ETHS Principal, Dr. Jimmy Martin (Class of '93), standing alongside his father, former ETHS Principal Dr. Don Martin (1988-1993) at the 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Hello Charger Family!

I am Dr. Jimmy Martin, I was here as a student in the Class of 1993 and have served here at El Toro High School as a math teacher, football coach, the Athletic Director, Assistant Principal, and now as Principal of this fine institution.  It is an honor and a pleasure to serve the community school that gave me such a great experience in my formative years, I have so many fond memories here with so many of you all!

Thank you all for being here tonight, I am so glad you made it and that we could take this special opportunity to gather and celebrate the great history of this amazing school!  I also want to thank everyone who made this event possible, especially our admin team and our custodians for all their hard work in making this event a reality!  It means so much to so many of us who have made it here today.  

I want to start off by introducing and saying thank you to the Superintendent of Saddleback Valley Unified, Dr. Crystal Turner, for all of her support.  Dr. Turner, I truly appreciate the direction and leadership you provide El Toro High School and all of SVUSD to make it a great place to learn and work for everyone in the Charger Family!

I also want to thank the SVUSD Board of Trustees, 3 of whom are with us tonight: 

President Barbara Schulman,

Vice President Dr. Edward Wong, and

Board Member Dan Walsh

Thank you SVUSD Board of Education for providing El Toro High School with the support to thrive for the last 50 years and for being here tonight to celebrate with us and ring in another 50 years of Charger excellence!

Mrs. Schulman, can you please come over to the podium and share a few words?

[MRS. SCHULMAN SPEAKS]

Thank you so much Mrs. Schulman!  El Toro has certainly had a long list of accomplishments and awards and special traditions that we are honoring tonight.

Before I continue, I want to ask the crowd: 

• Do we have anyone here who was at ETHS during the 70s?  You all started the fire!  Awesome.  The reason I ask is that I want to make sure you all have a chance to connect with each other, so I want to encourage you to make your way over to the 70s tables of our ET Museum over here, either now or after the performances, so you can see any old friends and say thank you to our former staff members who made it here today. Be sure to fill in a name tag and year you were here so everyone can recognize you. 

• How about the 80s Chargers?  The Glory Days!  When you can, head over to the 80s area to reconnect with old friends and the staff that was here with you all.  It’s right over there by Charger Hall.

• Anyone here from the 90s?  Those are my people!  It’s obvious the Class of 1993 was clearly the greatest of them all.  The 90s table is straight back there so head over there now or after the performances.  

• Anyone here from the 2000s?  The 2000s table is over there by the far corner 300 building.  

• And let’s hear it from those who were here in 2010 or later!  Your table is right below the 20.

• I should also mention that we have several QR codes posted around the quads tonight that have highlight some historical things we’ve had here with information, pictures, videos, and such as the Senior Rock, the Canned Food Drive, the World Famous El Toro 20 (for all of you skaters), and some highlights of the upgrades of our campus across the years.  

OK, so now I want to address the question I’ve been asked a hundred times about this event - what is up with the Time Capsule?  In case you were not aware, during the 25th Anniversary in 1998, they pulled a time capsule out of the brick wall of Charger Hall, our theater right there.  There’s even an article in the OC Register about it, and it said they put a new time capsule back in the wall.  We were told it was behind the plaque near the corner of the theater so we had our multi-trade guru Tony cut out the plaque, we were so excited, I filmed the whole thing.  When he finally got it off, it was like Al Capone’s vault, there was nothing there!  Anyway, we have a new time capsule we’ll leave for the next anniversary with clear directions!

Anyway…  In preparing for this event I have had the pleasure of digging through much of El Toro’s history – it has been an enlightening and fascinating project.  Simply digging through the yearbooks is an incredible experience on its own, so I highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t yet.  Seriously – flip through the yearbooks of the 70’s and 80’s –  you’d think all we do here is Donkey Basketball & Baby Day, with plenty of pie contests and human pyramids - it’s like a different planet!  We’ve moved on from those and some other traditions that have come and gone, such as painting the Senior Rock. But we have many others that are still going strong, such as the legendary Canned Food Drive and our huge dodgeball tournament – for which I still have my 2 trophies, I might add!  

And in my preparation I came across a message about our school’s crest in the 1978 yearbook, the crest that is right here on the front of my podium.  It certainly feels right to share the message about the crest from that yearbook with you today as it tells the story of our origin, so here it is: 

El Toro High School takes pride in its crest. This crest, designed by our own students, symbolizes our rich heritage, exciting present, and our hopes for the future.  The sycamore leaves bordering our crest, the Spanish sombrero, and the spurs, symbolize the influence of the Spanish in our area. The land on which our high school stands was once part of the Rancho Canada de los Alisos. Jose Serrano was granted the Rancho by the newly independent Mexican government. The name “El Toro” comes from the bulls and other cattle that were brought to the Serrano home. The original house still stands, not far from El Toro High School. Our school takes its name from the town of El Toro. A single hoofprint, symbol of the bull, dominates the center of our crest. Our mascot, the charging bull, is vividly portrayed just over the hoofprint. Academic achievement is represented by the scroll. At the very bottom of our crest, is Saddleback Mountain, a sight familiar to everyone in El Toro. From behind Saddleback are streaming rays of sunlight. The rays of light coming from a new dawn signify bright prospects for the future of our school.”

That message tells us about the origin of our name, El Toro.  It also mentions our mascot, but have you ever wondered how our mascot was chosen – why Chargers instead of Bulls?  And why are we blue and gold?  I was able to find someone who knows, so please welcome former ETHS principal and my dad, Dr. Don Martin:

[DR. DON MARTIN SPEAKS]

Thanks Doc, it’s awesome that we now all know why we are the blue and gold Chargers!  Very cool.  

I started to make a list of our special accomplishments such as being named a California Distinguished School multiple times, our accolades such as our many championships and special awards in both athletics and performing arts, and our alumni who have gone on to do amazing things in so many sectors across the globe.  But that list is ridiculously long, and if you’re here you already know much of it and can see it all in the museum around the Lower Quad.  And we reached out to many of our most famous alumni and a couple even responded, so we’ll hear from them at the football game tonight.  So I’ll skip to the most important part of my message, and that is very simple: This school is a special place because of 50 years worth of amazing students and dedicated staff and this supportive community that have given so much to make it such a beautiful experience.  Those of you who gave of your time and effort, your hearts and minds, your service and love to make this school exceptional have built a legacy for which I am proud to carry the torch and pass it along to the next 50 years of Chargers excellence.  That’s it, so give yourselves a round of applause because you are what made this school such an awesome place!  Think about that:... 50 years!

50 years of high school fun

50 years of learning

50 years of dances and pep rallies and cheering on the blue and gold

50 years of studying and working and learning and graduating and moving on to college and career

50 years of championships and award winning performances

50 years of teaching and giving and guiding and leading and loving

50 years of Baby Day then Painting the Senior Rock then Canned Food Drives and Dodgeball tournaments

50 years of lifelong friendships

50 years of Charger Excellence

Thank you El Toro Family, for an amazing run for these 50 years, and I am so honored to lead the Chargers into the next 50 years!   

And last but not least I’d like to thank to our Lake Forest City Council members, who are over here to my right, including:

Mayor Doug Cirbo 

Mayor Pro Tem Mark Tettemer

And City Council Members Robert Pequeno, Scott Voigts, and Benjamin Yu.

On Tuesday of this week the City presented me with a Certificate of Recognition that states:

The City Council and City of Lake Forest congratulates

El Toro High School for 50 years of stellar education and looks forward to the next 50 years of growth and prosperity in Lake Forest.

Thank you all for your continued partnership in making El Toro High School a special place as the only high school in the city of Lake Forest, which is certainly a beautiful city.  So on that note, here is Mr. Dave Roberts and El Toro’s Soundsation to perform the El Toro classic, “Beautiful City.”

 

The Senior Rock

The first reference to "The Senior Rock" was in the 1980 yearbook.  It was still in its rock form in 1983, which can be seen in the photo below from that year's yearbook.

By 1989 the Senior Rock became a legendary spot for other schools to prank in their school colors during the week ET played them in football, or for seniors to paint to reclaim as their own.  It had been encased in concrete, presumably to give the painters more area to work and to make it easier to clean up.

With the vandalism getting out of hadn, the Senior Rock was removed in the 1991-1992 school year and left as a plot of dirt, which the Class of 1993 used to bury Bob's Big Boy during a prank.  The photo below was taken from another school's prank in 1981, but you get the idea...

The current planter structure was put into place in the 1993-1994 school year as a gift from the Class of 1993.

Athletic Facilities

Here is a bird's-eye view of the original campus in 1973:

Note the gym hosted a yearly tradition of "Donkey Basketball" from this first game pictured in the 1974 yearbook through the 1980s, a tradition that proved not good for the gym floor or the donkeys.

The gym floor has been replaced multiple times and is looking good.

The largest Olympic pool in the district was added shortly after the school was built, but the famous high dive was taken down in the early 1990s

The Auxiliary Gym was added with the modernization project that started in 2000.

The El Toro Stadium opened in Fall 2013 with a 56-13 win over Trabuco Hills' frosh team.

This drone video shows the stadium as it is today:

The Softball faciility received a makeover in 2017.  Click here for a news article about the project. 

The weight room has been upgraded multiple times and has an outdoor facility that was added in 2021.

The baseball stadium has had multiple upgrades, most recently adding fencing that allows the Chargers to host more events.

Other facilities that have been upgraded over the years include:

• Tennis Courts with resurfacing and new nets
• Fitness facility near the weight room
• Boys wrestling room
• Girls wrestling room
• Dance room
• Multiple team rooms

Modernization

The El Toro Campus opened in 1973, and in 2005 a complete renovation of our school site began.

Developer fees funded the Bill Bailey Innovation and Learning Center (library) and the 200 building renovation project - complete with flexible learning spaces, furniture that supports collaborative student work, and state-of-the-art technology.

The newly renovated 200 building contains eleven SV Innovates classrooms and shared spaces for students and teachers to work on innovative projects, collaborate in shared spaces, and find connections across traditional curricular boundaries.

These incredible spaces are welcoming and conducive to helping students learn beyond the constraints of the traditional classroom.

In 2022, in collaboration with the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) and the Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), El Toro High School opened the Wellness Center named The rETreat.  The rETreat serves as a wellness room where students can unwind, relax, meditate, and reset.  The rETreat is centrally located on campus and is available for all students and staff.

Continued school improvements and renovations are in the works.  We look forward to continued improvements for the future, while still maintaining our rich history.

The first reference of ETHS collecting cans was found in the 1976 yearbook:

But the legend of the El Toro Canned Food Drive began when Mrs. Scheidler started as the ASB Director in 1998:

For years, Don Stoll's math class won the homeroom competition, until Dave Roberts' choir class took up the challenge and seemed to always lead the way.

Here it is in the 2011 yearbook when ETHS crushed our goal of 7,000 cans by bringing in 27,865 cans.

And in 2005 ET brought in 75,476 cans!

Click here for an article from the OC Register in 2010, it's a MUST read!

In Mrs. Scheidler's last year at ETHS in 2016, the Chargers collected an incredible 105,156 cans of food!

Then the next year in 2017 under Chris Nguyen as ASB Director, the Chargers brought in a whopping 116,675 cans of food, a new record!  Click here for the OC Register article.

From the 2016 yearbook, this article by author Jeremy Wolpert sums it up:

El Toro is renowned for its Canned Food Drive, and this year was no exception.  El Toro had always faced challenges in the past for the Canned Food Drive, and surpassed them all:  whether it was defeating three other SVUSD high schools combined; Capo Valley and Irvine high schools combined; or self-created goals of 65,000 to 70,000 to 980,000 cans, the Charger Spirit took hold and took down each challenge.  After 2014's record of 86,934 cans, this year's goal was simple:  the magic number of 100,000.  100,000 cans in four weeks.  "I thought it would be impossible; I didn't think they could motivate people to bring in 100,000 cans at all," senior Katrina Joy Gabon said.  From the mystery fliers and announcements pushing "100,000", to the first official announcement during Homeroom Rep meetings, to the final day of collection, the energy of giving and generosity flowed through the school.  Cans surged in from everywhere:  students standing in front of grocery stores asking for donations, community members turning cans into the ASB office, homerooms challenging each other to weekly tally competitions and students bringing cans to homerooms.  It was truly a team effort, and without everyone's participation, this epic goal would not be accomplished.  Organizations swich as South County Outreach and Adopt-a-Family depended on the cans collected; some might have thought that 100,000 this goal was out of reach bu tthose who knew the Charger spirit knew better.  With anticipation, the final count came in:  105,156 cans collected and dontated! "People were crying, they were so blown away."

The El Toro 20

First documented ride down the Twenty that we could find was made by Ralph Ackerman in the 1983 yearbook:

Another Baby Day ride, this on by Dave Ross in the 1986 yearbook:

But the real reason for its incredible worldwide fame is as a legendary skateboarding spot.

Artefact Magazine's January 2020 article memorializes the 20 as "one of skateboarding's gnarliest" spots and includes this excerpt:

"The first to ever skate the spot was Heath Kirchart.  He landed a frontside lipslide down the rail in 1998, which featured on the February '99 cover of Transworld magazine, for his part in the Birdhouse video The End.

From that cover, El Toro was born, a new landmark for skateboarding was discovered and the gates of pain, misery and triumph opened up."

Click here to access the article.

In 2020 Limitless Culture posted the "Top 10 Tricks Done Down El Toro in this Youtube video:

And finally, on June 18, 2019, Dylan Stark took advantage of the rebuild project when it was a dirt hill and landed a jump off the 'Big Top" roof over the Upper Quad.  Here is the YouTube video: