The Porter Spartan UIL Academic teams had a busy month, with back-to-back invitationals before they head off to the district competition on March 26 at Caney Creek. With two individual placements at Lake Creek, and then three individual and two team placements here at Porter, the UIL teams feel ready and are up to the challenge they are bound to face.

On Saturday, February 5, the Spartan UIL team went to Lake Creek High School to compete in an invitational. The teams stood up and were able to bag two placements in the competitions. For everyone who competed, it was a sign of growth, and preparation before the last invitational.

For the first time ever, the Spartan UIL teams hosted the competition here at Porter High School on February 19. With students competing and volunteering, everyone worked twice as hard with Mr. Levy to keep the competition going and still trying to bring in the gold for the PHS teams.

“I volunteered because it felt like it was the right thing to do, and while yes there were times that it was exhausting. It was fun to be involved while competing,” said Emily Serrano-Pineda.

Now with District less than a month away, many are preparing for the big competition at Caney Creek on March 26. With hopes to place and head to region, and then possibly state, everyone is set for success and ready to grow through these experiences.

“Our Current Issues & Events team, Spelling & Vocabulary, and Speech & Debate teams are all doing very well, picking up awards, just like they did at district last year,” said the UIL Sponsor, Mr. Justin Levy. “One of our big team goals this year was to get more students involved, we are doing fantastic at that, and that has a lot of other teams in a great position to improve on last year’s results and possibly place at district! I think we still have some work to put in over the next month, and we have some tough choices on who will represent us in a few of our competitive events, but I like the direction the team is headed overall.”

Congratulations to all who competed, and especially to those who placed. I wish you all the best of luck at district next month.

Team Awards – 

Current Issues & Events – 1st (Sophia Simmons, Noah Hawver, Coral Newsome)

Spelling & Vocabulary – 2nd (Brandon Kusaj, Hannah Hollier, Alex Taylor)

Individual Awards –