In all the hoopla about Brighton winning the state championship in Division I hockey, another accomplishment by Brighton students may have gotten overlooked.

At Monday’s Brighton Board of Education meeting, Supt. Greg Gray said that Brighton has a couple of high achievers at the DECA state competition, as well. DECA is an international association of high school and college students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality and marketing.

Two Brighton High School students took honors at the DECA State Career Conference held last Friday through Sunday at the Cobo Center in Detroit. The students are Lauren Pytlak, a senior, and April Muench, who’s a sophomore. DECA is an organization which prepares future leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in finance, hospitality, management, marketing and other business areas. Lauren’s category was hospitality and tourism, for which she won a Gold Merit award, and April competed in the Principles of Finance category.

Superintendent Greg Gray tells WHMI that it was a great weekend for the Brighton Area Schools with Brighton’s state hockey championship, the Brighton TechnoDogs Robotics Team taking runner-up honors at Kettering University, the Brighton gymnasts’ performance at the state meet and its two state DECA winners.

The Brighton DECA advisors who are accompanying the girls to the DECA competitions are Tanya Clark and Michelle Costa. There were no first place winners in the state competition as such; however, the top six in each category qualify for the International Career Development Conference, to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, next month. (TT)