ADAMS – It was nail-biting time.

Friday, February 11, 2000

ADAMS – It was nail-biting time.

Tension was everywhere. Adams apples bobbed in throats and nervous giggles interspersed hushed conversations.

This was it. The regional finals. The winners would advance to the state competition and possibly a trip to the nationals. The losers go home.

Tough, but true. Nobody said LifeSmarts was easy.

Eight teams from southeastern Minnesota competed in the Life Smarts competition Thursday at Little Cedar Lutheran Church in Adams.

Teams from Southland and LeRoy-Ostrander school districts co-hosted the regional competition won by the Dover-Eyota team. However, all three teams advance to the state finals March 7 in the Twin Cities. Jan Miller and Janet Mayer, family and consumer science instructors in the Southland and LeRoy-Ostrander school districts, respectively, also coached their teams of high school students.

Sponsored by the Minnesota attorney general’s office with promoting sponsorship from Minnesota News Network, LifeSmarts seeks to teach high school students about consumer and personal fiance, health and safety, technology and environmental issues.

"Our complex marketplace demands educated, savvy consumers and the Minnesota attorney general’s office wants to challenge the next generation of consumers to learn about consumer issues now, and avoid life’s hard knocks later," Billie Gray explained. She was assisted by Zeeda Magnuson on behalf of the Minnesota News Network, while Lisa Hertzberg, a consumer specialist, represented the attorney general’s office.

Carmen Thompson of the Mower County Extension Service was one of the volunteers who helped Miller and Mayer and so were staff from Farmers State Bank of Adams and First State Bank of LeRoy.

Miller said the experience helped the students gain consumer skills and Mayer agreed.

According to Gray, this is the fifth year for the LifeSmarts competition in Minnesota, which has the biggest response from school districts in the nation. Most of the competitors are members of a Future Leaders of America and Future Homemakers of America chapters in the school districts as well as clubs, church groups, Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts and 4-H.

Minnesota is divided into six regions, where students in grades 9-12 compete on five-member teams with adult coaches-mentors guiding them.

The Dover-Eyota, Southland and LeRoy-Ostrander teams advancing from the regional competition Thursday at Adams will be among 100 teams at the state finals who will compete for the right to advance to the nationals. Last year, a team from Royalton went on to the national contest at New York, N.Y.

The Rev. Tom Kolden, pastor of LeRoy Lutheran Church, was the volunteer question-master at Thursday’s regional finals.

The co-host Southland team’s starters in the finals were Greg Huntley, Sophia Smith, Hailey Schmitz (captain), Matt Decker and Katie Lammers.

Meanwhile, co-host LeRoy-Ostrander’s starters were Patrick Utz, Ben Reburn, Matt Ferguson, Nathan Fraizer and Tom Reburn.

Southland team members said they prepared for Thursday’s contest by practicing during their lunch hour at school. A Dover-Eyota team member said they practiced early each morning before classes started.

Patrick Utz said the LeRoy-Ostrander team members "relied on our natural instincts and intelligence" and didn’t practice.

The first round included questions of each team member and Dover-Eyota, undefeated until that point, faltered. LeRoy-Ostrander finished first with 15 points followed by Southland with 10 and Dover-Eyota with 5.

The next round called for team responses and the collective answers resulted in a narrowing of the leader’s margin. LeRoy-Ostrander clung to the lead with 25 points while Dover-Eyota improved its standing to a tie with Southland at 20 points apiece.

The final round was the challenge round, where the team members had to slap buzzers the instant they knew the answer to the question-masters queries.

Mid-way through the final round, Dover-Eyota regained its composure and was leading with 50 points followed by Southland’s 40 and LeRoy-Ostrander’s 20.

Only six questions remained of the 15 total asked in the final round. All three teams’ members would miss answering four of the 15 correctly.

Despite a surge from Southland, Dover-Eyota stormed ahead and won with 80 points. Southland finished with 70, while LeRoy-Ostrander had 25.

Miller admitted, the students all had fun, but she added, "They will also take away knowledge, too."