MADISON – Hard work and dedication paid off for members of Latin Club at James Clemens High School at the state Latin Convention.

“Courtney Steele has been the acting Communications Coordinator for the state’s Junior Classical League. She has done an amazing job and help run events at convention in her role as a state officer,” Allison Shratter said. Shratter teaches Latin at James Clemens.

Thomas Garrigan earned two first-place awards – one for advanced geography and another for advanced Roman and Greek history. Lily Ross took the third-place award for level 2 derivatives.

“We received second place in our round of certamen (which is like Scholar’s Bowl with Latin questions), so we didn’t make it to finals, but we have improved each year,” Shratter said. “Participants in certamen were Thomas Garrigan, Courtney Steele, Alex Babineaux and Savanna Rivers.”

Some students from other schools “were scared to face off against James Clemens,” Shratter said jokingly.

Savanna Rivers claimed first place for the state convention T-shirt. Rivers designed and drew the artwork based on the convention theme of Hercules and his 12 Labors.

“The first-place Roll Call included a joint effort by Sarah Cooley and Ashleigh White. They had to introduce our school with an amusing skit in under one minute. Ashleigh killed it with her ukulele, and Sarah killed it with her comedic timing,” Shratter said.

Sarah Cooley earned a slot in the top five for both costume contest entries and Mythology Bee. Reagan Rawls nabbed first place in 3-D art with a mosaic of the constellation of Hercules.

Winners of various Olympiad events included Reagan Rawls, Ashleigh White, Courtney Steele and Starling Devine. “The whole group got third place in the hula hoop pass,” Shratter said.

“We also have the best standard in the state, designed by Lily Ross and sewn by Sarah Dickerson last school year. It has a jet on the top of it (and usually Caesar),” Shratter said.

In addition, students participated in a service project that the Alabama Junior Classical League coordinated. Students held a spot at the agora and distributed Latin Valentines, completed Latin puzzles to conquer break-out boxes and created art based on classical themes.

“This group was awesome, and we had so much fun,” Shratter said. “Congratulate them on a job well done! (We also made ‘Snap into a Jim Clem’ in the style of Randy Savage. Maybe that will catch on.)”