April has come and gone and with its exit, left champions in its wake. Winchester’s Latin Club has returned victorious from the Massachusetts Junior Classical State Convention. Despite some mishaps, mayhem and tomfoolery, our effort, bravery and dedication carried our club to success. 

The most notable mishap is perhaps the 2nd chariot race. All was well leading up to it with Winchester having placed first in the first race. Sophia Zheng donned her golden helm, entered the chariot and was prepared to hold on once more. The racers took their places amongst the yoke. Pulled by Zeki Yacizi, Bowen Peng, Michael Lanz, and Anshu Patra, the chariot team was hopeful for another success. Starting with a magnificent push, they were off. The weight was flying easily...maybe too easily. 20…30…40 yards down in quick succession and then a tumble. The brave Michael Lans stumbled and down he went. 

“KEEP GOING!”, someone cried desperately among the pullers, determined to make Michael’s sacrifice worth it.

And then as they continued to rush on, they noticed. The remaining pullers looked back horrified and noticed…no chariot attached. 

Back at the starting line, Sophia Zheng popped her head up confused by the lack of motion. Her gold helmet shone in the sun as she burst out laughing– in defeat and horror. 

With their initial magnificent push, the runners had pulled the yoke free from the actual chariot. In their determination to win, the runners had rushed down the length of the field missing one important detail – the chariot!

Suffice to say, Winchester did not win that race but pulled through in other aspects, leading the club to victory over all. 

The WHS Latin Club is a member of the Junior Classical League--- an organization dedicated to creating a community and opportunities for middle and high schoolers who are interested in the classics. There are both state and national levels of the JCL, which follow a similar format of opportunities for schools to get points. NJCL decides the theme for the year based on a Latin quote. This year’s was: “many things which are naturally difficult are solved by ingenuity.”

JCL is a lot like a sport. For one, there are “seasons”. JCL first gets active with Kickoff in October; this year, Massachusetts JCL’s was at Winchester High School! There are two big “tournaments” at the end of the year, called conventions. MassJCL’s is in April, typically in Barnstable, and this year’s National Convention, held at the end of July, is taking place at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville. 

Even though the conventions are at the end of the year, there is a lot that Latin Club has to do to prepare: earn points! There are many contests/events in which points can be gained: community service; publicity, including chapter website and social media; merch, including state T-shirt design; certamen, a sort of Latin and history trivia. Certamen matches take place throughout the year at different schools. This year, we went to certamen at Yale in November, Brookline in December, Boston Latin School in February, and Harvard in March. We also went to on a field trip to Classics Day at Boston University, where we participated in workshops and performed skit, for which we won first place. (More points!) 

Still, the beginning of the year was a bit more relaxed compared to convention prepping in March and April. The winter months were full of community service, like gift-wrapping at Bookends and many meetings of crafting holiday-related cards for Cards for Hospitalized Kids, as well as fundraising for the club. 

Towards March, we started preparing for convention, which was an overnight trip in April 26th - 27th. This involved submitting Constitution amendments, T-shirt designs, and creating a scrapbook for points towards our school. We also prepared for certamen, made a chariot for the chariot races and selected chants for the toga parade. Additionally, personal contests (both pre-convention and at convention) were available for individual points. Contests included classics-related tests (at least two are required to be taken), art submissions, creative writing submissions, dramatic interpretation of a Latin passage and English oratory related to this year’s theme. 

There was, admittedly, a lot of drama at convention. Winchester was neck-to-neck with Boston Latin, which generally dominates JCL, hence its name. (But hey, we have a pretty good relationship with them. We went on their bus to Yale and Barnstable). Our chariot broke during the second run--- and yes, it was caught on camera; it’s hilarious. Officer Bowen Peng ran for MassJCL parlamentarian and lost. 

And, despite winning a lot of contests, Winchester placed in second place by two points. Needless to say, we were skeptical, but our points were reevaluated, so we ultimately tied in first with BLS.

After MassJCL convention, we held officer elections for the 2024-2025 school year. Additionally, many members are going to NJCL convention in the summer as delegates. The format is pretty similar to state convention, but it’s spread out over five days instead of two. With national convention comes more studying for certamen and some JCL merch-making as well. We have lots of summer activities to do besides convention: possible volunteering in an ancient history program for students at McCall, organizing the first ever Winchester Certamen, and more. 

I’m so glad I found Latin Club, it’s truly a wonderful community. But let’s turn that passion into work--- to prepare for a 2024-2025 season full of more victories!