Former staff and students celebrate 50th anniversary of WCHS

Former faculty, staff and students returned to the Whitley County High School campus recently to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school’s founding and remember the days when they walked the halls of the building.

In 1963 Woodbine, Pleasant View, Rockholds and Poplar Creek high schools were consolidated to form Whitley County High School on the current site off of U.S. 25W.

Walter K. Reynolds, who taught history when the school opened, said within the first few weeks, any semblance of old school rivalries among the students was gone.

However, Reynolds said it didn’t take long for Whitley County to develop new rivalries with Corbin and Williamsburg.

Clyde Hill, who was the first varsity basketball coach, said it wasn’t as easy to break down the old school rivalries when he was trying to assemble his first team but that too quickly disappeared.

“I had two forwards from Woodbine, one guard from Pleasant View, one guard from Poplar Creek and one guard from Rockholds,” Hill said. “We lost the sum total of three ballgames.”

Hill said he was the one getting called into the principal’s office after complaining about the officiating at one game in particular.

“They stole the game from us and I let the referees know about it,” Hill said. “The principal called me in and said we won’t be doing that anymore.”

Hill said he would be the first to admit when his players were in the wrong but was quick to stand up for them if they were getting picked on by the officials.

“If they weren’t doing anything wrong and were getting called for it, my temper would boil over,” Hill said.

Jim McKiddy, 65, who was part of the first freshman class at the school in 1963, recalls how former Whitley School Superintendent Charles M. Lawson labored to buy the property where the campus now sits over some public objections.

“Many people didn’t want Charlie to buy the whole farm,” McKiddy said. “The five board members, they went ahead and went with Charlie and voted to do it. A couple of them lost their elections over it … A lot of people just could not see into the future.”

McKiddy said many students initially struggled being a part of the larger, consolidated school.

“The thing was, it was so much different,” McKiddy said. “Coming from Poplar Creek, up there, everybody knew everybody. We grew up together. All of a sudden, we were going to school with a whole bunch of people we didn’t know. A lot of them just couldn’t adjust.”

And the school’s basketball teams had no home court to play on since the gym wasn’t completed until a year later. Practices were held at other smaller schools, and home games were played at Cumberland College.

McKiddy said it was three or four years before the school had a football team. Track came a little sooner.

McKiddy was integral is pushing for a reunion because he said he wanted to honor, first and foremost, the 54 teachers who “gave so much” to the students.

“The opportunities we had were so much greater than when we had the other schools,” McKiddy said. “When I was born, they could have never built a school like Whitley County has got now.”

Kenneth Powell was initially hired as assistant principal in 90-91 and then became principal, serving for 15 years.

Powell said the biggest change he saw at Whitley County during his time was the emphasis on education.

 “People realized we needed to educate our kids because if they were going to be successful in life they had to have a good education.

Powell said the key to providing a quality education is having everyone moving toward that goal and he was fortunate to have everyone from the board of education to the faculty and staff working toward that.

“You had all of those things together and we became a more successful school,” Powell said.

Powell also credited the checks and balances instituted by the changes in state and federal education policies for some of the education reform we have seen in the last 20 years.

“You need to be dedicated,” Powell said when asked what advice he would give to educators stepping into the field for the first time. “Education is a very important profession and it needs to be looked at like that. Follow through and do what you are hired to do.