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Smoky Mountain HOSA students take three medals at national competition

By Lynn Hotaling
Local students once again brought home multiple medals from a national competition.

Smoky Mountain High's CPR/First Aid team of recent graduates Cassie Akers and Stacey Williams won first place in the nation during the Health Occupations Students of America competition last month in Cleveland. Akers' and Williams' win gives SMHS a "threepeat" in CPR gold and marks the fourth time in five years the local school has garnered top honors in the CPR category, said longtime SMHS health occupations teacher Frances Hess, who accompanied the students to the event. SMHS captured the silver medal in CPR/First Aid as well. The second-place award went to rising seniors Elizabeth Shearer and Trudy Allison.

Rising sophomore Michael Ayers took the school's third medal, a bronze in Sports Medicine.

SMHS had two other top 10 finishes at the national event: the HOSA Bowl team of recent graduates Anna Dills and Adam Higgs and rising seniors Briana Bumgarner and Vanessa Whidden; and rising senior Baron Fulk in Rescue Breathing/First Aid. Other students who competed in Cleveland are rising senior Lauren Allen and recent graduates Kim Hoyle and Makeeda Rivers.

Some 4,000 students from across the country competed for the awards, said Hess.

"We had a good time and learned a lot," she said. "I'd like to thank the kids for their hard work. They put in a lot of hours and a lot of studying."

Most of the categories require both a written test and a skills test, Hess said.

Accompanying this year's group was 1999 SMHS graduate Michael Donadio, who served as state HOSA president this year. Donadio and fellow 1999 graduate Katy Moore took the gold medal in CPR/First aid at last year's competition in Nashville, Tenn.

Also with this year's group was SMHS graduate Katrina Gates, a former gold medalist and former state HOSA officer. With Shearer's election as HOSA's state secretary, Hess said, this will be the fourth straight year SMHS has had a state officer. Shearer, who won a bronze medal in 1999, will no longer be eligible to compete.

Others who traveled to Cleveland with the students were Linda Fisher, health occupations teacher at SMHS, and her husband, Lyman; Robbie Hess, resource officer at Blue Ridge and SMHS football trainer, who worked extensively with Ayers to prepare for the Sports Medicine competition; Marcia Johnson; and Lisa Shearer.

Hess expressed her appreciation to all those in the community who supported the group's fund-raisers and helped make it possible for the students to compete in Cleveland.

Back to Archive: 07/13/00.