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CTE UIL Law Enforcement, Firefighting and EMT teams competed at the state competition the weekend of Feb. 24 in Houston at Lone Star University. Three out of the four teams that competed for Law won 1st. Fire agility team, fire agility individual and the EMT team won 2nd.
“I just want to say the LHS Law Enforcement Team is amazing, and I am so honored and proud to be a part of their team,” Law team adviser Michael Tatum said.
The law team competed in four events. For team events, a six man team for cell extraction with Willow Collins, Loreily Mejia, Jason Brock, Lena Jefferies, Connor Ferreira and Jon Harris. A four man team, Felony Traffic Stop with Lena Jefferies, Jason Brock, Bryce Neeley and Lilian Stephen. For individual events, intoxicated driver with Connor Ferreira and Lilian Stephen, and fingerprinting with Loreily Mejia and Finn Miller. Cell extraction, felony traffic stop and Finn Miller in fingerprinting won 1st place.
“Everyone gave it their all, and it worked out,” co-captain of the team junior Lena Jefferies said.
Fire competed in fire agility team with Tony Carey, Joseph Walden, JD Obeda and Justin Matousm fire agility individual, bunker gear and search and rescue. The Fire Agility team won second place. Matous won 2nd place in fire agility individual. Adviser Steve Haviland’s Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) won 2nd place.
“I’m happy with our performance and results, especially going against programs that have been around for many more years than LHS,” Haviland said.
With half the team graduating next year, Tatum is searching for new recruits and altering the ranks of the team.
“I will be adding a Chief of Police who will be overseeing everything that we do as a team,” Tatum said.
Haviland will be changing the difficulty and scenarios for his teams, and focusing on certain aspects that are necessary to place.
“Strength and conditioning for my fire teams and just general knowledge for my EMT team,” Haviland said.
This is some of the seniors third year in a row going to state, but for senior co-captain Jason Brock this is the first time coming home with two medals, one for cell extraction and one for felony traffic stop.
“I’m awestruck that this is it, it’s over,” Brock said. “But I’m very happy to end it with a bang.”
The law team also added many new events this year: intoxicated driver, fingerprinting, and cell extraction, and as they won first in two of these brand new events, everyone is very excited for the year to come.
“I believe the returning team members will be a big part of taking the team to state next year,” Tatum said.
This is the second year Haviland has had a Fire and EMT team, and they faced multiple challenges throughout the year, and Haviland has found a plan to help these issues.
“More workouts for fire and harder scenarios for EMT”
This is the last competition the team will compete in until next year. So many of the seniors are staying hopeful for the future team next year.
“For the ones moving on next year, bring us some more plaques,” Brock said.
Students Prepare For State
Fighter Fighting, EMT and Law Enforcement UIL teams competed in state competitions Feb. 24. Lots of time and preparation were put into practices over the last couple of weeks to prepare.
After placing in regionals Dec. 9, all the teams and individuals that placed felt more motivated and prepared for each event.
“They felt great,” firefighting and EMT advisor Ted Haviland said. “They felt accomplished. They felt like they were winners. We all did and we all felt like winners. They worked hard and they’re still working hard.”
Fighter fighting teams focused on their agility course and finding faster ways to finish the course as well as fixing any mistakes that were made during their single events.
“I have been doing agility course and dummy drag, the
things that I do in single course, so I can get better at the competition and hopefully get second or third,” senior Gunner Rhymes said.
The EMT team has been focusing on fixing any mistakes they made at regionals by practicing real-life scenarios on their manikins and treating them as if they were competing at state
.
According to senior Abigail Bell, in their competition, any scenario could be presented at the competition
“We’ve been going over all the mistakes and making sure we are ready and prepared for anything,” senior Benjamin Ybarra said.
The Law Enforcement Team spent the last couple of weeks critiquing one another and fine-tuning their techniques for single events. As for group events, many team members felt confident in their final runs before the competition.
“I’ve been mostly fine-tuning my fingerprinting and learning how to dust properly and quickly to be able to get the prints from fading away,” senior Finn Miller said. “Overall, mostly fine-tuning my skills.”
Despite everything going well, an unexpected event happened when Law Team advisor Micheal Tatum suffered a heart attack Feb. 12, the week before the competition. While the team was worried ab
out their teacher, they were able to push through because team captains Lena Jeffries and Jason Brock kept them on track and focused on their events.
“I don’t think my absence from school created any setbacks, “ Tatum said. “The students left in charge do a great job making sure the training gets completed.”
As for the EMT team, they faced minor setbacks due to students having other responsibilities such as school work and jobs.
“There were days where we have to do our actual school work or [have] trouble scheduling practice since people have work or this and that,” Ybarra said. “It hasn’t really held us back, but we could have h
ad more days to practice.”
In the face of hardship, the teams stayed positive and determined to bring back medals, they soon found that their hard work paid off.
“I mean I could probably speak for everyone that we are all excited,” Ybarra said. “It’s a big deal for everyone. It’s something that we have been talking about since the beginning of the year and realizing that we won at regionals and how far we’ve come.”
