“I’m not sad. I know I tried my hardest,” one student said.

“We did the best we could, so I don’t feel bad,” another added.

It was the day after the We the People state competition, and Brown County Junior High School team members were settling in in Michael Potts’ classroom.

For the second year in a row, Brown County finished second in the state, behind Fishers Junior High School.

But this year, they closed the gap.

Last year’s team lost to Fishers by 95 points. This year’s team missed first place by nine points.

It’s the closest the scores had ever been, Potts said.

“I know you think, ‘Second place is not good enough,’ but there are 11 other schools who didn’t get any trophies and got sent home on a bus. There are 12 other schools who got lower than you,” he told his class.

This year’s team won four of the six units in the competition, Potts said.

“Third place, to you, second place, was not even close,” he said.

“You should be really proud.”

The We the People program teaches students about civic competence and responsibilities. After a semester of study about American history and constitutional issues, including current events and applicable court cases, students testify in mock congressional hearings before panels of professional judges. The contest is sponsored by the Indiana Bar Foundation.

As in years before, Brown County was a “class act” at the state meet. As long as his students behaved that way, Potts wouldn’t care if they had placed 14th. “Everybody knew it, and for that, I thank you,” he told them.

In the past eight years, Brown County High School has won six We the People state championships, two national runner-up titles and two national championships.

Potts asked his students if they had been hearing ‘Congratulations’ from around the school. Some raised their hands. When asked if they heard anything negative from their peers, every hand in the room went up.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better,” Potts told them, quoting President Theodore Roosevelt. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly.”

“The critics, they are not trying. It’s easy. It’s easy not to try something because you’re afraid of failure,” Potts said.

When asked if their biggest fear going into the competition was failure, every hand in the room went up again.

“You look at athletes, you look at other celebrities, you look at scientists, you look at anybody who is successful in this world — they are failures most of the time, but they keep trying over and over and over again. What if they stopped?” Potts said.

“By the way, you’re not failures. You all feel like you’re one because you didn’t get what you wanted to. You wanted first place. Get yourselves back up. … I really, sincerely hope that this does not sway anyone to not try new things and to not put yourself out there. You have to. You absolutely have to.”

Potts believed his team worked as hard or even harder than Fishers during the competition. But the rivalry is friendly.

At the end of the award ceremony when the Fishers team was called up, teacher Mike Fassold shook Potts’ hand.

“He said, ‘We learn from you because you’re the best.’ He’s told me that before. … ’Iron sharpens iron,’” Potts said.

“Let’s flip that. Haven’t they made us better? Haven’t they? Because all year you’re thinking about them and how hard they’re working. All year they’re thinking about how hard we’re working. I think that’s cool.”

Potts said he is glad Fishers is in this competition. “I don’t want to go to that competition every year and stomp all over all those other schools. That’s not fun,” he said.

The next day, Fassold sent Potts an email. “I just looked at the scores. Nine points is brutally close. My team has the deepest respect for your team because they know what it takes to beat you. I have the greatest respect for you and what you have done,” he wrote.

Potts said around 80 students tried out for the Fishers team.

Potts had to recruit. Only 17 applied by the deadline and he needs at least 18. “I had some trouble this year and I don’t know why. I always meet with the seventh-grade class and give them a pretty harsh speech. I don’t want to sugar-coat it for them,” he said.

One student who didn’t have to be convinced to join the team was eighth-grader Rhett Silbaugh. He said he has wanted to be on the team since he was in fourth grade. That year’s team won the national competition in Washington, D.C.

“I thought, ‘Man, I should do that.’ Then, whenever I was in seventh grade, Mr. Potts came to our class and asked if we wanted to be a part of this, so I signed right up,” he said. “I was super happy and relieved (when I made the team). I was ready to do it right then.”

Kelli Branson said she heard about the program around sixth or seventh grade when some of her older friends were on it.

“At first I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to do that,’ because it’s a lot of public speaking and I am not one to do that. But my friends who also don’t do public speaking a lot are like, ‘Oh no, you’ll love it. It’s amazing,’” she said.

“I was extremely happy (when I made the team) because I wanted to make my friends proud and happy.”

Being able to talk with people who have different opinions and in front of crowds are lessons Branson and Silbaugh both said they will take with them when they leave this class in the spring. They also said they expect to be engaged in civics when they are older, including voting.

They said they thought their team performed well at the state competition and that they were surprised they won second.

“None of us thought we were going to get second. It was nine points and all of the judges, we had almost no negative feedback,” Branson said. “It was shock at first and then it came to disappointment.”

But Potts does not want his students to be disappointed. He said they were “perfect” at the competition.

“Some of the students or units I was a little more worried about … exceeded. They turned it on when they needed to and it was great,” he said.

He said seeing his students compete is heartening and rewarding.

“You hear about teacher morale being so low, mine is not. Maybe it would be if I didn’t teach this class,” Potts said. “These kids, I get to see instant results. I don’t get to wait 30 years to see how these kids turned out.”

One of those rewards is seeing the students grasp the foundation of the U.S. government: The Constitution.

“Going from, on day one, thinking that there’s only the president — the president, he runs the country — to now being able to effectively talk to lawyers, judges and constitutional scholars about the intricacies of the articles and sections of the Constitution, to apply them to their lives, it’s just amazing to me,” he said.

Being on the We the People team also means the students are now part of a family.

“I hope to know every single one of you for the rest of my life. I mean that. When I told your parents yesterday that I hope my kids grow up to be like you, I meant it,” Potts said.

Branson and Silbaugh agree.

“I’ll always connect with them,” Branson said.

“Since you’ll be in the We the People family, you’ll always remember it and Mr. Potts will always remember it,” Silbaugh said.

“Once I see who is in the class (next year), I would like to help them succeed at state.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”We the People units” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Unit 1: What were the Founders’ basic ideas about government?

Austen Deckard, David Parry, Elijah Sicthing, Kody Walsh

Unit 2: What shaped the Founders’ thinking about government?

River Lacy-Connell, Rhett Silbaugh, Collin Trapp, Aiden Vaught

Unit 3: What happened at the Philadelphia Convention?

Abigail Bowman, Aden Rice, Samantha Smith

Unit 4: How was the Constitution used to establish our government?

Ashlyn Beck, Molly Speaks, Declyn Wilkerson

Unit 5: How does the Constitution protect our basic rights?

Abigayle Buckner, Marie Fields, Abigail Padgett

Unit 6: What are the responsibilities of citizens?

Kelli Branson, Tristen Shields, Kaitlyn Waltz

[sc:pullout-text-end]