By PAT NEWMAN
pnewman@thecitizennews.com

J.C. Booth's Science Olympiad team is going for its fifth national championship this week during competition in Cheney, Wash.

Accompanied by veteran coach Mary Wilde, the students flew west Monday for some educational sight-seeing and warm-up exercises before the 23-event tournament begins Thursday.

Rising Starr Middle School and McIntosh High School also sent teams to the prestigious competition where more than 2,000 students will demonstrate their academic, scientific and mechanical skills in events such as battery buggy, chemistry lab, road scholar and metric mastery at Eastern Washington University.

All three schools took top honors at the state level in March and competed in last year's round in Chicago.

For Booth, participation in the National Science Olympiad has become a ritual part of spring. Wilde and her students have competed for 11 years, winning first place for four consecutive years.

Wilde says the key to her team's success is teamwork and consistency. “Teacher turnover is very high,” she said, observing the dropout rate among other coaches. Wilde says she continues to train the team year after year because of the support she receives from parents and the fact that training for the olympiad is genuinely fun.

She attends a summer camp each year to refocus her energies for the next year's competition and renew her enthusiasm for the time-consuming task of working with about 10 new team members. “There are always new kids,” she said. One of the first things Wilde does is work with the students to develop a successful social framework. This is accomplished through activities outside of routine practices, like picnics and school sleep-overs.

The Booth students usually compete in all 23 events, giving them an edge over other teams that may select only a few events. A cumulative score determines the top team, Wilde explained.

She noted that the competition level is “much more difficult, even within the state competitions. The quality [of competition] is much higher,” Wilde said.

Chris Taylor, a ninth grader at McIntosh, is competing for the fourth time this year for Booth. He agreed with Wilde.

“The teams are getting better,” he admitted, while reviewing astronomy data on the classroom computer. Two teams in particular, Thomas Jefferson Middle School from Valparaiso, Ind. and El Rancho Middle School from Anaheim, Calif., have an ongoing friendly rivalry with Booth, according to Taylor. “They usually stay at the same hotel as we do. They are extremely nice and last year ended up cheering for us.”

Prior to the competition, Taylor said participating students get to socialize and gather for a swap meet of sorts where state-related souvenirs are exchanged. He likes to take Braves Tomahawks made of foam. “License plates are popular and so are inflatable cows from Wisconsin,” he added.

Wilde spent Friday afternoon making some last minute adjustments with Linda Ketsche and Priscilla Roberts for their chemistry event, while Derrick Faunce reviewed data for their competitions.

These four students, along with their teammates, have spent an average of one and a half hours a week preparing for the Olympiad, not to mention weekends.

The results of this year's event will be posted Saturday upon announcement of the judges. For news of Booth's challenge to retain the national championship, plus Rising Starr and McIntosh results, check The Daily Citizen Online at http://thecitizennews.com.