Parkersburg High School

• Joseph Albright (class of 1956), West Virginia supreme court justice[10]
• Zak Boggs, professional soccer player[11]
• Glen Gainer, Jr. (class of 1945), State Auditor of West Virginia, 1977–1993
• Linda Goodman (class of 1943), astrologer
• Bill Earley (class of 1938) Assistant Head Coach Notre Dame, 1946-1954
• Leon Claire Metz (class of 1948), cultural historian
• Greasy Neale, football coach
• Mick Staton (class of 1958), West Virginia Republican politician
• Gibby Welch, football player
• Patsy Ramsey, (class of 1975), Miss West Virginia 1977, Mother of JonBenét Ramsey
• Doug Marks, Founder of Metal Method guitar instruction
• Nick Swisher (class of 1999), outfielder for the Atlanta Braves[12]
• Stephen D. Barnett (Class of 1985), Rear Admiral U.S. Navy, Commander of the Navy Region of Hawaii
• Brenton Strange, (class of 2019), TE Jacksonville Jaguars, drafted in 2023.

• Ben Schwartzwalder, Big Reds coach, 1936–40
• Bob Dutton, Big Red Wrestling Coach, 1951–1976. Inducted into The National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003, and honored with their "Lifetime Service to Wrestling” award. WV Chapter, National Wrestling Hall of Fame

The A Cappella Choir was formed in 1931 with its first director, Dr. Marie Boette (pronounced Bo-tee), after she sent some of her students to Detroit to an A cappella singing competition. This led to the formation of West Virginia's first A Cappella Choir in 1932, as a way to present advanced music without accompaniment. The robes are a white cotta (or surplice) worn over a red cassock, similar in form to Roman Catholic or Episcopal altar boy or chorister vestments, and have remained the same since the inception of the choir. They were initially created by Hazel McHenry.

The choir is best known for its annual Christmas Concert, which begins with "Fanfare for Christmas Day" sung in the grand hall. The choir will then process to "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by candlelight (originally real candles and then replaced by electronic ones). The concert ends with the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah, where all alumni come up to sing with the choir. Finally, the choir recesses to "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by candlelight.

The Parkersburg High School A Cappella Choir has performed for two presidents: Harry S Truman in 1949 and Lyndon B Johnson in 1966. It also performed in Washington, D.C., in 1997. The choir was selected as an honor ensemble for the 2000, 2002, 2005, 2018, and 2023 West Virginia Music Education Association annual conference. In April 2010, they performed in Carnegie Hall alongside OSU's choir and a few other high school and college choirs. They performed two pieces (a work by Brahms and a work by Amy Beach) under the direction of Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt.[14]

The Chamber Choir sang at two professional basketball games, in 2004 and 2005. They were invited to sing again in 2006. In addition to this, they were with Parkersburg South's Chamber Choir and West Virginia University at Parkersburg's chorus in premiering "The Unknown Region" by Kenton Cole. Most recently, the Chamber Choir was selected to sing during the 2019 White House Christmas Open Houses in Washington DC.

The current choral director is Joshua A. Dubs, a graduate of Geneva College.

Due to the 2008 grade shift in Wood County Schools, a new choral organization was formed for 9th graders who were not inducted into the A Cappella Choir called the Freshman Choir. In its first year, there were over eighty members in this organization.

All four of the schools vocal music programs are internationally awarded. The choir takes an annual competition trip and has competed in such cities as New York City, New Orleans, Toronto, Boston, Orlando, and many others. The choirs always do very well in competition, often bringing home gold 1st places in each category.

The Big Red Band was first a concert band only organized in 1919 and was under the direction of C. O. Chapman. The first Big Red Band as a marching band was organized under George Dietz in 1924. It was all-male and women were not allowed into the band itself until 1970. The Big Red Band is the only military-style marching band in the state of West Virginia and prides themselves on being a music making organization first.[15]

The original uniforms for the band were all white with red trim and buttoned down the middle. They featured red capes and red navy-style dress uniform hats (similar to the ones worn by the Navy ROTC at PHS). The current uniforms have been essentially the same since at least 1955, with the only noticeable change being the crossbelts. Originally they were just one sash crossing over the body; the current ones have two sashes (which in 1955 were worn by the field commanders) that criss-cross the band member with the right one over the left one. The current uniforms also are made of wool and are red tops with white bottoms. The uniform top has two sets of silver buttons, one for each side, and the uniform pants have a red stripe down each outward facing side.

The field commander's uniform has seen its share of changes also. Originally, there were multiple field commanders/drum majors. One wore an all red uniform with the same styled white hat, and the others wore the white uniforms that eventually became the current field commander's uniform. The current field commander uniform was all white with a tall white hat with the 1955 set, this was changed slightly to include a red breastpiece and yellow shoulderpieces. The crossbelts worn by them in 1955 became the current crossbelts for the band. The field commander uniform lacks a crossbelt.[16]

The Big Red Band has its own fair share of recognition, performing at the World's Fair in 1982. They were also in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November 1992. They also performed in the Kentucky Derby Pegasus Parade in 1995, and are regularly invited to participate in New Year's Day "bowl festivities."

Also, the Big Red Band won two Veterans of Foreign Wars junior band championships, one in Boston (1955) and one in Dallas (1956) [17][18] and are one of only a few groups at PHS to be able to call themselves national champions. The band also won the Lion's Club International Band Contest four times: in Providence (year unknown), Chicago (1937), Pittsburgh (1939), and New Orleans (1941). They performed for the National Moose Convention in 1948. In addition, they were selected as the best band in the state in 1930 and won the tri-state band concert in 1933. The band received the Ohio State Governor's Cup in the fall of 1991.[19]

The concert and jazz band also traveled to New Orleans for the Heritage Festival national competition in the 2004–2005 school year, the jazz band ended up taking 2nd place nationally and the concert band 1st place.

The band has performed for Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush during their visits to Parkersburg as presidents of the United States. They also played for Queen Marie of Romania during an incidental visit to Parkersburg (this was due to a snow squall hitting the area, forcing the Queen's train to stop) in 1926.[20]

The Parkersburg High School drama program is split between the PHS Drama Club and Thespian Troupe #264, which work together to produce plays as the combined "PHS Players." Drama Club members work towards earning enough Thespian "points" in order to be inducted into the Troupe at a ceremony which takes place at the end of each school year. The Troupe is one of the oldest in the country, considering that there are currently over 4000 registered school and became registered with the International Thespian Society while former Broadway actor John Lee was teaching as Parkersburg High School's Director of Performing Arts in the 1960s and 70s. Other past directors include Connie Brant, Heather Gates-Rusher, Amanda Witt, and current teacher Lori Zyla.

Past PHS productions include No Exit, Dinny and the Witches, Interview, The Serpent, Comings And Goings, War, Charlie's Aunt, The Boyfriend, Box & Cox, The Acting Lesson, Shakespeare Unbound, Love Death and the Prom, The End of Civilization As We Know It, Seven Murders and It's Only Monday, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Wizard of Oz, The Long Red Herring, Our Town, Small Actors, French Toast, The Great Pandemonium, The Empty Chair, The Crucible, Imaginary Harry, Little Shop of Horrors, A Piece of My Heart, Grease, FREAK, 4 a.m., Alice in Wonderland, Hard Candy, Night of the Living Dead, Radium Girls, Black Comedy, Damn Yankees, The Wedding Singer, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, The Haunting of Hill House, The Insanity of Mary Gerrard, Things Fall (Meanwhile), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Once Upon a Mattress.

In 1971, under the direction of the late John Lee, Thespian Troupe #264 won best play for both the regional and state drama festival for Comings And Goings. Best actor for the regional festival for this production was Dan Strimer, who also won runner-up best actor for the WV state competition for the same play that year in Morgantown, WV. In 2009, under the direction of Amanda Witt, Thespian Troupe #264 placed in the top five schools at the West Virginia Thespian Festival in the one-act play competition against thirteen other schools statewide for their performance of Bradley Hayward's Imaginary Harry. Other awards to PHS at the 2009 Festival included the naming of Frankie Love (Harry) and Jamie Mace (Mom) as All State Cast Members and Scarlet Sheppard (Jamie) as WV Best Actress. PHS Thespians were awarded a $10,000 grant towards representing West Virginia at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska in June 2009 making them State Champions.[21] The troupe travelled and performed, and were named one of the Top Five one-acts at the International Festival. Imaginary Harry playwright, Bradley Hayward, travelled from his home in Canada to see PHS's performance and now features videos of PHS's version on his professional website.

In 2010, under the direction of Amanda Witt, Thespian Troupe #264 again placed in the top five schools at the WV State Thespian Festival for their performance of Shirley Lauro's "A Piece of My Heart." Other awards to PHS at the 2010 Festival included the naming of Audriana Davis (Leeann) as WV Best Actress, Danielle (Steele) as WV Best Supporting Actress and first place in Solo Musical Theatre Performance, second place in Stage Management to Meghan Handley, third place in fantasy makeup to Brittani Hill and a Best Sound Design award to Timm Romine. For her win in Solo Musical Performance, Danielle Grays was invited to compete at the International Thespian Festival in June 2010.

Under the direction of Lori Zyla, Troupe #264 has placed in the top five schools at state festival, once in 2011 and once in 2015, and continues to be competitive at the state festival.[21]

The dance program at PHS consists of students taking dance classes for arts credits. Along with learning about the history and application of dance around the world, dance students also perform at multiple venues such as the annual Justo Lamas concerts presented for Spanish language students and the Parkersburg High School Talent shows.

The Parkersburg High School Forensics Team consists of a Speech team and Debate team under coach Lori Zyla. Both teams travel and compete together around the state and at a "home" Tournament dubbed the Isenhart Invitational in spring. The Forensics Team sponsors various fundraisers including the Mister and Miss PHS Pageants held in April.

In 2008, three competitors from the PHS Speech Team won at the state level in their respective "events" (Original Oratory and Duo Interpretation) and a bid to compete at the Grand National Tournament in Appleton, Wisconsin where all three did well, but did not "octofinal" or go on to place nationally. In 2009, Parkersburg High School was awarded third place overall at the State Tournament behind Wheeling Park High School and Huntington High School. At the Qualifying tournament, two PHS team members were selected as alternates for the 2009 National Tournament. Also in 2009, Senior Speech Captain Valerie Price was named PHS's first All American by the National Forensic League, the oldest and largest speech and debate honor society in the nation. All Americans are students with exceptional combined achievements in GPA, Test Scores and NFL (National Forensics League) points earned through performance at tournaments. In 2010, Parkersburg High School was awarded third place overall at the State Tournament. In 2017, six of Parkersburg High School's students qualified at the state level and went on to compete in the Catholic League Grand National Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. They competed in Declamation, Original Oratory, Duo Interpretation, and Public Forum Debate.