Manatee County students earn more top 10 medals than any other district at TSA national competition

MANATEE -- Students from the Manatee County School District earned more top 10 medals than any other school district in the country during the National Technology Student Association competition last week.

A total of 175 Manatee middle and high school students competed in the 65 technology-based events at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.

According to district officials, the students brought home 14 first-place trophies, 15 second-place trophies, nine third-place trophies and 88 top-10 finishes.

"The results from this national competition are just a tiny reflection of the many, many great things going on here in Manatee County in our education system," said Doug Wagner, director of adult, career and technical Education.

Results from the 11 schools:

Haile Middle School, led by adviser Maureen Hudson, earned a school-record 20 top-10 finishes, including four first-place trophies in career prep, construction challenge, environmental focus and water infrastructure.

Nolan Middle School, led by advisers Justin Devine and Margi Nanny, also recorded 20 top-10 finishes and four first-place trophies in communication challenge, leadership strategies, medical tech issues and technical design.

Johnson Middle School, with advisers Hollis Bostic and Suzanne Jarrell, took first place in the dragster competition.

Braden River Middle, led by adviser Kyle Holbrook, earned second place in Tech Bowl.

Harllee Middle School and adviser Nathaniel Bostic placed in the top 10 in

promotional design.

Sugg Middle School, under adviser Charles Routhier, also competed.

In high school competition, Braden River High, led by advisers Gil Burlew, John Frank, David Sheppard and Bill Ferrell, clinched 12 top-10 finishes, including first place in engineering design.

Southeast High School, led by adviser Richard Platt, secured nine top-10 finishes, including first place in dragster design and third place in prepared presentation. 

Bayshore High, guided by adviser Pam Platt, picked up a first-place trophy in structural design.

Lakewood Ranch High, guided by advisers Ben Long, Irene Nikitopoulus and Greg McGrew, took second place in transportation modeling. 

Manatee High, led by adviser Patricia Harris, took fourth place in transportation modeling.

For Haile's first-year adviser Hudson, this year wasn't supposed to go nearly as well as it did. She had 28 students compete in 24 events.

"Next year was my year," she said. "My goal this year was to have the kids be as successful as they could be in their individual events."

But then the wins started to pile up.

And for Burlew, Braden River adviser, that's a good thing. Students from Haile and Nolan typically feed up into Braden River High. This year, Burlew's 32 students at nationals didn't do quite as well as they had in years past, he said.

"We beat ourselves. The little technicalities are what hurt us," he said. "But you learn a lot more from a loss than a win."

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee County students earn more top 10 medals than any other district at TSA national competition ."