Latin Club will compete in a virtual Area C competition Saturday after being rescheduled from Feb. 20 due to the snowstorm.

“In the past, Hebron has earned multiple awards and sent several students, [who place 1st or 2nd in their event] to state,” Latin club sponsor Courtney Herring said. “Our club gets smaller every year, but we still perform well.”

Usually students compete in academic, art and classical civilization events, but with such a limited number of competitors, Hebron will only be competing in the academic events.

“The biggest difference, I feel, will be that our students will not get to experience the same sense of camaraderie and fun that they normally would at an area contest,” Herring said. “They usually get to look at all the art, watch the sports and certamen [quiz bowl] matches, cheer on their friends and meet new people. This year, like pretty much all of the last 12 months, it will be much more of a solitary endeavor.”

The academic part of the competition will be held on March 6. Tests will be taken in a Google Doc that will be open for certain time frames on the competition day.

“I think they will do relatively well, but with competitors only doing two events each, and with us having only eight competitors, the award count will be lower than usual,” Herring said.

To prepare for the competition, Herring set up a Canvas course with resources, but the club has not held official meetings to practice. 

“We have had virtually, no pun intended, no practice this year,” Herring said. “However, for most academic events, the students are expected to study and prepare on their own somewhat, so I don’t think the lack of group practice will significantly affect their results.”

After Area, usually the first and second place winners in each competition will move onto State. This year, Herring said she thinks the competition will be opened to all competitors. It has already been announced that the State and National conventions will be held virtually, like Area.

“We haven’t been able to recruit more competitors because we haven’t been able to have our usual fun meetings,” Herring said. “It’s hard to get kids excited about yet another online event, after being online in every aspect of life for so long.”