Gateway High School (Pennsylvania)

The mascot of the school district is the Gateway Gator, a stylized alligator.[3] Gateway High School is recognized as a member of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (P.I.A.A.) on the state level.[4] Within the PIAA, Gateway competes in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (W.P.I.A.L.), otherwise known as "District 7", on the regional level.[5] On October 7, 2015, the PIAA voted to expand the classification system for football, basketball, baseball, and softball from four to six classifications. The vote for football passed by a 26-4 vote, while the vote for basketball, baseball, and softball passed by a 23-7 vote.[6] All other sports still operate on the PIAA's original scale of four classifications. While most sports offered by the high school are competitive and recognized by the PIAA/WPIAL, some are noncompetitive and are not recognized by the PIAA/WPIAL, and others are combination of both.

Sports Offered/Classifications

Gateway High School offers a plethora of athletic programs. PIAA/WPIAL-recognized programs offered include cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, volleyball, basketball, swimming and diving, indoor track, track and field, wrestling, baseball, softball, volleyball, bowling, and lacrosse.[7] Programs that are not PIAA/WPIAL-recognized include ice hockey and cheerleading, and therefore have no classification.[8] Both of these programs are considered "clubs" and may or may not compete competitively while not being recognized as a school-supported sport. Per the aforementioned PIAA ruling, size classification for football, basketball, baseball, and softball sports is "AAAAA" (Five-A), which is the second largest of the six classifications (A, AA, AAA, AAAA, AAAAA, and AAAAAA).[9] With the exception of lacrosse, size classification for all other PIAA/WPIAL-recognized programs is "AAA" (Triple-A), which is the second largest of the four classifications (A, AA, AAA, and AAAA). Lacrosse is a relatively new athletics program at Gateway High School, with its inaugural season being in 2011. Since then, officials worked hard to push for it to become a PIAA/WPIAL-recognized sport after initially operating as a club, which they eventually achieved.[10] The Gateway High School lacrosse program is in the "AA" size classification, which is the third largest of the four classifications (A, AA, AAA, and AAAA).[11]

Gateway High School offers many clubs for its students to join.

Gateway's Student Councils and Student Governments play a large role in student life. They are in charge of all school dances, fund-raisers, school spirit activities, and also attend and host various leadership workshops and conferences through the Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils.

Gateway's Interact Club also has a prominent role in organizing large student events, including benefit concerts for Amnesty International and other various charity causes.

Gateway also competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition, an annual event for high-school aged participants. Gateway's team, Quasics, is FRC Team #2656. They have competed annually at the Pittsburgh Regional since 2008. They also started team #5526 in FIRST Tech Challenge in 2011, and teams #9656A and #9656B in VEX Robotics in 2013.

Gateway has an active Ultimate Frisbee Team club which competes as a member of the Pittsburgh High School Ultimate League. They won the league's division II championship in 2013. The team is entirely student run and coached.

Gateway's band department is also well known throughout the western Pennsylvania region. The Gateway Senior High School Marching Band has been a consistent finalist in the Bands of America regional competitions since 2004, and a Grand National Championship participant in 2004 and 2008.[12] The Gateway Winterguard and Winter Drumline have also competed at local, regional and national (Winterguard Only) levels in the Scholastic A class and Scholastic Marchin A class, respectively.[13][14]