On September 10th, Mr. Greg Shields, an eighth-grade United States history teacher at Springville Junior High school, started a competition for his students to memorize the states and say them as fast as possible. He held a mini-competition in each of his classes, and the top three students that defeated all the other students went to the finals. He called the competition the “Sweet 16” because there are 16 finalists. The finalists were Amanda Schultz, Katie Ashton, Zac Camara, Kenya Rodriguez, Morgan Ammons, Raini Couch, Elyse Hanks, Shelby Christensen, Joseph Cieslewicz, Tasha Wagstaff, Chyeann Peterson, Mitch Miller, Nicole Plowman, John Whitney, Mark Ohman, and Kelsie Taylor.
These finalists practiced and studied hard for the competition, but only one could be the winner. Some of the Sweet 16 students said they didn’t study at all. It came down to Amanda and Shelby, but Amanda ended up beating Shelby by only a few points. Amanda was congratulated with the fact that she was this year’s eighth-grade champion of the states; she also received a restaurant gift certificate to the Art City Trolley restaurant in Springville.
Amanda then had to compete against Nicole Dallin, last year’s champion, to see who would win. Nicole tried her best, but since she hasn’t practiced the states recently like Amanda has, Amanda pulled ahead and beat last year’s champion. The next competitor was Mr. Shields himself. Amanda and Mr. Shields put up a great battle, and Amanda barely won. Amanda was the ultimate champion for this year, but next year there would be a new eighth-grade student to compete against her.
Amanda said that she was “kind of nervous sometimes” when she competed. The other students in Mr. Shields’s classes liked competing and thought it was a great idea. Mr. Shields has been doing this competition for six or seven years now and wants to keep doing it through the years. The reason he does the competition instead of just making the students study is so they have more fun and try harder with memorizing the states. Mr. Shields said, “Usually the winners are students who study and practice and put in the time needed to learn the states. They also practice at home.” So for all you seventh-grade students, you might want to start practicing if you want to be the champion of your eighth-grade U.S. history class.