Cove students advance to state DECA contest

Special to Leader-Press

Fifty-four students from the Copperas Cove High School DECA program have advanced to state competition next month in Dallas after qualifying at the District V competition this past weekend.
DECA is a career and technical education student organization and one of the largest student organizations at Cove High School, with 212 members. Twenty-two high schools in the Central Texas region with more than 1,200 students competed, with only 485 advancing to the next level of competition. 
Ariana Wilson, CCHS DECA Vice President, was not new to the competition knew what to expect.
“I was pretty confident going into competition because my team members, Ashley Wilson, Joshua Pettit, and I put in hours and hours of practice, working to perfect our presentation,” Wilson said. “Since I am a second-year competitor, I was not nervous. After we finished I was very proud of how we did, and I am definitely ready to compete at state, advance to the international contest and win some DECA (awards).” 
CCHS marketing teacher Charlotte Heinze serves as the DECA adviser and was pleased to see 54 of her 55 students advance to the state contest.
 “I am so excited that our students see the value in going above and beyond our traditional curriculum and choosing to compete against other Texas business and marketing students.” Heinze said. “This is an experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”
District V DECA Vice President and CCHS junior Ashley Wilson passed her gavel to her successor as she prepares to run for state office.  
“Going into district competition this year, I was both excited and nervous to compete. However, I took a moment to reflect and decided that I wasn’t going to compete against others. Instead, I was going to compete against myself and do better than I did last year,” Wilson said. “After advancing to state, my thoughts are again exactly the same, to work harder, practice more and do better than I did at the district level in hopes of advancing to nationals. I strive for be perfection, but I must always remember that nobody is perfect and there are always room for improvements.”