Victorville’s largest high school recently celebrated a quarter century of existence with a weekend full of events.

Silverado High School welcomed its first students in 1996 and is commemorating its Silver Anniversary this fall, having seen nearly 13,000 graduates pass through its doors. 

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years,” said Principal Heather Conkle, a longtime High Desert resident and the Hawks’ head administrator for the past nine years. “Looking at the pictures (of the old campus and the surrounding neighborhood), it’s hard to believe how much the area has grown. I literally watched the school being built, never realizing I’d be the principal.” 

The anniversary festivities started with an all-school pep rally on Friday, Sept. 24. The pep rally was only for current students, but the school welcomed alumni to the Silver Anniversary Homecoming Game and halftime parade later that evening. 

The parade theme focused on each of the first four graduating classes from the school (1999 through 2002) with corresponding decor, costumes and music to match their respective years.

The stadium that hosted the game is a monument to the school’s development over the past two and a half decades. Completed in 2013, the facility is still one of the most modern in the High Desert, with a synthetic field and stands to accommodate thousands of fans. The Hawks had spent years playing their home games at Victor Valley High School before the stadium was built.

The stadium is the centerpiece of a state-of-the-art athletics complex that also features an Olympic-caliber aquatics center and a beach volleyball facility.    

With a fresh coat of paint and refurbished murals this school year, the campus is not showing its age. However, the murals (each donated by a graduating class) honor Silverado’s growing history.

“(The campus) doesn’t feel old or outdated,” Conkle said. “And from an infrastructure and technology standpoint, we are 100 percent up-to-date.”

Conkle and fellow staff showed off the campus to alumni and their families and friends in a free campus tour on Sept. 25.

“(The tour allowed) alumni a chance to see the new campus and all of the changes that have taken place,” Conkle said. “They can take a walk down memory lane but also see some of the exciting things we are doing now.”

The events concluded with an anniversary-themed Homecoming dance, the Silver Soiree.