Flagstaff school competes in Odyssey of the Mind contest

By Catherine E. Hanley
The Catholic Sun

FLAGSTAFF — Teamwork reaped dividends of world honors and personal memories for the six-member St. Mary’s School eighth-grade team at the Odyssey of the Mind competition May 24-27.

Teams from the United States and 25 other countries competed against each other in international educational contest that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college.

After placing first in its regional competition, the St. Mary’s team placed second in the state competition held April 1 at Tempe High School.

“We knew we were on our way when we beat 18 other teams at the state competition,” said team member Nick Cazares.

Student Celeb Cordasco noted that this was not the first year that the team entered the competition.

“We entered last year and did not do well at all,” he said. “This year, as eighth graders, we knew we would have only one more chance to do well for St. Mary’s — and that was our motivation, to try again.”

The team’s performance at the state level qualified them to compete at this year’s international competition held at Iowa State University, where they competed against 55 other groups.

“We learned from each other and working through the process made us feel good about ourselves,” St. Mary’s team member Luke Rotter said.

Organizers gave teams a list of technical and artistic performance-oriented problems, said Jennifer Hartin, spokesperson for the school.

Thousand of volunteers from around the world scored teams for their long-term solutions to problems, how well they solved a problem on the spot and for their way of elaborating their long-term solution.

The eighth-graders selected a vehicle problem called the Great Parade, which challenged the team to create a human-powered vehicle in which only their hands could touch the propulsion system.

The vehicle had to move in a circle and change appearance every time it went around, a feat the team accomplished for three laps. 

The St. Mary’s squad efforts were good enough to place 30th in the international competition.

“As a first-time international team, we’re very, very proud of the them,” said Lisa Barquin, one of the parents accompanying the team.

“They met kids from all over the world. Many of the winners in the various divisions were from Poland and China,” she said, adding that seeing the team march into the competition as the National Anthem played was particularly moving.

“Without having any passed-down knowledge about the world competition, the team didn’t really know what to expect, but all did fine,” Barquin said.

Cordasco added that being present at the international competition was an “awesome feeling.”

“We hope that other teams will follow in the future,” he said.

St. Mary’s School in Flagstaff was the only Catholic school in the Phoenix Diocese competing at the state level and qualifying for the world competition.

“It was fun but took hours of hard work,” Dominic Griffis said. “Many times we had to give up some other things to make it happen.”

Matthew Barquin said, “None of us solved the problem by ourselves — it took the whole team to figure it out.”