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Magna • Five years ago, Cyprus High didn't even have a DECA club. Now the school's marketing team is beginning to establish itself as a power.
At the recent Central Region DECA competition, featuring 19 high schools from across Salt Lake County, Cyprus finished with the best student-to-medal ratio. Teens competed in events such as Marketing Management, Retail Merchandising and Accounting Applications.
Cyprus DECA adviser Jeremy Brooks, who re-established the club after it was unavailable for several years, is pleased with where it is headed.
"We're slowly getting there," he said. "We beat schools like Bingham and Herriman and Alta, schools that would traditionally kill us in academic stuff, so it was nice."
As recently as three years ago, Brooks was the junior-varsity boys basketball coach at Cyprus. He got his master's degree in sports psychology and planned to use the job as a stepping stone to coaching at the collegiate level.
For two years, he coached basketball and advised the DECA club. He soon realized his marketing students were more motivated to succeed than his basketball players, and he decided to quit coaching and dedicate his time to DECA.
"Seeing their interest level and their enthusiasm and self-motivation, wanting to be the best, triggered my interest," he said.
Cyprus DECA had its biggest moment ever recently when a team of three sophomores finished second in the nation (out of 790 teams) in a DECA contest in the Virtual Business — Retailing category. They advance to the national finals in Orlando, Fla., April 28 to May 3.
Tenth-graders Brycen Prout, David Winger and Troy Socha teamed up to create a virtual online store. They controlled advertising and sold goods such as milk and other groceries. They raked in the virtual cash.
"I think it's great," Winger said. "But we just gotta remember we can't let it get to our heads. We can't relax just because we've done it once before."
His older sister, senior Jessica Winger, is the Cyprus DECA president. She was thrilled to see Cyprus do well on a national stage.
"That's a really exciting and proud thing for me because not many sophomores get to the national competition," she said, "and to see that they actually put in the effort and the time, and were able to be successful, was one of the happiest moments of my life."
Several other Cyprus DECA members hope to join the team in Florida by qualifying at the state championships March 3-4.
Brooks, who was named New Marketing Teacher of the Year for Utah for 2008-09, wants Cyprus to be known for its academics.
And he wouldn't mind if some of the dominating DECA schools, such as Davis and Bingham, started to notice the little team from Magna.
"There are multiple powerhouses out there," Brooks said. "I want them to think of Cyprus as a rival, and I think we're getting closer."