By Kara Hallam

Staff Writer

At first, it seemed nothing could stop the Health Occupation Students of America from hosting their annual Area 3 Spring leadership Conference this past weekend, not even a stomach virus which inflicted a majority of students at the host school.

However, just as Coppell HOSA members were ready to compete, they found out Friday morning the competition had been cancelled due to inclement weather.

HOSA is a club for those looking at future careers in healthcare. There are over 40 different events to compete in. Coppell High School had 45 members entered into this area competition in categories like Biomedical Debate, Clinical Specialty, Prepared Speaking, Health Education and many other health care related events.

The majority of Coppell HOSA students are in the Public Service Academy and members of Debra Johnson’s Certified Nursing Assistant and Pharmacy class. In this class, students learn and present on health topics on a daily basis as a part of the course material and to practice for HOSA.

The competition was scheduled to take place at Richardson High School on Friday from 1 to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m.to 6 p.m.. This would have been there first competition of the year. If students advance, they will go to San Antonio for the state tournament on March 27 through March 29.

“I have high expectations for our CHS HOSA members. They are hard workers and dedicated to excellence in all that they do,” Johnson said.

Ironically, the health competition was almost canceled because of the spread of the stomach flu at Richardson High School. Six hundred students at the school caught the norovirus, and the RHS cleaning staff has been sanitizing the school from up to six to seven times a day.

RHS was worried that hosting a competition there would in turn only get more people sick. However, due to their rigorous sanitation schedule, RHS was deemed safe for area HOSA.

The inclement weather last Thursday lead Coppell Independent School District to have an early release for all Coppell schools. HOSA members were worried this would cancel the competition, but RISD simply moved the location of it to Lake Highlands High school.

CHS students awoke the next day with all snow and ice completely melted off the roads as it it had never happened. HOSA members packed lightly for school that day given they were going to be able to sign out after a few periods in order to get to sign in at Wyndham Dallas Suites by 1 p.m. and arrive at Lake Highland by 3 p.m. It was not until 9 a.m. on Friday they had discovered that all of RISD had been closed due to inclement weather.

“I packed nothing but an iPad and pencil. I do not know what to tell my teachers,” junior Diana Rodriguez said.

HOSA participants like Rodriguez and her partner junior Shebani Patel chose a doctoral field of study to present on. Once they chose cardiology they made an artistic display with the advantages of the health career and even made a sculpture of a human heart to add to their tri board display. Now they will have to hold off a few weeks on the presentations they were so eager to give.

“I was so nervous about the competition because it was my first. Now I am a little disappointed because I was really ready to get all the nerves over with,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez will have to wait about two weeks to finally compete. The competition has been rescheduled for Feb. 28 through March 1 at J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson.

“I was disappointed, like our competitors, but appreciate that HOSA was trying to keep everyone safe. HOSA is in the process of rescheduling and in the mean time, we will continue to prepare.,” Johnson said.