Cleveland’s Constitution team placed fourth overall at the state competition Feb. 3 for the third year in a row, and also won awards for best in state in specific categories, said head coach Sadie Adams.
The competition, hosted by the Civic Learning Project at the Hatfield Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland, awarded Cleveland’s Unit 3 and 5 as the best in state.
The team worked tirelessly from the summer and held weekly meetings in addition to class time to prepare for the competition.
“They left absolutely nothing on the table,” said Adams, who had much praise for both the regional and state performances, especially the state competition.
Lincoln High School won the overall competition and an automatic berth in the national competition in April in Washington, D.C. Grant High School took second place, and booked its place in the competition with a wild card spot.
Oregon has a long history of national success, winning nine times in the 30 year history of the competition and placing in the top three many other years.
Rounding out the top schools, Central Catholic placed third, Cleveland fourth, Lake Oswego fifth, and McDaniel sixth.
“I think that we did a really good job,” said Saylor Manning, a member of Unit 5. Although disappointed to not go to nationals, the Units are all proud of their performances, she said.
After about half a year of preparation, the team made it past the regional competition Jan. 27. The other five teams going to state from the region are Lake Oswego, Central Catholic, Lincoln, Grant, and McDaniel. The regional competition was postponed a week due to the ice storm, requiring quick preparation before the state competition.
The Constitution Team started at Cleveland in the 2016-2017 school year. Led by Adams, a history teacher at Cleveland, it has quickly become a strong team in the state, getting fourth the past two years, and reaching the national competition in 2020-21, earning 17th overall and the title of best in the nation for Unit 3.
There are six total units and generally include six people. There are also two coaches and they all have extensive background in law. Cleveland is unique, though, in that it has a mentor program that allows seniors to help teach the sophomores about law and prepare them for competitions.
“That’s one of the things that has helped us do so well,” Adams said.
Other schools don’t have mentor programs or have seniors participate on the team, such as Grant. Every year three questions are created for each Unit relating to their topic. Each Unit covers different parts of history and of the U.S. Constitution and connects it to today. Team members create a prepared response for two of the questions and memorize them. In a competition the Unit gives their prepared response and then answers follow up questions from a panel of judges for about five minutes.
Because Cleveland did not make it to nationals, the students will start an Honors Econ class for their second semester.