Latin students recently competed at the Regional Classics Competition hosted by Holy Trinity. Certamin, meaning “contest” in Latin, is an event where students compete in academic questions, thematic performance competitions, competitions where students are asked to produce craft models, clothing, textiles. or mosaics. In addition, students take various written exams to compete against other schools.

West Shore’s Latin 1 and 2 teams each received second place under the direction of the new Latin teacher Timothy O’Flaherty.

“We basically recreated the conditions of the certamina in the classroom [to prepare for the competition,]” O’Flaherty said. “You train as you fight, so I went online and found a bunch of university-produced questions. I gave bonus points for answering the questions.”

Eighth-grader Alyssa H. led the Latin 2 team to achieve second place in its competition.

“Right before finals, we were so sure we didn’t make it because there was one team that got double our score,” Alyssa H. said. “When they announced we got second, I literally screamed.”

O’Flaherty said he was pleased with how his students performed.

“In the past when I did certamina in New England, where I am originally from, it took me 10 years to win a first-place trophy,” O’Flaherty said. “With these guys, it took 60 days of training to win a second-place trophy. It was pretty impressive.”

Twenty-five Latin students will travel to Orlando on April 7-9 to compete at the state level. If they win state, they will travel to Indiana University, O’Flaherty’s alma mater, to compete at nationals.

By Helen McSorley