Take a bow…

On Saturday, seventeen very dedicated 5th graders from Davisburg set off to Stony Creek High School in Rochester for their very first Division III Math Pentathlon  state competition.  This group of students have met after school weekly since January to prepare for the competition.  These Pentathletes learned and strategized the five  different problem solving Math Pentathlon games that they would face at the competition.

The gymnasium was filled with over 600 Pentathletes from the Michigan-Ohio center. Seventeen of those kids were ours.  It was inspiring to look out over the sea of children playing their games, strategizing, respectfully challenging, puzzling, and shaking hands with their opponents once the game was through. It was neat to watch them out of their element, matched up with competitors outside of our Holly world. Between games they shared their triumphs with pride, and their losses with grace.

I know that their biggest cheerleaders (and teachers)- Julianne Strong and Stephanie Creasey were keeping pretty close tabs on how the kids were doing throughout the day. When it came time for the awards ceremony at the conclusion of the games, I have never seen 600 4th and 5th graders sit so still awaiting their final scores.  The awardees were called up by category by Math Pentathlon co-founders Dr. John del Regato and Dr.  Mary Gilfeather and were asked to “take a bow”. There were tears, it was touching.

For Davisburg’s first showing at Math Pentathlon the children did amazing. You never know how our students stack up to their peers, and they showed that they were there to represent, and can hold their own. We brought home some hardware. Not bad for our first go at it.

Congrats to our 17 Davisburg Pentathletes. Take a bow.