West Monroe High School is a high school in West Monroe, Louisiana, United States. It is administered by the Ouachita Parish School Board. WMHS is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The school's mascot is The Rebel Man.
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History
In 2013, 87 percent of WMHS students who took the Advanced Placement test passed the examination, the highest rate in the state. Four thousand more students in Louisiana took the 2013 exam compared to the number doing so in 2012, the largest increase in participation of any state. Louisiana students taking the exam earned a collective 5,144 college credits, an increase of 25 percent over 2012.
Extracurricular activities
Band
The band received consecutive Superior ratings at Marching and Concert festivals since 1966. The band consists of 200 students. In 2014, the band appeared in the London New Years Day Parade in Westminster, UK. The band has appeared in two Presidential Inaugural Parades, George W. Bush in 2005 and Donald Trump in 2017. The band was one of only 7 high school bands invited. The band has also been invited to the Louisiana Showcase of Marching Bands in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. In those years, they placed 11th (2014), 6th (2015), 5th (2016), 9th (2017), and 3rd (2018,) in the state of Louisiana.
Athletics
West Monroe High athletics competes in the LHSAA.
Football
The school has won eight state championships and two national championships. The most recent state championship was in 2011 when they defeated Carencro (Lafayette) by a score of 20–13. The school has a fully outfitted football stadium named Rebel Stadium, which is mostly funded by the team's Rebel Booster Club. Artificial turf was installed on Don Shows Field in 2017.
Coaches
Don Shows - LHSAA Hall of Fame Head Coach, Don Shows, won seventeen district and eight state championships ('93, '96, '97, '98, '00, '05, '09, '11) and were state runners-up six times. His teams won two national championships in 1998 and 2000. Shows finished with a record of 345–78–0 and a .817 winning percentage at West Monroe, Pineville High School, Jonesboro-Hodge High School, and Farmerville High School.
Notable alumni
Tommy Banks (Class of 1997), medical doctor and former fullback for the LSU Tigers
Will Blackwell (Class of 2007), former professional football player
Chad Cook (Class of 2003), gridiron football player
Dillon Day (Class of 2011), Green Bay Packers
Chuck Finley, Former MLB player (California Angels, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals)
Bruce Fowler (Class of 1980), opera singer
Roderick Green (Class of 1997), Oklahoma Christian University basketball player, Paralympian 1999–present Volleyball and Track and Field, Amp1 basketball 2012–present, and six-time Paralympic and World Championship medalist
James Donald Halsell, Jr. (Class of 1974), NASA Astronaut
Haley Hayden (Class of 2013), softball player
Dixon Hearne (Class of 1966), award-winning author
Michael Hunter (Class of 2010), Denver Broncos
Dwayne Lathan (Class of 2007), former professional basketball player
Bradie James (Class of 1999), Dallas Cowboys & Houston Texans
Paul Manning (Class of 2022), Denver Broncos
Barkevious Mingo (Class of 2009), New England Patriots (Super Bowl Champion)
Notable faculty
Steve Ensminger, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at LSU, wide receiver coach in 2002
Justin Hill, head baseball coach at McNeese State, assistant baseball coach in 2003