On February 23, 2013, the Jaguar Junior Classical League competed in the area JCL Competition held at Garland High School. FMHS students received high placements in some of the most difficult divisions – decathlon and geography – and fared better than a majority of the collective schools.
Currently, 13 JCL students will compete in the state competition, most of whom placed in the area competition. In area, Connor Douthitt placed first in Greek history and geography, with Luke Bang coming in second in history and Michael Weingartner in fifth for geography. Also, Lei Lei Liu placed third in the decathlon, coming behind second-place Gabriel and beating Alex Oh, who placed fourth. FMHS JCL president Divya Narayanan placed third in Roman life and Sangjin Shin placed fourth in grammar.
“We have always done well in the Latin competitions,” Latin teacher Adam Sales said. “Since I began teaching here, I have seen at least one FMHS student go to the national JCL tournament. The students do well in most of the divisions, both academic and creative.”
At the state JCL tournament, which will be held on April 12 and 13 at Marcus High School, the academic divisions will consist of competitions for Latin speech recitation, geography, grammar, and even mythology.
“The academic portions of the tournament are exceptionally difficult,” Taylor said, “namely because you don’t really know what the given tests may consist of which means studying for it can be hard.”
On the Friday of the two day competition, creative events like art, vocal music, costume events, and even theatrical interpretations of Latin poetry are held. The academic multiple choice tests given on Saturday, like the decathlon, history, and geography, take about two hours.
“We always compete with Marcus and Hebron on a personal level, far more than we do the other schools,” Sales said. “We try to achieve on the same level they do, but it can be difficult because they usually have more students participating than we do.”
Despite the lack of Flower Mound participation, Sales prepared the students in-class with a variety of work and lessons pertaining to the scholastic and creative events held at the competition along with the day’s instructions.
The competitions not only help Latin students test their knowledge of the language against students their level, but build relationships with students from across the state while competing in a plethora of competitive events.
