For the third time in the past four years, the Gross Catholic High School decathlon team in Bellevue has qualified for an online national competition.
The team recently took an art and essay test. They'll take the rest of the test online on April 26th.
The team is dedicated. They spend their lunch hour studying.
"Once first semester is over, they come in during their lunch period and study material," said the team's coach, Teresa Dorwart.
And the studying doesn't stop there. "I study outside of the classroom as well. I have my binder at home just because it's big and heavy, and it's harder to carry back and forth everyday so I have it at home, and I'll read a section or two a week," said team member Emma Ryder.
The team of twelve students qualified for the online national competition at the state tournament in February. Mount Michael took first place overall in the state tournament and will go to a national competition, but Gross won the medium school division.
At the state competition, they had to give speeches and conduct interviews with professionals in the business community. Over the two days, they also took objective tests and a super quiz. This year's topic was WWII.
"It's fun to learn about what went on at World War II," said team member Luke Blankman, "I think it's a very interesting subject."
The students took a trip to New Orleans this year and went to a WWII museum. They also become eligible for scholarships.
Their coach is proud of their work and wishes them the best when they compete in the national competition, "I just think it's great that these kids represent our school academically and are so successful at it."
