What do Robert Griffin III (Washington Redskins quarterback) and Chris Martin (Coldplay lead singer) have in common: they both studied Latin. These two examples show that Latin is not such a “dead” language after all. Jesuit’s Latin Club, which competes in the Junior Classical League (JCL), embraces this idea and studies the Latin culture daily, continuing thousands of years of tradition.
On April 11-12, 35 members of Jesuit’s JCL club traveled by bus to Westwood high school in Austin to compete in the JCL State Championship. Many schools from Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Waco, Amarillo, and Austin participated, and the competition was fierce. After being very successful at JCL Area C, Jesuit had high hopes for its Latin club at JCL State, and rightfully so.
Competition began with the Pentathlon test. Every competitor was required to take this challenging test, comprised of language skills, vocabulary, mythology, Roman history, and Roman culture. In this test alone, Jesuit students scored 31 top four finishes. Sophomore John Sauer, sophomore Jack Mason,and freshman Joe Vance were all awarded first place ribbons.
In addition to the Pentathlon, Jesuit students competed in Greek Literature, Roman History, Graphic Arts and more. Rafael 
Anguiano ’16 received first place in the Graphic Arts competition for his reproduction of Greek Amphora (Greek pottery with images). Ms. Vanessa Jones, said that, “There were 16 entries, and they were all amazing. However Rafael’s Greek amphora won 1st place, and I’m sure it’s because of the attention to detail and the historical accuracy in his piece” taught by his pottery teacher, Mr. Raymond Ochs. Additionally, Zachary Schutze ’15 won first place in the Open Certamen competition, a game similar to Jeopardy only with Latin based questions. After two days of competing, Jesuit finished strong, ranking 12th amongst 55 upper division schools this year at JCL State. Ms. Jones said that “this is the best Jesuit has ever ranked in Jesuit’s Latin club history.”
Ms. Jones and Ms. Elizabeth Isensee, Jesuit’s Latin teachers, wanted to especially thank “the foreign language department and the administration for their support of this program [JCL], the history department for fostering a love and interest in history, the English department for teaching our students how to write and analyze literature, and the theater and band directors for helping with the spoken and vocal Latin contests.” All of these contributing factors, plus the Latin skills taught daily, provided for a very successful JCL program this year.
Congratulations to all the Jesuit students who participated in JCL State this year, and good luck to Patrick Miramontes ’15, Zack Schutze ’15, Tyler Schrakamp ’15, Jack Mason ’16, John Galindo ’16, Matthew Tullis ’16, Jack Schwab ’17, Rory Allison ’17, Cameron Schutze ’17, and Ethan LaCour ’17 on their trip to Nationals in Georgia on July 27-August 2!
