by devon maloney
Fourteen business students competed in a LifeSmarts state competition on March 8 at Virginia State University. Of the eight teams competing, Marshall teams took second, fourth and fifth places. Two teams, the “Immortal Statesmen” and the “Statesmen 3 Taco Bueno” faced off in the semifinal round.
“Two teams … made it to the semi-finals and for the second year in a row [and] had to play against each other in those semi-finals,” said teacher-sponsor Rebekah Glasbrenner. “Talk about stressful!”
According to Glasbrenner, “the Immortal Statesmen won that battle and proceeded to the finals where they finished in second place, only by 20 points.”
Despite placing, the Immortal Statesmen, comprised of seniors Ben Bowie, Daniel Dallen, Ryan Barrett, Sam Travis and Luke Dziedzic, were unable to move on to the national level.
The competition took place in three rounds: a group online exam, a one-on-one faceoff and a group buzzer faceoff.
“Statesmen 3 TB” member Rahul Reddy, junior, said that “coming into the state competition we were very nervous and afraid because we had minimal practice with the buzzer system … but once we made the semis we were ecstatic to say the least.”
According to Reddy, going up against a fellow Marshall team “was very bittersweet.” Statesmen 3 TB, a team of all juniors, “plan on working hard and coming back next year.”
In a separate Pilot FBLA LifeSmarts partnership competition, Dziedzic and Dallen in one team and Barret and Bowie in a second both placed and qualified to advance.
“These two teams will be the only teams from Virginia to represent for the first ever FBLA LifeSmarts competition,” Glasbrenner said.