Starkville High School
Location
603 Yellowjacket Drive Starkville , Mississippi United States
Coordinates	33°27′04″N88°49′16″W / 33.451°N 88.821°W /33.451; -88.821
Information
Type	Public
Motto	Proud to be a Yellowjacket
Established	1899
School district	Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District
Principal	Watress Harris
Teaching staff	92.55 (on anFTE basis)[1]
Grades	9 – 12[1]
Enrollment	1,400 (2023-2024)[1]
Student to teacher ratio	15.13[1]
Colors	Black and gold
Mascot	Yellowjacket
Rival	West Point High School[3]
Newspaper	The Jacket Buzz[2]
Website	www.starkvillesd.com/starkville-high-school/

Starkville High School (SHS) is a publicsecondary school inStarkville, Mississippi, United States. It is the only high school in theStarkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, serving grades 9–12. It offers more than 140 courses, including over 10Advanced Placement courses.^[4] Itsschool colors are black and gold, and its mascot is theYellowjacket, a predatorywasp.

For the 2018–2019 academic year the graduation rate was 86.3% and the enrollment was 1,420.^[5][1]

The consolidated school district serves all of the county. The previous Starkville School District served Starkville, theMississippi State University census-designated place,Longview, and some other unincorporated areas.^[6][7]

A school was built for white students in 1899. The initial enrollment was 206, with an average attendance of 164. By 1910 the enrollment had grown to 312 and the average attendance to 270, due both to the increased number of residents and the superiority of the school causing county residents to choose to attend there. The county paid the city more than the cost of attendance, and so helped fund the school. There were too few desks, and the auditorium was of insufficient size, so a new school building was proposed. The negro school was deemed unsuitable for occupation, and $3,500 was allocated to build a new black school, in addition to the $2.00 per student provided by the state and the $200 generated by the negro poll tax.^[8]

Prior to 1970, separate schools were maintained for white and black students. In 1970, the federal government mandated the integration of the two systems. Starkville High became the home for all students in grades 9-12, while the former high school for black students,Henderson became the junior high school.^[9] In 1969,Starkville Academy was founded as asegregation academy on property adjacent to Starkville High for parents of white children who wished to keep their children in segregated schools.^[10]

In 2015 the schools ofOktibbeha County School District consolidated into the Starkville district. Two high schools,East High andWest High, consolidated into Starkville High; this added about 300 students to Starkville High.^[11]

• Luke Altmyer — football player
• Tony Akins – football player^[12]
• Jake Arians – NFL football player
• Dee Barton – jazz musician^[13]
• Natrone Brooks – NFL cornerback for theAtlanta Falcons^[14]
• A. J. Brown – NFL wide receiver for thePhiladelphia Eagles
• Joe Carter – playedNFL football for the Miami Dolphins, 1984-1986^[15]
• Tyson Carter – professional basketball player^[16]
• Muhammad Dakhlalla – convicted of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization^[17]
• Kermit Davis Jr. – head college basketball coach at Ole Miss, Idaho, Texas A&M and Middle Tennessee State University, class of 1978^[18]
• Antuan Edwards – NFL football player^[19]
• Carl Fair – football player^[20]
• Willie Gay – linebacker for theMiami Dolphins and 2020 2nd Round Draft Pick by theKansas City Chiefs from Mississippi State^[21]
• Willie Earl Gillespie – USFL and NFL football player, played and coached at SHS^[22]
• Helen Young Hayes – money manager^[23]
• Shauntay Hinton –Miss USA 2002^[24]
• Nate Hughes – NFL football player, class of 2003^[25]
• Kobe Jones – NFL football player, class of 2015^[26]
• Freddie Milons – football player^[27]
• Dot Murphy – basketball player and coach, first female football coach in theNJCAA^[28]
• Travis Outlaw –NBA basketball player, class of 2003^[29]
• Barrin Simpson – football player^[30]
• Emmett H. Walker Jr. – U.S. Army officer^[31]
• Gavin Ware – basketball player^[32]
• Latavious Williams – basketball player^[33]

• Jack Nix - NFL football player^[34]

• Official site
• Starkville School District

• Public high schools in Mississippi
• Schools in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi
• Starkville, Mississippi
• 1899 establishments in Mississippi
• Educational institutions established in 1899

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Use American English from September 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from January 2025
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox mapframe without shape links in Wikidata
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension