Winterfest and State German Competition
Students Win North Texas German Competition, Excel at State
Fifteen students competed in the Winterfest German competition on Feb 6. in Dallas, which allows attendees to demonstrate their knowledge of German culture, language and music. Ten qualified for the state competition, including seven from a game-show team, among other categories.
“Students can compete in art, and they can compete in music,” German teacher Shelby Cleveland said. “They can compete in tests, if that is what they are good at, and they can read and memorize poems.”
Winterfest is the equivalent of UIL competition for German students, although it is not at an international or national level. Three different regions, centered in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, make up the state competition. Allen has attended the tournament a few times before and has won the competition in the past.
“A bunch of teachers got together in the sixties and started Winterfest, that was the first one,” Cleveland said. “Then another one popped up in San Antonio and another one popped up in Houston and they [said] why don’t we all just come together and compete against each other.”
The Pass Auf quiz show team won second place, despite having very little practice according to Cleveland. That team included sophomores, juniors and seniors and won out against well-prepared opponents.
“I did Pass Auf, which is kind of like Jeopardy,” senior Nathaniel Popiolek said. “We just sat down, two teams of five, there was a moderator who asked us questions, and we buzzed in and answered the questions when we had the right answer.”
Ten students qualified for State in San Marcos, which occurred Saturday, Feb. 27. The Pass Auf team did not make it into the Top 10 list; however, sophomore Sven Lohse won second place in the Extemporaneous Speaking category, Popiolek made tenth in Sight Reading 4 and Travis Hoffman made tenth in Culture 2.
David Bryant is a junior who loves both history and current events and is part of History Club and the competitive History Bowl team.