Fossil Ridge students competed at Colorado DECA’s state competition starting last weekend at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on Saturday, February 21, and concluded Tuesday, February 24, in the afternoon.
41 students represented Fossil Ridge at state where a total of 3,900 participants around Colorado competed.
Every year the total number of state competitors increases marking this year as the most participants ever at state.
The presentations started on Sunday, when all manuals were presented and tests were taken. A manual is a written event that competitors have months to put together. If a contestant was to state for a role play, they had to take a 100 question multiple choice test based on the cluster they are in. A cluster is another word for a topic and for example my role play event was Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making. I had to take the Marketing exam.
Before each group presented, in every hallway of the Broadmoor. Some manuals consist of working with real life companies, starting a new company, paired with a digital or physical presentation that the judges will grade.
The following day, Monday, role play presentations started, some events required one role play and most required two.
If a contestant did good enough during Monday’s role play events, they were called to finals. A list got released at six a.m. Tuesday morning and if your name was on the list you had to suit back up and present one final time to a judge and that’s how the final rankings are determined.
The math used to finalize a winner is average test score plus total role play score equals final score.
Out of the 41 fossil students were called to finals on Tuesday and three got ceremonial plaques during the closing ceremony. Those students are Sachit Srinivas, Holly Dossou, and Delaney Schuster.
Srinivas really represented Fossil well because his event was Entrepreneurship but he said “it really covers all the areas of business but focuses on entrepreneurship.”
“Out of all three of my role plays, I had one on business ethics, marketing, and my final one was about marketing channels and supply lines,” Srinivas said.
Srinivas placed 3rd in his event but that isn’t the only thing he was recognized for. Srinivas got the state executive board as the 2026-2027 publicity and events director for Colorado DECA where he can now serve 9,000 members.
“I had to do a written application, submit a resume, get letters of recommendation from teachers, and as well as being apart of an interview and giving a speech in front of a panel of voting delegates and it was a record breaking year for the amount of applicants, 66 other people who ran for state office.”
Other than Srinivas’ business accomplishments, he said his favorite part was “going to the bowling alley at the Broadmoor with his friends while drinking milkshakes.”
Holly Dossou also got 3rd place in her event. Dossou competed in Business Services Operations. This event includes a 20 page summary of findings and data that Dossou found when researching a business. Luckily she was able to choose her dad’s business to look into and put together a great presentation.
Dossou said that her parents helped keep her focused and determined to do well.
“Yeah, I really enjoyed just hanging out and calling my parents,” Dossou said.
When asked what her experience was rated one to ten, Dossou responded “an eight because it was really fun, made good friends and had a good time.”
DECA nationals is in Atlanta, Georgia on April 25-28 where the best of the best will compete for the top spot.