The Florida Engineering Society (FES) celebrated MATHCOUNTS’ 30th Anniversary at the Annual State Competition in Orlando, Florida, on March 15th at the DoubleTree by Hilton at the Entrance to Universal Orlando.  Fairview Middle School took home the 1st place team award, representing the Big Bend Chapter.  Fairview’s Coach, Terry King, advanced to coach the Florida team at the national competition.  The Florida national team consists of the top four individuals from the overall competition.  They each received a trophy and a $400 award.  After two weekend retreats, the following four Mathletes® will represent Florida at the National Competition through an all-expense-paid trip:

• 1st Place:  Graham O’Donnell (Fairview Middle School, Tallahassee, Florida)
• 2nd Place:  Brian Reinhart (The Weiss School, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida)
• 3rd Place:  Wonmyeong Cho (Louis Benito Middle School, Tampa, Florida)
• 4th Place:  Jimmy Qin (Sanford Middle, Lake Mary, Florida)

FES is especially thankful to our largest sponsor, the Florida Engineering Foundation.

FES would also like to thank our  “Coach of the Year”, Ron Lewis (Indian River Chapter).  The Foundation awarded him with a $500 check during thiis year’s event.

Ron has, through 21 years, built up a strong program of Math students at Southwest Middle School.  He previously held a record of 16 consecutive Chapter competitions wins, and placed 2nd the previous 3 years before winning in 2013, making 20 consecutive state Mathcounts competition appearances.  Southwest Middle School is not considered a magnet school by Brevard Public Schools, so the competitiveness of his students at Mathcounts and other Math tournaments is a direct result of his teaching and coaching.  In the past 6 years that I have been chapter coordinator, Ron has not identified an assistant coach, so I must presume that he is solely coaching and leading students, at least for the Mathcounts competitions.  Mr. Lewis, along with fellow coach Steve Thomas from West Shore Jr/Sr High School presented our first ever coaches workshop this past fall in an attempt to bring more interest and participation in the Mathcounts program.  Mr. Lewis has mentioned his desire to continue volunteering with Mathcounts in an advisory role to other coaches after his retirement from coaching at the end of this program year.

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