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Local students shine at national HOSA competition

By Lynn Hotaling
Ayers Ayers For the 14th year in a row, a local high school has brought home at least one gold medal from the national Health Occupations Students of America competition.

This year's first-place winner was Smoky Mountain senior Michael Ayers, who placed first in the nation in Sports Medicine.

Other SMHS top 10 finishers at this summer's national event in Anaheim, Calif., were senior Becky Jo Patterson, who placed 10th in Medical Math; and 2002 graduates Shawn Blanton, Amanda Morgan and Jodie Tollie. Blanton and Morgan placed fourth in CPR/First Aid and Tollie was eighth in Physical Therapy.

Patterson Patterson "Smoky Mountain is known nationally through the outstanding performance of its students year after year. The kids have a great opportunity through HOSA," said former SMHS teacher Frances Hess, who sponsored last year's HOSA chapter along with Linda Fisher, another former SMHS health occupations teacher.

"North Carolina won only three gold medals in Anaheim, and SMHS had one," Hess said.

To win the competition, Ayers, who placed third in 2000 and fourth in 2002, had to place in the top 20 on a written exam and then excel in skills competition. Blanton, Morgan and Tollie also had to compete in both written tests and demonstrate practical skills.

Patterson's competition was entirely written.

Some 4,000 students from around the United States took part in the competition, said Hess, who is now teaching at Cherokee High School after 17 years at SMHS.

Other SMHS students who qualified to compete in Anaheim were Kristin McAbee, Anita Shular, Natalie Blanton, Amber Bradley, Keri Upson, Jennifer Shuler, Samantha Blanton, Emily Ward, Amanda Morgan and Autumn Watson.

Adults who accompanied the group to the national event were Hess; Fisher and her husband, Lyman Fisher; former HOSA student Katrina Gates Coggins and her husband, Scotty Coggins; Pam McAbee and Pamela Morgan.

Students are already gearing up for this year's HOSA competition, said first-year SMHS health occupations teachers Brenda Bumgarner and Dean Hodde.

The first step will be regionals in December at Southwestern Community College. All who place first, second, third or fourth will go on to compete at the state level in Greensboro.

To qualify for national competition next June in Atlanta, students must place in the top three at the state contest.

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