In the last four years, it seems like Wayzata High School has gone through a lot of changes. They got rid of Ourtime, lunches are free, and the bathrooms have fewer and fewer stall doors. This made some wonder, how much has the school changed since 2005?

To get the perspective of what Wayzata High School was like in the early 00’s, Mr. Petterson (Class of ‘05) and Mr. Zylla (Class of ‘00) were interviewed.  For the modern students’ perspective Cole Anderson (Class of ‘26) and Sam Booh (Class of ‘26) were interviewed. With these perspectives we can gain an understanding of the average student experience at WHS in both 2005 and 2025. 

Quickly into these interviews, there were a lot of similarities between these two school experiences. Everyone interviewed participated in some kind of sport, club, or other extracurricular activity. In fact, the teachers that were interviewed both said that a reason why Wayzata is so great is because there’s such a wide variety of activities that anyone can participate in.

OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL

Something else that was interesting was outside of school, both the classes of 2005 and 2025 enjoy driving around with their friends. Additionally, both the classes of 2005 and 2025 drive the same kind of cars, with pickup trucks, sedans, and minivans being the most popular. Mr. Peterson even said that driving around with his friends were some of his favorite memories from high school.

WAYZATA FOOTBALL

However,  there were a lot of differences between our two school experiences. In the early 2000s, Wayzata Football was one of the best teams in the state, having made it to the state championship in both 2004 and 2005. Additionally, the team had some famous athletes, including the late Marion Barber III, who racked up almost two thousand rushing yards in his senior year. Mr. Zylla, who was the backup quarterback in 2000, remembers how he would hand the ball off to Barber and “let him do his thing.” Marion Barber would then go on to play for the Minnesota Gophers before being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, where he would play for five years before playing one year with the Chicago Bears.

Wayzata Football is currently 1-7 and entering the playoffs this Friday. They will be taking on Lakeville South High School (6-2). When talking to wideout Sam Booh about what he thinks about the team’s season so far, he said that there’s definitely some “room for improvement,” but as the season continues, “we are going to see that improvement.” Senior linebacker Cole Anderson said that the start to our season had been disappointing. However, like his teammates, he remains confident that they can turn it around and make a deep playoff run. 

MUSIC

When talking with Mr. Peterson and Mr. Zylla, they brought up the massive changes in clothes, music, and entertainment. According to them, whatever music was popular was the music played by Music Television, or MTV. Popular genres included rap music dominated by 50 Cent, Tupac, and Notorious B.I.G., and pop music dominated by Mariah Carey and Gwen Stefani. In contrast, modern students like Cole Anderson (2026) say that they have a much more “international” taste in music, with genres like K-pop being popular. 

FASHION

Clothing styles were also a massive area of change. Instead of Adidas and Nike, teenagers wore Vans, Etnies, and Birkenstocks. Athletes often wore their letter jackets and jerseys to school. Everyone “cool” wore Champion sweatshirts, Old Navy, and carpenter jeans. 

SCHOOL POLICY 

However, the biggest changes these alumni have seen over their teaching careers have been the changes in school policy. The biggest change in school rules has to be the “bell to bell” cellphone policy installed at the start of the year because students were spending excess time on their phones during class. Both Mr. Peterson and Mr. Zylla said that the school’s policy on cellphones is a net positive and that students benefit from spending more time face-to-face with their peers.

Our own Wayzata student body seems to have mixed opinions on the cellphone “ban,” with the students I interviewed either upset about the change or accepting them with reservations.

But not all of the changes in school policy have been negative. Cole Anderson (2026) says that the best change he’s seen in school policy was the start of the free breakfast and lunch program, which allows all Wayzata students to eat two meals a day for free. Anderson says that athletes benefit from the snacks provided in the morning, especially before game days.

RENOVATIONS

But this school hasn’t just changed policies, the building itself has been through dozens of changes since 2005. Mr. Peterson  recalls that when he went to school here, “There was no new A Wing” and “no back gyms,” and while this may be shocking for some, Mr. Zylla goes further, saying that back when he went to school here, the lunchroom barely covered a third of the area it does now. Mr. Peterson also said that before cellphones were widespread, students had to rely on payphones around the school to make calls. In this day and age, it’s hard to imagine our entire school relying on a phone bank for calls home.

Twenty years later, the school may be bigger and people may be different, but some of the same kinds of things that happened in 2005 are still happening today. Students are still talking in the halls, still eating in the lunchroom, and making the same memories that they did twenty years ago today.