Akins High School

Akins High School is a school located in South Austin, Texas. Founded in 2000, it is one of the newest high schools in the Austin Independent School District. Its current attendance exceeds 2500 students, with the majority being Hispanic and Mexican-Americans. Akins High School competes on the 5A circuit in all of its UIL competitions.

School Song

New found wings form bonds

And soon we are gone.

Though the years will come and go,

We shall sing our song:

Loyal eagles we shall be,

Wings spread gracefully.

Taking flight from Akins High,

Our love will ne'er die.

High School Redesign

Beginning in late August 2007 upon the resumption of classes, Akins High will be entering its second year of courses modeled through 'academies'. Under the plan, students choose a path from 5 academies, each modeled after varying areas of academics with the exception of it's NTHS program two-years-running which focuses on project-based learning. In addition to taking the basic required courses for graduation, students choose from electoral and advanced courses within their selected academy. The academies are:

•ABLE (Academy of Business and Legal Enterprise)
•AHA (Arts and Humanities Academy)
•SS (Social Services)
•ACES (Agriculture, Computer, and Engineering Sciences)
•NTHS (New Tech High School)

Sports

Akins has a modestly successful football program, averaging 1-3 wins per season, many of them non-district games, since opening in 2000. With newly appointed Head Coach Mike Zierlein (son of Steelers offensive line coach Larry Zierlein), the football program seeks a quick and successful turnaround. A growing soccer program finished their 2006-2007 season 10-10, the first time ever they were able to finish .500% in a season. The girl's basketball team experienced a winning season in 2006-2007 as well, claiming their first ever District Championship.

Fine Arts

The fine arts program has had some success in recent years, the last one being the school band in 2006-2007, with the direction of Gary Faust they advanced to the UIL State Marching Competition, earning 10th place in Finals, alongside the Bowie Outdoors Performance Ensemble winning 8th, making the Akins High School band big underdogs throughout the whole UIL competition, and the marking the first time two Austin school bands made it to the state competition.

Theatre

In March 2007 the Akins Journey Theatre competed in the UIL Zone contest, and advanced to District for the first time ever with 5A status. They did not continue from district competition but did take home several awards including Best Actress.

Debate

Akins has had one of the most successful Speech and Debate programs in the city, qualifying students to both the National Forensic League and the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National tournaments. Akins has also sent debate competitors to State and Regional Competition consistently for three years.

New Building

At this time there is construction going on next to the red section of the school. It is said that the building will be made for the "New Tech High" section of the school, with its first year in Akins and in Texas.

Akins Pep Rally

To be fair, this is not actually a pep rally. It's like a new classification of event to be called an Akins Pep Rally. A real pep rally is a school supporting their football team and showing enthusiasm and pride in their school. The Akins Pep Rally is a couple hundred fools (few attend) completely ignoring a group of people trying to say as many useless things as they can. Nothing gets accomplished, and usually team morale actually drops after the event.

It doesn't really matter, because the team epically fails to win any games in their division even before the first pep rally.

The Tree

Also known as the Goth Tree. At some point in the past, various 'Emos' and 'Goths' essentially took over a small section of the courtyard, dominated by a large, well, tree. They probably thought they were being unique, or making a statement, or something along those lines, though they seem to forget you're not unique when there's a cult of people just like you. Or they just wanted a place to hang without being ostracized. Doesn't matter, no one cares.

At one point the idea of cutting down and removing the tree over-night was discussed as a prank, but ultimately dismissed. Unfortunate, but no one likes being arrested.

References

This school was the setting for the fictional school of Rocky Creek High in the film The New Guy