Langley High School students Jake Zimmerman and Matthew Ankerbrandt, both from Great Falls, have won first place in the Sports and Entertainment Management Team Decision Making Event for the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA). The competition brought nearly 2,000 students from around the country to the national competition in Nashville, Tenn., earlier this month. In total, the youths beat out 170,000 students from around the world who entered the competition.
“We just met each other. We go to the same school but he’s a year older than me. We were paired together after districts and we worked well together. He’s really smart,” said Zimmerman.
“It was great working with Jake. We worked well together. I was the detail guy and he was the talker,” said Ankerbrandt. “As far as the competition goes, he’s a natural. He was right on it,” Ankerbrandt said of his partner.
“What I learned is that finding the right person to work with is key,” said Ankerbrandt.
In the final round, the two had to act in concert to come up with ideas off the cuff on how to increase attendance at an arcade. “Kids like music and fashion and free games so we added those in,” explained Zimmerman of their winning strategy.
The two had started out the competition drumming up business using mock business cards but graduated to making lunch appointments on palm pilots to reflect a more sophisticated business culture. “We were making lunch dates at The Palm [restaurant]. That’s a well-known place for doing business. The judges really liked that, especially when we said ‘and of course, lunch is on us,’” said Zimmerman of their strategy.
BOTH STUDENTS GOT to the competition by maintaining an A average in their marketing classes and by being nominated by their school.
Fairfax County Public School marketing instructional coordinator Nancy King said that the DECA program is a co-curricular activity that is currently in 23 out of 24 high schools in the area. Next year all the high schools will offer it.
“They had to compete at the local level against approximately 35 kids. At state they competed against 40-some winners and then they went to nationals where they competed against kids who were winners from all over the country,” said King. “I imagine it was an incredible feeling for them getting up on stage in front of all those people to receive their trophy,” King said.
“This was the best of the best we were competing against,” said Zimmerman.
“Being on stage in front of 17,000 people all cheering for Matt and me was crazy. The moment before was the worst because we didn’t know if we’d won. It was crazy,” said Zimmerman.
Ankerbrandt concurs, saying, “It’s a really cool experience being up on stage, being the center of attention and taking that all in.”
Ankerbrandt currently has the large DECA trophy sitting on his mantle in the basement. Zimmerman kept the smaller trophy from an earlier competition.
Both say their experience at the competition has reinforced their intention to use marketing in their future. “I know I’m good at it. My mom was a huge influence on me. She’s in marketing. I incorporated what I learned from her into DECA,” said Zimmerman.
Ankerbrandt said he also learned that he had a fortitude he didn’t know he had. “I learned that I knew a lot more than I thought I did and that I can do whatever I set my mind to,” said Ankerbrandt.