A total of 36 high school students in the DECA club competed in the DECA State Career Conference in upstate Rochester from March 8-11, the highest number of participants in this event in the school’s history.

Battling against 2,000 of the state’s best business students, four Deer Park representatives – Peter Demopoulos, Nick DiModica, Joe Sanchez and John Santare – earned trophies and a chance to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Nashville, Tennessee at the end of April. The team of Demopoulos and Sanchez won a first-place trophy in the marketing communications category, while DECA co-captains DiModica and Santare came in fifth in financial services.

Also finishing in the top 10 of various categories at the conference were Ashley Ahmad, Jack Borah, Ryan Byrne, Kevin Chang, Nick Gallo, Kayla Griffin, Tajriana Haque, Glenn Hope, Joewin James, Kristina Kozakevitch, Lauren Lazarte, Stephen Lew, Michael Mieses, Malique Papailler, Sarah Qasir, Martin Salgado, Dan Sebok, Andrew Siford, Bianca Taipe, Joe Thomas and Vincent Verdile.

“What can I say, it was just another outstanding display from Deer Park’s DECA members,” said business teacher and DECA adviser Gregory Menig. “To have 70 percent of our attendees earn a medal or trophy for their performance was just tremendous. As for our national qualifiers, I’m thrilled that John and Nick’s hard work finally paid off with a trip to nationals in their senior year. The continued success of Pete and Joe, earning first place in the state and a second consecutive trip to nationals, puts them in very exclusive company in the history of Deer Park DECA. I am excited to see how the guys stack up against some of the world’s brightest business students in Nashville later this month.”