Yelm High School’s anatomage team, a part of the sports medicine program, may soon have the opportunity to compete for a national championship in Las Vegas after five student competitors recently qualified for the annual competition.
Gary Clinton, YHS’s sports medicine instructor, said the team started last year at YHS and qualified for the national competition last school year. Due to scheduling conflicts, the team was unable to compete at the last event, but anatomage team captain Sofie Miera, a junior, set her sights on qualifying for and competing at the national tournament in 2025.
This year’s competition will take place Friday, May 30, and Saturday, May 31, Clinton said. He said the anatomage competition features a digital dissection table with a full-sized cadaver specimen on it. He said participants will look at different structures and be quizzed on their knowledge of anatomical structures throughout the human body.
With the team officially qualifying for the 2025 anatomage national championships, Clinton said the team awaits school district approval but will continue to practice and prepare for the Las Vegas competition.
“This was the first time we’d done a virtual qualifier, just because we wanted to make sure we were qualified before we relied on one competition to be in the final four,” Clinton said. “Having qualified now, it gives us the time to go through the approval process, make plans and determine what the cost will be for kids. If there’s anything additional we need to do to make it viable, we’ll know in advance.
“I felt last year our students had the ability to finish in the top eight. They were on video, had a national live stream event. This year’s team is highly qualified also, and I think they could do really well,” Clinton continued. “To be able to compete on a national stage from our town of Yelm and be able to do that from a health science standpoint — it’s huge. We’ve had some student programs that’ve been able to compete on a national stage but never our health science program. To be able to do that and do it really well is the ultimate reason why we want to go down there.”
He added that whenever students prepare for different events at various levels of competition, they put forth a level of effort that will “benefit them in the long run.” Clinton said by competing in these high stakes competitions, these students learn how to function and operate as a team, which he believes is one of the most important life skills anyone can learn.”
Clinton said a team of four YHS students will compete in Vegas at the competition, although five students are currently working and studying together to prepare. He said throughout the course of time, the five students will have an idea of which four students work best together.
Miera, anatomage team leader at YHS, said she’s excited for the upcoming competition in Las Vegas. She was on the anatomage team last year and is thrilled for the opportunity to compete if approved by Yelm Community Schools Board of Directors. She’s made it a priority to qualify for the national competition since she’s become the team leader.
“We actually qualified on the first try, which was pretty amazing. I’m super excited for this opportunity,” Miera said. “This was my dream that started a few months ago, but I’ve become passionate about it so quickly.”
She said the team usually meets Mondays and Fridays for about an hour. She divides the meetings into systems, she said.
“One meeting we might go over skeletal systems. One meeting we may go over muscular systems. There’s probably thousands of structures in this entire body, and memorizing them is pretty hard,” Miera added. “Over the last month that the team has been alive, we’ve memorized so much. I’ve gotten almost the entire muscular system down. Brilee (Baker) has been doing amazing with the skeletal system, and our other members have been doing great with the digestive system, respiratory system and urinary system.”
Since joining the sports medicine program and anatomage team at YHS, Miera says she’s learned to go beyond her comfort zone.
“This program really made me jump out of my shell. Before this program, I was pretty shy throughout middle school and freshman year. This is the first place I’ve really felt like I’ve belonged. Before, I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted to do with a career,” Miera said. “I’ve flourished. I’m doing so much. I’m doing anatomage … I’m busier than I’ve ever been — but I learned that I like being busy. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in this program, and it’s preparing me for what I want to do in the future, which is to go to med school and become a physician.”
Teammate Brilee Baker, a senior, said though she didn’t compete on the anatomage team last year, she’s having a blast doing it this school year.
“At our first meeting, we divided and conquered. The very first thing Sofie laid down on us was ‘here’s the body, pick something.’ That went pretty well. I don’t think there were any systems that the team wasn’t interested in studying. Just having teammates that are just as interested in this as we are is really helpful,” Baker said. “I’ve been with Mr. Clinton since my freshman year, although I didn’t take a class with him my sophomore year because of some scheduling issues. I took med careers with him my freshman year and that was amazing. That’s when I told myself that ‘maybe the medical field isn’t that bad.’”
Like Miera, Baker believes the sports medicine program has also helped her grow socially at YHS.
“I got a little out of my shell during my freshman year in the program. I came back my junior year, and I was still in that shell in some ways,” Baker said. “Clinton has helped me with my social aspect of school. I went to our state competition last year for the quiz bowl. I’ve really enjoyed my time in this program.”
