MONTGOMERY &045; Five student teams from the Demopolis High School Computer Club put on a showing of both talent and determination at a statewide competition held earlier this month. The efforts of one of the teams brought them first place recognition.

Although competition was difficult &045; including student teams from Prattville High School, Lovelace Academy Magnet Program and St. James High School in Montgomery &045; the seasoned web development team consisting of junior students Terence Owens, Drew Bedsole and Jordan Hammond walked away with their third consecutive first place win.

The March 8 competition, which is hosted by Alabama Southern University, included three categories including web design and development, computer repair and troubleshooting and 3-D programming.

Martin explained the web development segment of the competition required teams to develop a website based on a provided business model. The teams then presented their Web site to the judges after only a few hours to get it up and running.

The troubleshooting and computer repair segment required students to reassemble a computer that had been dismantled and get it fully functional. The first team to get the desktop computer up and running took home the top honors. Two teams of three students represented DHS in this portion of the competition.

The final segment of the competition, which is a relatively new addition to the program Martin said, involved using a 3-D program to build a virtual world. This portion of the ASU High School Computing Olympiad Competition was the most difficult, Martin said.

When the day-long competition came to a close, the winning web development team from DHS had not only the honor of first place to take home with them, but also new Dell laptop computers and a new gateway desktop computer for each school. After competing together and winning for a third year, Martin said the team hopes to make it a fourth win next year.

When asked what this kind of competition brings to his computer students, Martin said the most valuable thing they learn is teamwork.