Five students from the South DECA team placed in the top 10 in the State contest.  Junior Evan Offutt and senior Ali Ballester placed seventh in the Marketing Communication Team Decision Event; senior Dom Esparrago placed sixth in the Food Marketing Series Event; senior Brady Anderson and sophomore Nick Wissel placed ninth in the Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Event.  

The DECA students competed at the Marriott on Metcalf March 7 for 6 hours Sunday, 8 hours Monday and 3 hours Tuesday.

“It was a very satisfying feeling for something special. When you place in the top 10 in Kansas it feels really good to know that the work you did really paid off for something you may want to have a career in,”  Offutt said.

While they placed in the top 10 in State, no one was able to advance to Regionals.

“We took a written marketing test with 100 questions, and had two roleplays that we had to make up on the spot with judges that were in business that are in KC,”  Anderson said.

Besides competing in contests, DECA has an annual staff basketball game at Shawnee Mission West that the students set up each year.  They ask businesses for raffle donations. Every year DECA donates the money raised in the raffle and other events to different charities.