Offer a Woodham Alumni Night during WFHS football season

First let’s take a look back…

Woodham High School was closed after nearly 42 years of operation in May 2007. It is now known as Woodham Middle School.

The school is named for Dr. William Jesse Woodham, Jr., a former Escambia County School District superintendent.

Woodham High School was the only high school in Escambia County to have a Law Academy, as well as to have a Future Educators Academy. In addition, Woodham also sported a Health Science Program.

There have been many highlights over the years that came from the Titan campus. The football team won the district in 81, 82, 84, and 85. In 1982 and 1984, the "Fighting Titans" won the state 4A championship and, for a period of time, were ranked number one in the nation by USA Today. The 1982-4 seasons featured a 35 and 1 record, losing only to Choctaw by a score of 9 to 7, in 1983 regular season. The game winning field goal by John Laycock was taken of scoreboard with no time remaining.

In 1991 the boys' Soccer team won the AAA state title. The school's boys' basketball team won the Florida Class 4A state championship in 2003. Woodham's baseball team also won back to back district 1-4A championships in 2002 and 2003.

In March 2000, Woodham High School's Varsity Cheerleading squad won its first National Championship at the American Open Cheerleading Competition. The team of 15 members won the title in the small varsity division. The squad was featured in the August 2000 issue of American Cheerleader Magazine.

We have also have some notable graduates of Woodham High School.
• Reggie Evans, NBA basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets
• Justin Gatlin, 2000, gold medal winner in the 2004 Summer Olympics and former world record holder in the Men's 100m. 2016, Olympic Silver Medalist in 100m [2]
• David Lee, Dallas Cowboys assistant coach and offensive coordinator for the Arkansas Razorbacks football
• Greg Litton, MLB baseball player for the San Francisco Giants[citation needed]
• Calvin Smith, MISL goalkeeper, St. Louis Steamers 1994 - 1998
• Hosken Powell, Former MLB player (Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays)
• Tyronne Green, NFL player (San Diego Chargers)
• Ron Stallworth, NFL player
• And several local public officials

Fast forward in time….. to the fall of 2005, the Escambia County School District and the superintendent, Jim Paul, closed Woodham and converted it into a middle school for Brentwood and Wedgewood Middle schools. Woodham students were re-districted to other area high schools. The plan, approved by the school board on December 21, 2006, went into effect for the 2007-2008 school year.

On May 27, 2007 Woodham held its final classes

Woodham was reopened as a middle school later in 2007. Woodham Middle School is now home of the Woodham Middle Sharks.

However, as we move toward current day….The now Woodham Middle School is being planned to be home to West Florida Tech High School in a multi school plan.

The West Florida Tech Jaguars football team already plays its home games at Woodham Middle School, and the school district plans to make approximately $3 million to $5 million in renovations to retrofit the campus to fit high schoolers' needs

Malcolm Thomas said he anticipates West Florida High School will be moved into its new facilities by the start of the 2018 school year, but it now appears to be 2019.

So that history lesson was necessary because early this year (2017) we approached administration at West Florida Tech HS about having a WOODHAM ALUMNI/THROWBACK NIGHT during football season. The idea was to have a homecoming for Titan alumni. This could include the team wearing Woodham Titan throwback jerseys, the old WT at the 50 yard line, attendees encouraged to wear their old Woodham apparel (if it still fits) and more. We were hoping to transform the whole experience back into the good ol’ Fightin’ Titan days.

We were being told that is something that could definitely be discussed. The purpose of this survey is to band together and express the interest.

It has been expressed to WFHS administration that this would be a big money night for WFHS and the support for this is overwhelming. This would definitely be one of those win-win situations. However, there are now some concerns that this may not be considered. We are also being told that the move to Woodham has been pushed back to the fall of 2019 to give little to no displacement and disruption to the current middle school students. At that time this is something that can be “discussed.”