GP Deca went off to competition on Jan 7. With many teams and individual competitors for the area competition GP had its work cut out for them. With that being said 35 of 66 kids who went and competed for GP qualified for the state competition. This was the first in-person area competition for all current GP students besides the seniors. Being back in person had the stakes higher than last year.

“My favorite part of area is the same every year which is the awards and seeing how excited kids are when they placed” Alicia Sents said.

“When we are competing we are locked in, honestly when we get in the room there are no nerves,” Jack Allman said.

“Justin Yormark convinced me to join Deca, it was really cool to be awarded one of the top testers in our area it definitely helped us qualify,” Trevor Butler said.

“Justin and I went crazy in our roleplays you could say we are D1 talents,” Butler said.

“Yeah we have made state all 4 years, call it a sweep,” Allman said.

“It really is a mentality that you will come out with a win, the ultimate goal is to go to ICDC (international) but we have yet to make it to the next level which is the goal for this year,” Jordan Yandila said.

“the community, getting to build a comunity here at GP by meeting new people at the deca den,” Yandila said.

“I was shocked, amazed, happy, excited, it really showed my hard work of prepping everyone pay off, I mean 35 of 66 kids is very impressive,” Sents said.

“Being able to dress up in your suit and being professional and being able to compete and than go on stage is easily my favorite part of Deca,” Allman said.

The 35 students that qualified now will get ready to compete at the state level in hopes of making it to ICDC (International career development conference).