Opened in the fall of 1961, Eastwood High School has established many lasting traditions which engage and inspire her students to excellence and achievement. In the tradition of the American cavalry trooper, Eastwood Troopers are schooled in the benefits of teamwork, dedication, perseverance, loyalty, bravery, and commitment.
Upon entrance to the building, visitors and students are greeted by a life-sized wooden trooper, a saddle, boots, and saber, and shining “blue whistler” cannon. On Friday nights in the fall, the victory bell’s resounding peals echo through the neighborhood, calling Troopers home for football games. At homecoming, the traditional burning of the E elicits tears from graduating seniors as they reflect on their time as children in the Eastwood family. The trophy cases fairly bulge with awards which testify to the dedication and work ethic of her student body, faculty, and staff. Up above, the main hall is lined with the panoramic photos of every graduating class; eager young faces, full of anticipation and determination, stare earnestly out at the world they were about to enter.
And enter it they have. Through the years, Eastwood graduates have succeeded in a myriad of careers, spanning the scope of American life. Though there are too many to name, her alumni have gone on to West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force and Coast Guard Academies. Former Troopers include a Rhodes scholar and graduates of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Notre Dame, Stanford, and virtually every other university one could name. Eastwood children have grown up to be executive officers of multi-national corporations, television and film producers, and collegiate and professional athletes, as well as soldiers fighting for country in foreign lands. Lawyers and doctors and engineers from Eastwood practice all across this country. Chemists and biologists and physicists as well as teachers and social workers and entrepreneurs make daily contributions to the lives of millions of people, and they still call Eastwood home. These fine human beings learned some of their discipline, competitiveness, dedication, and perseverance in the classrooms, the dance studio, on the stage, the football and baseball and soccer fields, the tennis courts, the rifle range, the band and choir rooms. They debated and researched and blocked and tackled and fielded and swung and played and sang and read and studied and tested and laughed and cried and worried and bled and sweated on this ground, and all with the guidance and love of a staff of caring and committed adults. And then went off to colleges and trade schools and boot camps and families. And every fall, dozens come home to feel those memories, and rekindle some of the friendships and inspirations that started here.
This is what has made Eastwood “El Paso’s Finest” and will sustain her for decades to come.
