Friday Flyover: Merrillville High School

This week, we feature Merrillville High School on ABC7's Friday Flyover, celebrating high school sports!

The Merrillville Pirates will take on the Valparaiso Vikings at home Friday. The game begins at 7:00 p.m.

School Information:

- School Colors- Purple and White

- Mascot - Pirates

- School Song- We're loyal to you Merrillville High. We're Purple and White Merrillville High! We'll back you to stand. You're the best in the land! For we know that you will stand Merrillville High! So Back up that ball Merrillville High. We're backing you all Merrillville High! Our team is the fame protector. On team! For we expect a vic'try for you Merrillville High.

GO PIRATES, GO!

Fast Facts:

Merrillville High School is a leader in Career and Technical Education across Northwest Indiana, offering 10 Career Clusters & over 24 CTE training programs, including pre-nursing, construction trades, welding, fire & rescue, automotive services, and radio & television production.

Merrillville High School students consistently earn industry certification, including Certified Nursing Assistant, Adobe Photoshop, AWS Welding, Indiana County Jailer, CPR/First Aid, and Microsoft Office.

MHS partners with many local industry leaders to offer our students real-world experience and on-the-job training.

MHS has longstanding partnerships with state colleges and universities providing dual credit opportunities for the majority of students.

The Merrillville High School Choir performs at the Friday Flyover.

MHS is finalizing completion of a $25 million expansion to expand our current CTE offerings . This 55,000 square foot CTE wing at Merrillville High School will be the new home of Automotive Services, Fire & Rescue, Construction Trades, and Welding.

MHS prides itself on a consistently high graduation rate.

MHS has over 30 clubs and organizations for students to participate in, including Robotics, student government, spell bowl, gaming club, community service clubs, chess club, and Gay-Straight Alliance.

We are a 9-12 building with 2,127 students

Tracy Butler storms the field at Merrillville HS for Friday Flyover!

Our performing arts including band, orchestra, choir, and theater is highly competitive among other state competitors. We take pride in coming home with 1st place accomplishments and accolades.

School History:

-Merrillville High School High School opened in 1953.

-Enrollment for this 2024-2025 school year is 516 freshmen, 523 sophomores, 593 juniors, and 495 seniors.

-We are the 36th largest school in the State of Indiana and our enrollment is 2,127.

The Merrillville HS marching banc, cheer and dance teams perform at the Friday Flyover.

Famous alums:

Our most famous graduate is Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs Head Coach. He is a 1966 graduate of Merrillville. We honored him and put him in our Professional Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. He and his daughter attended and he surprised the crowd at our basketball game by bringing his High School Letter Jacket back and wore this during his presentation.

Merrillville High School has had 5 professional football players, Tom Jelesky, Jamel Williams, Eugene Wilson, Michael Neal, and current NFL player Ryan Neal. Merrillville has had one gold medalist David Neville in the 4 X 400 relay in the 2008 Olympics along with a Bronze medal in the 400 meter run.

Merrillville has a current reigning National Champion Football Player/Starter playing at the University of Michigan Kenneth Grant #78 (picture provided) and another Football Player starting at the University of Minnesota offensive line Martes Lewis

Dave Bedella ( 1980) is a triple Laurence Olivier Award winner for his roles on London's West End in "Jerry Springer-The Opera" (2004), Lin Manuel-Miranda's "In The Heights" (2016), and "& Juliet" (2020), a role he is currently playing on Broadway. Also a screen actor, he is known for his voice acting with the Thomas the Train series as well as roles in Batman Begins (2005), Rocky Horror Show Live (2015) and Alexander (2004).

A.J. Davis ( 2004) is an internationally known entertainer originally from Merrillville, Indiana and now residing in NYC. He got his start performing at theme parks (Cedar Point/Six Flags) and began performing abroad at age 19. A.J. has toured with Dreamgirls and The Harlem Voices European Tour. He was recently seen in the pre-Broadway production of Rock and Roll Man. A.J. has a Bachelor's Degree in Music Business Administration from Indiana State University and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

A.D. Weaver ( 2013) is currently portraying General George Washington, touring the US with the Angelica Cast of HAMILTON. From the HAMILTON playbill: Grateful to be joining the HamFam. Off-Broadway: The Lieutenant, Sunken Cathedral. Select Regional: Slippin Through... (Goodman Theater), Rent (Portland Center Stage), Forever Plaid, Elf (Drury Lane), The Color Purple (Phoenix Theater), Ragtime (Park Playhouse), Five Guys Named Moe (Court Theater), Little Shop, Avenue Q (Mercury Theater Chicago), Buddy Holly (Fireside Theatre), Teddy Pendergrass Story (Black Ensemble Theater). Television: "Law and Order: SVU," "Southside," "American Greed."