Cleburne Times-Review, Cleburne, TX

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December 20, 2009

Loflin students rack up impressive UIL academic victory

By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com

In the final analysis, it takes intelligent students to win a University Interscholastic League academic meet.

Loflin Middle School, among the many recognized campuses in Joshua ISD, has the right children. It proved it by winning the quad-county middle school academic meet last week with 354 points over Crowley Stevens, 288; Cleburne Smith, 286; Crowley Summer Creek, 285; Burleson Hughes, 268; Cleburne Wheat, 227; Crowley, 157, and Burleson Kerr, 86).

But it takes more than smarts. It requires passionate teachers and a school district that is passionate about academic success.

It also takes students who hunger for success in a competitive environment.

“It’s amazing, even at this level, how competitive kids are,” said Rachel Bosworth, one of Loflin’s academic event coaches. “Competition drives a lot of them.”

“You get to show the kids who are stars in athletics that you can be a star, too, just in a different way,” said Staci Gregory, the school’s UIL coordinator.

This is the second straight year Loflin has won the quad-county title.

The recipe for victory involves the entire school district.

UIL begins in elementary grades, though on a local instead of quad-county level.

“We have mock UIL in our elementary schools,” Gregory said. “The five schools come together and compete. That helps prepare those kids for UIL academic when they get to middle school. And the teachers send me lists of kids who participated in elementary school, so I have a good pool to draw from. The kids have been exposed to it and know what to expect.”

What they get is challenging.

In middle school seventh- and eighth-graders can compete in science; social studies; charts and graphs; listening skills; dictionary skills; prose reading; poetry reading; math, using no paper or calculators; improvisational speaking; and impromptu speaking, in which they have three to five minutes to write a speech and present it to a panel of judges.

Each school is represented in each event by three contestants and an alternate.

Becoming one of the four representatives takes talent.

“The students try out for events,” Gregory said. “I go out and ask for help from coaches like Rachel, who’s in charge of listening skills. I give them all the information they need on how the event is run and how it’s graded or judged. Each event has a coach. Each coach comes up with criteria for selecting the students. The coaches announce when they’re going to have tryouts. There will be four different times.”

Student body response is impressive, Gregory said.

“The response is better than you’d think for this age level and considering seventh graders are new to middle school. In eighth-grade impromptu speaking, we didn’t have anyone try out. When that happens I’ll encourage coaches to poll the eighth-grade reading and writing teachers to see if they have any students they think would be good in the event. Then I’ll go talk to the students.”

“I did seventh- and eighth-grade listening skills,” Bosworth said. “Because I’m an eighth-grade teacher, I didn’t know the seventh-graders. So I had to get with seventh-grade reading teachers and ask who would be good candidates. They gave me some names, and I talked to those kids.

“We had a little less response from eighth-graders this year because of an overlapping basketball tournament, but we still had enough to make it work. We get a good mix of boys and girls.”

Most students need no prodding to try out, Gregory said.

“They come on their own, especially in eighth grade. They just want to know when tryouts are. Some of the seventh-graders are the same way because they’ve been exposed to it in elementary. Then they come back from the contest and tell their friends how much fun it was. That gets other kids interested.”

What the students gain in return for competing is part of a day away from school and social time with their friends.

“It’s meant to be fun,” Bosworth said. “Competition doesn’t have to be crazy.”

“The events don’t last very long, so the kids have a lot of time to socialize, something they don’t have a lot of time to do at school,” Gregory added.

Their impressive triumph was broadcast over the Loflin loud speaker. There were surely smiles when second-place Stevens was announced as being 88 points behind.

“When they gave us the points and showed us the point spread,” Gregory said, “I was like, ‘Wow!’ We didn’t just win by the skin of our teeth.”

Text Only
Loflin students rack up impressive UIL academic victory
by By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com , , Sun Dec 20, 2009, 11:03 AM CST
Cleburne ISD
Alvarado ISD
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Burleson ISD
Godley ISD
Grandview ISD
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Joshua ISD
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Keene ISD
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Rio Vista ISD
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