Fourteen DECA students are heading to the Sheraton Hotel in Dallas for the DECA  state conference Tuesday – Thursday.

“I’m excited to compete because it’s a new place this year and it should be fun,” junior Saahithi Joopelli said. “I hope to make it to internationals this year. I prepared by going over the performance indicators we need to know for role plays. I think the biggest hurdle is going to be handling my nerves and staying calm during my turn but I’ll handle it by being prepared.”

The team will attend an opening ceremony on Tuesday, compete all day Wednesday, and attend closing ceremony on Thursday where they will announce winners.

“I’m excited to go to state because it’s a great opportunity to learn and have fun,” junior Grishma Geedipally. “I hope to be able to learn more about business in general. I think the biggest challenge is going to be not freaking out during the role play and making sure that I don’t forget what to say or stutter and stumble.”

New requirements for DECA have taken a toll on the numbers, but that doesn’t mean they aren;t just as prepared.

“With the new competition rule where students are required to have taken a business course to compete, we have a significantly less number of students competing,” DECA coach Chris Ham said. “But, this also means that we have students that are even more dedicated to succeed. So I’m confident that our students are more than ready to compete this year.”

The competitions include either roleplay or written events, and the students have been working hard to make sure they will be successful.

“A lot of work goes into qualifying for state,” Ham said. “In addition to the competition within the DECA organization, our students had to go through another round of competition that Frisco ISD requires. So our students had to succeed in two rounds of testing and a round of role playing competition to qualify for state. Just making it to this point is an accomplishment and I’m very proud of my students.”