably the most comparable now would be Thomas Jefferson.
Football? When we had success, especially lately, is when we were big school playing small schools, but lately we have usually been the smaller end of AAAA or AAAAA. Back in the day, we were always in with Penn Hills, Gateway, Central, McKeesport and really handled ourselves quite well.
But I found a site with old year books, and Highlands came about with the merger of Har Brack and Tarentum High Schools. Highlands first year was 1969. Har Brack's last year was 1968. So I was able to find Har Brack's last year book, 1968. And I was shocked by a statistic. At that time, 1968, Har Brack produced more 1st team college All Americans than any other school in the US. That completely shocked me for a decent sized, public school. I mean the Modzewleski's were from there, Cookie Gilchrist, and alot of guys who went to college and were AA's but not NFL.
But that also shows how times have changed. Some of these prep schools just produce mass amounts of All Americans, and obviously the Pittsburgh area is no longer what it was. But Har Brack was essentially Ampipe. Heavily Polack, Italian, Blacks, Slovaks, Germans, blue collar and middle class, probably the most comparable now would be Thomas Jefferson.
