Lorne_Park_Secondary_School

Lorne Park Secondary School

Lorne Park Secondary School

Public high school in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada


Lorne Park Secondary School (often abbreviated as LP or LPSS) is a public high school located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It serves the Lorne Park neighbourhood, as well as a larger catchment area for the Extended French program for all of southern Mississauga. Lorne Park is well known in the Peel region for both its academic rigor and the successful sports teams from which many professional athletes have emerged.[2]

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History

Lorne Park Secondary School's front entrance.

When the population of Peel County began experiencing a population explosion in the 1950s, the secretary-treasurer for the South Peel Board of Education began negotiations to purchase land for a new school to be built on a 13½ acre site at the price of $32,469. Construction on the school began in 1957, and the total cost of the school (including the land) was $752,569.

Billed as a very modern design when the school opened for students in January 1958, the main feature of the school, facing south onto Lorne Park Road, was a suspended concrete canopy with two-story windows. The school opened with 272 students and 16 teachers.

The school went through a series of upgrades in the first 20 years of its existence. In 1962, a cafeteria was built on the South-East of the building. In 1964, the school underwent a major construction project in which a second, larger gymnasium, weight rooms, technology shops and classrooms as well as a completely new section to the north which housed 2 floors of classrooms were constructed. The 1964 upgrades raised the student capacity from 300 to 1800. In 1972, a library and lecture hall was erected to East side of the main building.

A presentation in the school's lecture hall.

While not in use presently, a firing range exists in the basement of the school (beneath the small gymnasium). It was built in order to secure extra funding during the Cold War period and so that students could have a suitable area to practice in. When such a use became obscure, the firing range housed the drama department's props and costumes. It was listed as permanently closed and removed from official architectural plans in the 2000s through it is still used to store theatrical props.

In 1973, Lorne Park was the first school in the Peel Board of Education to offer full-credit semestering.[3] The success of the experiment led to the extension of semestering to most schools in Peel by 1976.

The school population peaked in 1979, when Lorne Park had a teaching staff of 92 and 1,647 students.

The current student population stands at 868 students.[1] Lorne Park hosts an Extended French program. Its feeder schools are Hillcrest Middle School, Tecumseh Public School, Green Glade Senior Public School (Extended French only), St. Christopher Catholic School, Allan A. Martin Senior Public School and St. Luke Catholic School.

As of 2016, Lorne Park was expending around $800,000 in annual operational costs including roughly $150,000 in utilities alone. In the 2015-16 school year, the school spent $786 per student per year in facility costs.[4]

Student life

Lorne Park Secondary students enjoy a variety of school activities, extracurriculars, teams and clubs. These range from the Model United Nations club, math club, and 3D printing and Computer Aided Design clubs to the programming club and school theatrical productions. Students are allowed to use the school facilities such as the library, gymnasium, track, field, and weight rooms outside of class.

Sports

Lorne Park has a variety of athletic programs, including football, cross-country, rugby, ice hockey and women's lacrosse teams.[5] They have produced several OFSAA and ROPSSAA champions in women's lacrosse, cross-country, track and field, boys' and girls' hockey, field hockey, basketball, skiing, badminton, football, baseball, swimming, rugby and tennis. The junior cross-country ski team were 2007 OFSAA champions.

Due to these successes, Lorne Park has been designated as having a Specialist High Skills Major in "Sports" by the Peel district school board.

Men's Football

Lorne Park's Football team currently competes in the Region of Peel Secondary Schools Athletic Association (ROPSSAA) at the Tier 1 level. The program conducts both Senior and Junior (now termed "Varsity" and "Junior Varsity", respectively) football programs. Both teams have been consistently competitive within the region since the programs' inception in the late '50s. At the Junior Varsity level, the program boasts 21 regional championships and 1 provincial championship. At the Varsity level, Lorne Park has 20 regional championships and 5 provincial championships.

The strong football culture at Lorne Park is also made evident by the success of the program's alumni. Since 1983 (when the program started keeping track of alumni), over 150 former program graduates have gone on to play football at the Canadian University level. Spartans have also won numerous awards at this level (e.g., All-Canadians, Team MVPs, etc.). In particular, the most prestigious Canadian Interuniversity Sport award——the Hec Crighton Trophy——has been won by a Spartan alumni (Mike Raham) in 1968. Recently, Spartan alumni Jack Cassar won the President's trophy for "Most Outstanding Stand-up Defensive Player" for his contributions as middle linebacker with the Carleton Ravens in 2019.

Lorne Park's football program also allowed over 30 players to progress to the NCAA level, and graduates have also gone on to play in the CFL and in the NFL, where the accolades of our former student athletes have continued to display.

Most notably, Klaus Wilmsmeyer was a punter for 7 years in the NFL; during this span, he played alongside Hall of Famers Jerry Rice, Deion Sanders, and Steve Young in the San Francisco 49ers' Super Bowl XXIX victory.[6]

More recently, Brent Urban was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Due to a bicep injury, Urban did not play most of his rookie season. Upon his return in week 12 however, Urban, in his first pro game, delivered a game saving field goal block as time expired while teammate Will Hill recovered it and returned it for the game-winning touchdown. [7] [8]

Super Bowl High School Honour Roll

In anniversary of Super Bowl 50 in 2015, the NFL created a "Super Bowl High School Honor Roll". This was an initiative which gave recognition to high schools across the world which produced alumni who later went on to win the Super Bowl. Due to Klaus Wilmsmeyer success at the pro level, Lorne Park was among those recognized and were subsequently awarded a commemorative golden football by the NFL. The Lorne Park Spartans football program was 1 of 15 high schools in all of Canada to have received the honour.[9] The football currently stands in the school's football trophy display case.

Football Championships

Lorne Park has a hallway dedicated towards football championships. Donned as the "football wing", the school features numerous posters of all former championship winning teams. Below is a list of all teams which are featured (asterisk denotes a provincial championship).

Junior Varsity

1959196119651971197819791980
1982198319861989199619971999
2001200420062008201120122017*

Varsity

1965196919771980198119831984
1985198619871989199419992000*
200120022013*2014*2017*2018*

Provincial and National Ranking

Lorne Park's dominance on the football field has resulted in numerous top football rankings over the years. For instance, in 2000, the year the Spartans won the Metro Bowl championship, CityNews ranked Lorne Park as the #1 team provincially. Lorne Park's rating has also peaked in recent years on a national scale. In 2015 Canada Football Chat (CFC) ranked Lorne Park as the 6th[10] best Varsity football program in all of Canada.

Currently, at the conclusion of the most recent (2019) season, CFC ranks Lorne Park as the 44th best team nationally. [11]

Spartan Football Alumni

More information LAST, FIRST ...

Note: Lorne Park's alumni records date back to 1983 so there are unfortunately dozens of players missing from this list.

Men's Rugby

Lorne Park had multiple Ropssaa championships at both Junior and Senior levels as well as tournament wins in the Red Hot Rugby Tournament and the 7's tournament held at Fletcher's Fields. In 2009, after winning the Region of Peel Championships (ROPSSAA) the Senior Spartan team lost in the finals of the OFSAA (Ontario) championships to Lindsay C.I. In 2010, the Spartans returned as Peel Champions. After going through most of the season ranked #4 in Ontario, the Spartans achieved the #1 ranking going into the OFSAA championships. In the 3 day tournament the Lorne Park Spartans ultimately defeated Uxbridge in the finals to win the OFSAA title. This senior team had a 2-year record of 43-1. Some of the players from this team represented Ontario and Canada in National and International competitions. The team was recognized by the Mississauga Sports Council annual Sports Dinner as the High School Team of the Year for their accomplishments in 2010.[12] In 2011, the Junior Spartans won the ROPSSAA championship against Streetsville with a score of 10-8. In 2013 and 2014 both Junior and Senior Spartan teams won their respective ROPSSAA championships. Also in 2014, the Junior Spartan team won the Barbarian Cup for the first time in Lorne Park history.

Women's Lacrosse

In 2007 there were two teams, Seniors and Juniors. Both won ROPSSAA. The Seniors placed 13th in Midwest Schools Lacrosse Association (MSLA) at Erie and won Bronze in the (OFSAA-sanctioned) Provincial Cup in Peterborough. In 2006 and 2005 Lorne Park's Varsity, Junior Varsity and Rookie teams all swept ROPSSAA. As well, Varsity came 4th in the Provincial Cup tournament in both years and in 2006 also placed 8th in the MSLA at Detroit. 2008 saw a rebirth of the rookie team. 80 girls played on all 3 teams with the Varsity team winning their 4th ROPSSAA title in a row. The junior "A" team repeated as the Jr. Varsity Champions after an undefeated season while the junior "B" team won the bronze medal.

Baseball

Lorne Park's varsity baseball team won OFSAA baseball's Prentice Cup in 2005, competing at the Rogers Centre against top teams from across the province. This victory came after a defeat in the Prentice Cup Semi-Finals the year before.

Notable alumni

Acedemia

Arts

Broadcast Journalism

Government

Sports

Technology

See also


References

  1. "About Us". Lorne Park Secondary School. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  2. "Lorne Park Football: A Tradition of Success". Lorne Park Secondary School. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  3. "History". Lorne Park Secondary School. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  4. "Sports Teams". Lorne Park Secondary School. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  5. "Klaus Wilmsmeyer". databaseFootball.com. databaseSports. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  6. Colpitts, Iain (9 Jun 2011). "Stars honoured at Sports Dinner". The Mississauga News.
  7. "Official Alumni Newsletter of Lorne Park Secondary School" (PDF). lpssmatters.com. 1 March 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  8. "LPSS Matters Volume 3, Issue 2 April 2003" (PDF). April 2003. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  9. Clay, Chris (2011-09-23). "Barber touring Ontario this fall". Mississauga.com. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  10. "Stephen Crawford About Me". Stephen Crawford, MPP Oakville. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  11. "Lorne Park football star signed by U.S. school - The Star". thestar.com. 24 September 2008. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  12. "Robert Marland - Team Canada". olympic.ca. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  13. Colpitts, Iain. "Kudu keeps family's football tradition alive". mississauga.com.
  14. "LPSS Matters Volume 8, Issue 1 September 2008" (PDF). LPSS Matters. September 2008.

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