Hello everyone, this is Mr. Grishaber, the very proud principal of the greatest high school in Illinois, William Howard Taft High School. I wanted to give everyone a quick update on my health but more importantly send some “thank yous” and some acknowledgments out to our students, coaches, teachers and staff who have been working exceptional hard during my absence. Click to continue reading...

Let start with the health issues. After 40 days in the hospital and 6 chemotherapy sessions my doctors tell me the Leukemia is in complete remission. Those two words, “Complete Remission” are two of my new favorite words, but I must admit I like the two words, “Taft Eagles” a little more. I will be back at school in a few weeks and slowly work my way back to 5 days a week. I would be remiss if I did not say thank you for all of the cards, gifts, emails, texts, tweets, snapchats and prayers that were sent my way. I am especially grateful for the personal stories that were shared with me that kept my hopes high. Eagle Nation, you are amazing! Now, let’s get down to business.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all the students, coaches, teachers and staff who have been working so hard over the past two months. Here are a few of the accomplishments:

Cheer took second place in city and will compete in Sectionals on Saturday January 28. Poms took second place in city and was one place away at sectionals from advancing downstate. Varsity Boys Basketball has had big last second wins over Loyola, Oak Forest, and Von Steuben. They play Lane on Wednesday at home - the game is a "pink out" recognizing breast cancer. The varsity game starts at 6:30 PM. I expect a full house.Varsity Girls Basketball were conference champs. They have their first playoff game on Tuesday at home vs Julian. I expect a full house. Varsity Boys Bowling advanced to the IHSA sectional and had an overall great season under new head coach and security guard Ramon Rivera. Tommy Green qualified for the state championship for the fourth year in a row and will represent Taft this weekend. The entire team will bowl in the city championship on Tuesday at Waveland Bowl. The Varsity Girls bowling team has the highest average in the city and playoffs start for them on Monday, February 6. They have beaten teams that go by the name of Loyola, Evanston, and Lane. We have high expectations in city and state for them. The Varsity Boys Swimming team won the inaugural Curie Chicago Invitational, took fourth in city relays (which is a school record), and competes in the city championship on February 5 at UIC. Varsity Wrestling took second in city. Sophomore Brendan Gallo won his second individual city championship and Senior Angelo Berardi also won an individual championship in his weight class. The sophomore wrestling team also won the city championship a week ago. The wrestling team will compete in regionals on February 4. Coach Vidas was named the Chicago Bulls Kia Educator of the month. He was presented the awarded on Friday at the Chicago Bulls Practice facility. Coach Pildes was inducted into the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He has over 700 wins, one of the best in Illinois history. Congratulations Coach!

We need more boys to join the track team. This is a great opportunity for our football players to hone your skills. Please see Mr. Glowacz in his office in the lunchroom if you are interested.

There’s been a rumor going around that the Senior Prom is also open to Juniors. This is simply not true. Senior Prom, like its name implies, is for our SENIORS. Juniors can go if they are invited as a guest of a senior, but this is a Senior event.

I would like to remind everyone that school starts at 7:30am. Seriously it gets a little tiring to see the same students walking into the school with their coffee at 8:00am. Let’s stop this now! It’s time to take this seriously. In the real world you would get fired for this behavior and I’m simply getting tired of telling you.

In closing I want to say, welcome to all of our newest eagles. We have commitments from most of the best scholars and athletes on the northwest side of Chicago. Everyone now knows, “Taft is the place to be”

I will see everyone in a few weeks,

Mr. G.









Follow this link to read an article on DNAinfo about Mr. G's return: