Thirty-six FHS students, including both qualifiers and alternates, will compete at the Regional Academic UIL competition this Saturday at Blinn College in Brenham.
“The ultimate benefit [of UIL] is the ability to not only make a commitment, but also have the discipline to work, study, and show up (and hopefully show out) when others feel as if it is too hard or want to just ‘chill’ and do nothing,” coordinator Nanceen Hoskins said. “These individuals are putting in the time and effort to represent this school, and they are doing an awesome job without the fanfare, without the pep rallies – they are the quiet heroes who are going to do what is necessary regardless of the accolades or lack thereof.”
Overall, the school placed first with a total of 671 points (which was exactly 338 points above the second-place school) and had students advance in almost all the events.
“Qualifying my freshman year motivates me to achieve the same in the next three years,” Paisley Robinson said. “Advancing as a freshman among seniors is a significant accomplishment, and if I continue improving my efforts, I can expect to advance in my fields of competition.”
The students that will be heading to the Regional UIL competition are freshmen Aaron Evans, Owen Lane, Hudson Little, and Paisley Robinson; sophomores Jack Bean, Noah Hoskins, Antonio Jauregui, Yahir Yepez, Tevin Eam, Adalyn Peterson, Anderson Cruce, Kaden McCrory, Devin McNeil, Skyler Cook, Evelyn Fultz, and Bry Willis; juniors Connor Colvert, Mason Edwards, Laiken Carlson, Blake Philips, Callie Morgan, Bethany George, Mason Copeland, and Bailey Holland; and seniors Alfonso Rodriguez, Tiffany Jauregui, Connor Petty, Mayrin Espinoza, Preston Scott, Lydia Morgan, Brayden Haley, Kynzee Payne, Luke Cruce, Newton Hartley, Claire Guillotte, and Carolyn Dunlap.
“UIL Academics is an outlet for students who possess skills to show off what they can accomplish whether it’s public speaking, math, Current Events, writing,” Davin Davis said. “Everyone has a gift in an area, [and] UIL allows those students to put those gifts to use if they choose to do so.”
The faculty staff that volunteered to coach these students and helped them advance are Nanceen Hoskins (Spelling and Ready Writing), Kathie Maciel (Journalism, LD Debate, and Literary Criticism), Stacy Bachtel (Prose and Poetry Interpretation), Nicole Crawford (Informative and Persuasive Speaking), Elizabeth Collier (CX Debate), Davin Davis (Accounting and Computer Science), Katie Wade (Current Issues and Events), Chris Owen (Mathematics and Number Sense), Gay Lynn Swan (Calculator Applications), Cheryl Stone (Science), and James Nutt (Social Studies). This year’s coordinators were Mrs. Hoskins and Mrs. Maciel.
“The most challenging experience for me is the amount of work and prep the coordinator must do before each meet, during the meet, and then after the meet,” Nanceen Hoskins said. “Trying to coordinate over 50 students, over 25 events, and about 8 Academic coaches along with various locations, buses/suvs, meals, and snacks takes a lot of time and organizational skills.”
In the STEM events, the Number Sense team placed first with 284 points, beating the second-place team by more than 100 points; The Accounting team placed first with 406 points; The Computer Science team placed first with 611 points; the Science team placed first with 402 points; and the Calculator Application team and the Mathematics team placed second.
“I enjoy working with [the students] because when they have a question we have to work through the issue together,” accounting and computer science coach Davin Davis said. “We expand our knowledge past what our curriculum dictates through participating in UIL.”
In the other events, the Spelling team placed first with 181 points; the Current Issues and Events team placed first with 150 points; the Literary Criticism team placed first with 153 points; the Social Studies team placed second overall, and there was one student that placed in Ready Writing.
The journalism team placed first overall with a total of 135 points (72 points above the second place team). The journalism events include News Writing, Feature Writing, Editorial Writing, Headline Writing, and Copy Editing.
The speech team placed second overall, but had students place in Persuasive Speaking, Informative Speaking, Lincoln Douglas Debate, and Poetry Interpretation.
