McNary High School is a public high school located in Keizer, Oregon, United States. It is named for Charles L. McNary, a U.S. Senator who was from the Keizer area.
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Statewide standardized testing in Oregon has exposed a need for improvement in McNary's Mathematics department. With the first year of implementation of "Group Math" in 2005, McNary ranked in the 26th percentile in the state. McNary's English department continues to show improvement: it is in the 53rd percentile in reading, and 64th percentile in writing (2006). Both the Math and English departments have made efforts in implementing support classes and labs to assist struggling students in meeting academic benchmarks. The Oregon Department of Education school report cards for 2006-2007 gave McNary High School its first "strong" rating - an honor shared by only one other high school in the district. Since then, McNary Senior High School has been unsteadily improving. In the 2010-2011 school year, the school received a "needs improvement" grade on its report card. However, rallying under principal Honey, teachers have worked harder and better since. In the 2011-2012 school year, the school received an "outstanding" on its report card.
In 2008, 83% of the school's seniors received a high school diploma. Of 444 students, 368 graduated, 47 dropped out, and 29 were still in high school the following year.
Athletics
McNary's athletic teams are nicknamed the Celtics or Celts. For a time, the girls' teams used the nickname "Lady Celts", but have since dropped the gender-centric term. All teams, whether boys or girls, use the same nickname. Throughout the history of the athletic department McNary has competed in the highest OSAA class.
Football
McNary's success on the gridiron came under the direction of legendary coach Tom Smythe. McNary's 51 points in the 1997 championship game was, at that time, the highest single-game record for a 4A title game, besting the 47 points scored by The Dalles in 1947. The 99 points tallied by both McNary and Beaverton in that 1997 championship game shattered the previous record of 59, established in Marshfield's 40-19 win over Medford in 1956, and remains the highest aggregate score for a championship game at any level in Oregon.
- 1997 4A Champion (defeated Beaverton 51-48)
- 2001 4A Champion (defeated Sheldon 35-10)
Boys' basketball
- 1968 A-1 Champion (defeated Lake Oswego 44-42)
Baseball
Baseball is arguably McNary's most successful athletic program, as the team has appeared in six state championship games and won three state championships. Head coaches Vic Backlund (1989) and Craig Nicholas (2009) have each garnered state coach of the year honors.
- 1983 AAA Runner-up (lost to Klamath Union 4-5)
- 1984 AAA Runner-up (lost to Medford 3-6)
- 1989 AAA Champion (defeated Wilson 3-2)
- 1992 4A Champion (defeated Pendleton 7-4)
- 1999 4A Runner-up (lost to Lakeridge 3-6)
- 2009 6A Champion (defeated Roseburg 5-1)
Cheerleading
- 2001 4A co-ed Runner-up
- 2005 co-ed Champion (since 2003, all co-ed teams compete for one championship regardless of school size)
Boys' golf
- 1970 A-1 Runner-up
- Jeff McRae - 1970 Individual Champion
Girls' golf
- 2005 4A Runner-up
- Jerilyn White - 1996 Individual co-Champion
- Rebecca Kim - 2004 & 2005 Individual Champion
Softball
- 1990 3A co-Champion (tied with Milwaukie 1-1; game called after 7 innings due to rain)
- 1991 4A Runner-up (lost to Churchill 0-7)
Boys' and girls' swimming
No team has won a championship, but three swimmers have won Individual Championships.
- Seth Pepper - 1989, 100 yd butterfly
- Jake Palmer - 1997, 50 yd freestyle
- Amber Boucher - 2006, 50 yd freestyle
Boys' and girls' track and field
The Celtics have recorded a total of six Individual Championships, three of which were in the high jump (1969, 1970, 2004).
- Mike Fleer - 1969 & 1970, high jump
- Leonard Panther - 1971, long jump
- Phillip Alexander - 2003, 200m & 400m dash
- Monica Groves - 2004, high jump
Wrestling
Although the Celtics have had limited success as a team, the wrestling program has produced a number of individual champions, none more notable than Howard Harris, 1980 NCAA heavyweight champion at Oregon State University. Most of McNary's success came under the leadership of legendary head coach Jerry Lane, the school's first wrestling coach and 1996 inductee into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
- 1975 AAA Champion
- 1976 AAA Runner-up
Ten wrestlers have accounted for eleven Individual Championships.
- Ron Boucher - 1972, 130Â lbs
- Sam Hewitt - 1974, 136Â lbs
- Stace Stone - 1975, 115Â lbs
- Howard Harris - 1976, 191Â lbs
- Loren Quest - 1983, 157Â lbs
- Dan Brinlee - 1992, 178Â lbs
- Rudy Ramirez - 1993, 130Â lbs
- Sean Santana - 2002, 135Â lbs & 2003, 140Â lbs
- Levi Martinez - 2010, 112Â lbs
- Wes Heredia - 2011, 215Â lbs
Publications
McNary has two major forms of media: the Celtic Network News (CNN; formerly known as "Celtic Student Network"), the school's video announcements, and The Piper, the school newspaper. CNN is a student-run news segment produced by the Media Productions Workshop class, and is aired on repeat on two large TVs in the school's commons.
Notable alumni
- Austin Bibens-Dirkx (born 1985) - Major League Baseball player for the Texas Rangers in 2017.
- Grayson "The Professor" Boucher (born 1984) - streetball player, player on the AND1 Mixtape Tour
- Howard Harris (born 1958) - wrestler, member of the 1980 United States Olympic team
References
