Finneytown Secondary Campus is a public high school in Finneytown, Hamilton County, Ohio, and is the only public High School in the Finneytown Local School District. The district serves the entirety of Finneytown which is in Springfield Township.

Finneytown sports teams are known as the Wildcats. The Wildcats compete in the Cincinnati Hills League (CHL), a competitive small school league in the Cincinnati area. The high school also has a competitive marching band that competes in regional and national competitions.

History Before the secondary campus was built, students in Finneytown would attend Whitaker Elementary from 1st to 8th grades and then would go to Hughes, Mt.Healthy, or Wyoming for high school. During the late 1940s and 1950s, the population of Finneytown increased by 368%, thus increasing the demand for a high school. In 1955, an issue was passed by the residents to construct a high school. The school was partially built and opened to the first Finneytown freshman class in 1958. The secondary campus initially included two main buildings and one administration building. In the following years the high school was further expanded through the construction of additional buildings. The first expansion of the school was the construction of the gym was in 1964. The auditorium, the Performing Arts Center, and a third main building was constructed in 1969. in 1997, the two main buildings were connected through a construction of a connecting hallway building.

Due to the secondary campus' age, Finneytown residents passed an issue in 2019 for a plan to construct new schools to replace the school district's aging buildings. In 2022, the state of Ohio approved funding for a new Finneytown middle and high school.

Athletics

Finneytown Secondary Campus has various sports teams, which compete in the Cincinnati Hills League. Finneytown offers the following sports:

Boys Sports: Baseball Basketball Bowling Cross country Football Golf Soccer Swimming Tennis Track and field Wrestling Girls Sports: Basketball Bowling Cross country Soccer Softball Swimming Track and field Volleyball Wrestling

Ohio High School Athletic Association State Championships Finneytown has won a total of 3 OHSAA team state championships in the following sports: Boys Soccer – 1976, 1981 Girls Swimming – 1979

Other Non-Sanctioned State Championships Boys Soccer – 1974

Finneytown High School Marching Band Finneytown Secondary Campus has a marching band which competes at a regional and national level. The Finneytown marching band has competed at Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA), Mid-States Band Association (MSBA), and Bands of America (BOA) competitions. The Finneytown marching band is also disproportionately large in the number of participating students compared to the high school's student enrollment. This can be seen by the band competing in BOA class A (600 or fewer enrolled students) for the 2022 season and in MSBA class AAAA (60–89 marching band members) for the 2022 season. Despite this, the band performs well at the regional and national levels. The band has managed to achieve 2nd place in MSBA class AAAA 2021 finals, 3rd place in MSBA class AAAA 2022 finals, and 5th in class A in BOA 2022 prelims.

The Finneytown marching band is directed by Director Bradley Delaney and Assistant Director Samuel Fronk.

+ Finals Rankings Year Name of Show Rank 2018 Over the Falls 1st in MSBA AAA prelims 4th in MSBA AAA finals 2019 From Darkness into Light 10th in MSBA AAAA finals 2020 Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic N/A 2021 Rise 2nd in MSBA AAAA finals 2022 A Winter at the Lake (Formal Field Commanders Hassan Peeples, Grace Finch, Finn Traubert) 3rd in MSBA AAAA finals 5th in Class A BOA prelims 2023 Among the Clouds (Field Commanders Hassan Peeples and Grace Finch) 5th in MSBA AAA finals8th in Class A BOA prelims 2024: Hypnotic ranked 6th in MSBA AAAA finals and a Superior rating at OMEA Marching Band Finals ( Formal Field Commander: Janiyah Fields)

2025: City Pulse ( Formal Field Commander: Janiyah Fields)

2026: Eternal Light ( Current Field Commander: Jacob Quezada)

P.E.M. memorial

During The Who concert on December 3, 1979, a crowd disaster took place, which resulted in the death of 11 people of which 3 were Finneytown students. The three Finneytown students were Stephan Preston, Jackie Eckerle, and Karen Morrison. In 2010, the P.E.M. memorial was created by several Finneytown alumni with P.E.M. standing for the first letter of the surnames of the students that died at the concert. The memorial consists of a bench with an etched guitar with the inscription "My Generation" and plaque portraits of the three students near the bench. A scholarship commemorating the three students was created to coincide the memorial. The P.E.M. Scholarship is awarded every year to three Finneytown seniors who are perusing arts or music at a university or college. Every first Saturday in December, the P.E.M. memorial event takes place at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) building of the school. A Finneytown Alumni Band and various local music artists perform at the event to commemorate the three students and raise money for the P.E.M. scholarship.

On May 15, 2022, The Who performed at Cincinnati for the first time since the concert disaster as part of their "The Who Hits Back" tour. The Who had several students from Finneytown perform on stage with them for a portion of the concert. The Who also had a local band, which included Finneytown students from 1979, perform for the opening of the concert.

Notable alumni

Aajonus Vonderplanitz '65 – nutritionist Jeffrey R. Immelt '74 – former CEO and chairman of the board, General Electric. Marco Marsan '75 – American author with three books. Douglas E. Richards '80 – New York Times bestselling author.http://www.douglaserichards.com/author.html . Accessed September 26, 2022. Randall Einhorn '82 – television and film director, producer, and cinematographer, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Office (US) Amanda Borden '95 – 1996 Olympic Gold medalist in gymnastics. Donavon Clark '11 – professional football player for the Los Angeles Chargers.

References

External links District Website