Emerald Ridge High School is a high school in the Puyallup School District of Washington, United States and is commonly referred to as ERHS or simply ER. Emerald Ridge opened in September 2000. It features green, black and silver as its primary colors and has a jaguar as its official mascot. As of the 2023-2024 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,574 students. Of these students, 71.9% met English standards, 30.5% met Math standards, and 38.6% met Science standards in state assessments.[1]
Megan Jendrick, née Quann, is a swimmer and double Olympic Gold medalist from the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and author of the book Get Wet, Get Fit.[3] She also capped a comeback to the sport of swimming by qualifying for, and winning a silver medal at, the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Class of 2002.
Melanie Stambaugh, elected to the Washington state House of Representatives in November 2014.[4] Class of 2009.
Mascot
Jake the Jaguar, sometimes known as Jake the Jag or simply Jake, is the costumed mascot of Emerald Ridge. The character is commonly portrayed by members of the school's leadership class and appears at football, volleyball, and basketball games. Jake is known for engaging with students at events and on social media platforms such as his TikTok and Instagram pages, where he has gained a notable following.[citation needed]
Jake the Jaguar poses with students at a Football Game
Athletics and activities
Football:
2014 SPSL South league title
Emerald Ridge won the SPSL South league title during the 2014–2015 school year, their first ever league title. The Jags also picked up the All-City Championship by defeating both Puyallup High School and Rogers High School. They beat Rogers High School during the 2014 King of the Hill game.[5] They've had three winning seasons at 6 wins 4 losses in the '04-'05 & '05-'06 season, and 7 wins 3 losses in the '14 - '15 season. The Jaguars won arguably their biggest game ever when they defeated their cross town rivals, Governor John R. Rogers High School (a.k.a. the Rams), on September 14, 2007, by a score of 20–19.[6] On the Rams final drive with sixteen seconds to play, the Rams scored a touchdown. In an effort to avoid a tie, they attempted a two-point conversion the following play; they ran a sweep play towards the sideline, and just short of the goal line their running back was stopped when he tried to cut back to the middle. On the following kickoff, the game expired making Emerald Ridge the victors. The Jaguars went on to win their game the following week, and achieving the school's longest winning streak of five games.
On October 8, 2010, the Jags defeated their crosstown rivals, the Puyallup Vikings, by a score of 20–17, earning their first victory since the 2008 season. The win snapped a 19-game losing streak for the team, and was the first time they had beaten the Vikings in the school's history.
Boys Baseball
2009 2nd in SPSL South Division
Girl Fastpitch
2009 SPSL Tournament Champions (Undefeated)
Girls Bowling:
2015 4A State Fourth Place
2010 4A State Champions (Undefeated)
2010 4A State Individual Champion - Shannon Dexter
The Emerald Ridge Speech and Debate Team is currently inactive. It was headed by Coach Julie Hillend-Jones. The team did remarkably well in both regional and state competitions (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association State Forensics Tournament), receiving many awards and recognition. It also sent representatives for Student Congress to the national competition of the National Speech and Debate Association in both 2009 and 2010. In 2011, it sent a representative to Nationals for Dramatic Interpretation for the first time. The team competed at tournaments all over Western Washington and even at the Annual Tom Foley Tournament, hosted by University High School
Dance Team
Achieved Excellent and Superior Ratings at the state level in the WIAA Dance/Drill Competitions every year except 2007
2011–2012, 2012–2013, and 2013–2014 SPSL South Champions
2012–2013 West Central Districts Champions
2012–2013 Team State Champions
2012–2013 Sportsmanship Award
2012–2013 Undefeated season (10-0)
Daffodil Festival
Every year, Emerald Ridge participates in the Pierce County Daffodil Festival. A competition is held in house to select the Puyallup Princess, who goes on to compete against other regional schools, for the Daffodil Festival Queen title. The Queen title is considered the highest honor of the regional festival. The Emerald Ridge band accompanies the float of Emerald Ridge's princesses every year in the parade, held annually in April. The Queen and runners-up receive scholarships for post-high school education, and 2009 was the first year that one of ERHS's princesses was selected as Queen (Melanie Stambaugh).[9] In the 2013–2014 school year ERHS selected two Daffodil princesses. One of them went on to become the Daffodil Queen (Marissa Modestowicz).[citation needed]
JagWire newsmagazine
Emerald Ridge's official newspaper is {JagWire} newsmagazine. The paper was named by a Puyallup High School teacher and the adviser of the Viking Vanguard.[citation needed]
{JagWire} published a 28-page monthly newspaper for many years until it was dropped to a 16-page newsmagazine in 2010. During that time the print publication followed mostly the same design, until a redesign in 2010 led by then Editor-in-Chief Allie Rickard, the 2010–2011 WJEA Journalist of the Year.[citation needed]
During the 2014–2015 school year, {JagWire} dropped down to six 16-page publications that year instead of the usual eight. That same year {JagWire} started its online addition to the print publication, erhsjagwire.com, and set up social media accounts for Twitter (@GetJagWired) and Instagram (@erjagwire). The print publication also featured a new design, the first since 2010.[10]
For the 2018–2019 school year the school district dropped the newspaper class at Emerald Ridge due to low student interest, marking the first year JagWire did not publish an issue. However, despite the continued absence of a newspaper class to run it, {JagWire} now exists as an exclusively online publication, with articles by volunteer students and staff. This online publication is found on jagwire.org, which replaced the old, now unavailable website.[citation needed]
{JagWire} has won various state and national awards for its print publication, as well as numerous individual write-off awards from its staff members.
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