Sky View High School

Sky View High School (SVHS), in Smithfield, Utah, is the northernmost public high school in the state. Part of the Cache County School District, it serves approximately 1,500 students in the 10th through 12th grades in the northern part of Cache County, from the Logan city limits on the south to the Utah-Idaho border on the north.

Sky View is very closely related to North Cache 8-9 Center in the same school district, which has the same mascot. North Cache is also the only "feeder" school (a school which graduates students to a specific other school) to Sky View ("grinder" school), while North Cache has two feeder schools (White Pine and Cedar Ridge), since Sky View is big enough to accommodate all the students. Sky View also incorporates classes from Bridgerland Applied Technology College (BATC). These classes take up two hours and count as one full class credit instead of the normal .5 credit. Buses are provided for transportation to and from BATC.

History

Until 1964, the Cache County School district maintained two high schools: North Cache (Richmond) and South Cache (Hyrum). Beginning with the 1964-65 school year, both student bodies were combined at the newly built Sky View in Smithfield. The two former high schools were converted to junior highs, covering grades 7 to 9.

For nineteen years, from 1964 to 1983, Sky View High School served both the northern and southern parts of Cache County. Residents of Logan continued to attend Logan High School, which belonged to the Logan City School District. This meant that students from the southern end of the valley would board a bus, travel as far as ten or fifteen miles to Logan, pass within one block of Logan High School and continue another eight miles to Sky View. After the completion and opening of Mountain Crest High School in Hyrum in 1983, Mountain Crest began accepting the southern part of Cache County while Sky View kept the northern half.

Somewhat unexpected for a remote rural school, Sky View maintains a strong reputation in the arts, particularly music and drama.

Sky View also has a strong tradition of success in forensics, winning 16 consecutive regional titles from 1998-2014, as well as the state title for 10 consecutive years. However, the regional title record was broken when Roy High School beat them in 2015; Sky View, however, still took the State Championship in 2015.

Sky View's marching band has competed nationally in parade style competitions since the school's inception. In the fall of 1978, the Sky View marching band began competing in field competitions and did not lose until they took second place in the Summer Nationals held in Whitewater, Wisconsin in June 1980. This was after taking first place in the regional competition in Moscow, Idaho. The band reached the Bands of America Regional Championships in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011. In 2010, they placed 5th in the western United States at the Bands of America Competition; they placed 7th in the same competition in 2011. In 2014 they took second in the Bands of America competition with their show City Vibes; they received an 87.15.

Rivalries

Sky View High School shares Cache Valley with Mountain Crest High School and Logan High School. In the nearby Bear River Valley are Bear River High School (in Tremonton and Garland, Utah; the campus straddles the town border) and Box Elder High School (Brigham City). Although these schools do not share the same division, competition and tensions run high in invitational games, meets, and matches.

Notable alumni

• Kent Baer (1969), football defensive coordinator, University of Washington 2005-, Notre Dame (2002-2004), Stanford (1995-2001)
• Michael Ballam (1969), opera performer, founder and director of the Utah Festival Opera Company (1992–present)
• Craig Jessop (1968), director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir 1999-2008; current Dean of the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University

External links

• School homepage
• School District homepage
• Sky View historical game-by-game football results since 1980