 |
| SCC respiratory therapy students who recently teamed up to win the statewide “Sputum Bowl” quiz competition are Noah Jones (second from left), Benjamin Lackey (middle) and Zac Short (second from right). Pictured with the team are Samantha Campbell (left), respiratory therapy program coordinator at SCC; and Brent Holland, clinical coordinator. |
The competition’s name certainly doesn’t sound very appealing.
But for three respiratory therapy students at Southwestern Community College, victory at last month’s “Sputum Bowl” was quite sweet.
Noah Jones of Candler, Benjamin Lackey of Franklin and Asheville resident Zac Short teamed up to take first prize at the statewide quiz competition that was held at AB Tech in Asheville.
Competing against nine other community college teams from across the state, the SCC squad won all its head-to-head matchups to earn a trip to the national competition on Dec. 9-12 in Las Vegas.
“Everything was just clicking,” Jones said. “I expected it to be like a game show with people watching and cheering, and that’s exactly how it was. I expected it to be hard, and it was. We had studied a fair amount for it, and our instructors had us well-prepared for it.”
Pointing to Jones and Lackey, Short added: “These guys were the ones who carried our team. But I thought it was nerve-wracking. And then going into the final round, it was just win or lose. It just comes down to whoever rings in first with the right answer.”
The success didn’t surprise the students’ first-year instructors: Samantha Campbell, program coordinator; and Brent Holland, clinical coordinator.
An SCC graduate, Holland competed in the 2011 Sputum Bowl and later served as a judge at the national competition.
“I expected our students to win,” Holland said. “And I think they’ve got a good chance to win at the national level too.”
SCC won the state competition’s championship round by a score of 10 to minus-two over Forsyth Community College, but those same squads had a much closer contest earlier in the double-elimination event. Their first meeting went to sudden-death overtime, which Southwestern won by a 3-2 margin.
Lackey answered the decisive question in that tight tilt: “How do you calculate Systemic Vascular resistance.”
“The answer was a formula we’re taught in class, and it’s something we’ll need to know once we’re working in the field,” Lackey said. “We play games in class that are similar to what it’s like in the contest. A lot of the questions were what we expected.”
By winning the statewide event, which is sponsored by Covidien healthcare products, the team automatically got its travel expenses covered for the trip to Las Vegas.
All three expect stiffer competition in December, but they’re excited about the opportunity.
“I’m ecstatic really, and maybe a little nervous,” Jones said. “It’s an honor to represent our state, our school, our class and our profession.”
For more information about respiratory therapy and SCC’s other programs, visit southwesterncc.edu or call 828.339.4000.
