Fourteen Saint Stephen’s students attended the National Junior Classical League at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, this summer to compete against more than 1200 Latin language enthusiasts from all across America. The team didn’t come back empty-handed. They brought back many wins — all placed within the top 25, and sophomore Joseph Class and freshman MaryAnn Placheril won first place in one of their categories.

At the competition, students took tests for various Latin subjects, including mythology, Latin and Greek derivatives, reading comprehension and Latin and Greek vocabulary. Other options included creating art projects, playing certamen and participating in sporting events.

For the thirteenth year, Upper School Latin teacher Mr. Geoff Revard helped prepare his students for the competition.

“We have files that they can use to study from, old tests to study from, and books. I’ll give them some advice over the course of the summer on what they do, but for the most part they do it themselves,” Revard said.

Revard coached students for the certamen team this year.

“They met on a weekly basis, sometimes more than once a week in the course of the summer.” He said, “We would play with buzzers for several hours, talking about the types of questions.”

Revard said the school overall performed very well.

“One always hopes to win, but realistically one also looks at where you think they’ll probably place. We had a lot of kids who ended up in the top 10 and several in the top five. Everyone finished in the top 25,” he said.

One student, Class, studied Greek on his own over the course of the year.

Class said he dove into the language beginning the third interim of last year.

“I decided to learn Greek because I really like learning languages. I was learning Latin, so I thought it’d be cool to learn Greek,” he said.

Revard said that Class’s achievments were all received by his own dedicated work.

“I helped him here and there, but he studied himself. Didn’t matter the level, he was better than anyone who took the test,” Revard said.

Class took many tests, including geography, grammar and the Greek language. He placed first in geography and Greek language and also won best in show for Greek language.

Sophomore Ethan Leuchter prepared for several tests, including history, in which he placed third.

“I worked at the world series of certamen, where grownups and teachers competed, went to assembly and ate an excessive amount of Taco Bell,” he said.

Class and Leuchter were on the level two certamen team that recieved fourth place.

Placheril participated on the national team as well. She competed in the grammar, reading comprehension, Latin and Greek derivatives and Latin vocabulary categories. She also served as the certamen team captain.

Placheril placed in the top 10 for each of her tests, including a first place win in reading comprehension and fourth in the grammar competition.

Placheril said nationals was unlike she had expected.

“I didn’t think it would be that much fun. There was a lot of work, but it didn’t feel like work because it was with fun people doing fun things.”

The Vice President for the National Junior Classical League for Florida, senior Tiag Bhamber, was a key figure in facilitating the spirit of the Florida delegation.

“Every day we would go into this huge auditorium space, and there would basically be a huge pep rally. It would last for 15 minutes, where we would do nonstop cheers and dances,” he said. “It’s a whole lot of fun teaching people cheers and encouraging spirit throughout all of Florida, so spirit is big at nationals.”

Bhamber said he always has high expectations for Nationals.

“This year was above and beyond for me personally because I got to serve as vice president for Florida. So especially with regards to spirit and meeting new people, Nationals was an excellent experience.”

Senior Ashley Peterson was a competitor in the mythology and Latin literature tests and placed 13th in both. She said the actual competition was a bit intimidating.

“You’re in this huge auditorium, and when you’re taking tests, you can see all these people around you. The tests are really long because they’re 100 questions,” she said.

Peterson said you become good friends with students from the local schools in Florida as well as students from out of state. She said the competition was very fun and perhaps even more so than in previous years.

Peterson explained the difference between nationals, regionals, and states.

“At regionals, [Saint Stephen’s] dominates,” she said. “The other schools around us aren’t that into Latin. States is always harder because Florida is one of the best states that goes to nationals. We’re playing the people that become national champions, so that’s a lot more stressful, and you can also play certamen.”

Peterson added that at nationals there is greater competition; however, it’s more relaxing because there are many fun events along with spirit.

As the old saying goes — the more work you put into something, the happier you will be in the end. This proved true for the Saint Stephen’s Latin team as they each placed in at least one of their categories. Peterson said such results were acquired through assiduous work, but that also brought a bounty of memorable experiences.

“We met a lot of people from other states, and it was really fun to talk to them, even though you’re competing against them. Overall [it was] a really good experience.”