[5] The 1,100 students in grades 9 and 10 that attended the school at its start were asked to pick a mascot: an eagle, thunder, rough riders or a pride of lions, which won out.

[9] Mountain Pointe enforces a closed-campus policy and has since its inception,[5] in which ninth, tenth, and eleventh graders may not leave campus without an adult checking them out for the day.

Seniors are only permitted to leave campus with a special ID which can only be obtained with a signed and notarized parent permission form.

[10] This change comes after a ruling in which all six of the Tempe Union district schools did not meet the Arizona standards for required classroom time.

A major criticism of traditional schedule is the loss of an academic lab, a 45–minute study hall, which allowed each student to travel to one teacher for extra help.

[citation needed] Mountain Pointe competes in the annual Ahwatukee Bowl, a Friday-night football game against Desert Vista.

[29] The football team won the Division I Arizona State Championship by defeating defending champions Chandler Hamilton 42–19 on November 30, 2013.