As some Washington High School students prepare for the upcoming state Science Olympiad in Raleigh, their coach, Clay Campbell, said they’ve always had fun at previous Science Olympiad competitions.

The state competition is set for April 29-30 at N.C. State University.

Campbell, who teaches upper-level sciences at WHS, has been the Science Olympiad and Ocean Bowl coach for the past 20 years.

Science Olympiad is a national competition with state and regional competitions as preludes to the national event. Last month, the regional competition with 11 high school teams was held at East Carolina University.

“Most of my environmental-science students are sophomores, but the rest are juniors and seniors,” he said. “We won that with South Central being second, J.H. Rose was third. That was our 16th-consecutive regional victory, and Washington has won that 19 out of the past 20 years.”

The only time WHS lost was in 1995, losing to Chocowinity High School, when Campbell was a science teacher at CHS.

Campbell said there are 23 competition categories each year, with each year having a different set of categories. There are 18 students allowed on a team, which may have up to 10 seniors.

“There are four timed periods,” Campbell said. “And most of the time the students work in pairs. Usually an hour-and-15-minute time blocks.”

Campbell said medals are awarded to first-, second- and third-place finishers.

“This year, there were 23 events, and we got gold medals in 11, silver in four and bronze in four,” he said. “So, it was a good showing overall.”

“We’ll be up against schools like Enloe, School of Science and Math, Raleigh Charter, schools from Wilmington, Charlotte and even Durham Academy,” he said of the state competition.

WHS has won three state Science Olympiad titles in the past 10 years. WHS has been to four national competitions, finishing in second place one year.

“It’s a very tough competition, as we’re going up against some bigger schools and even private schools,” he said. “It takes more preparation on the kids part, but they really enjoy it.”

Campbell said N.C. State awards scholarships (generally from $1,000 to $2,000)  to anyone awarded a gold medal and who will attend N.C. State.

“And right now, we have some students taking advantage of that,” he said. “Every little bit helps.”

Medals won by WHS students at 2011 regional tournament

Gold medals: Anatomy and physiology, Rachel Thompson and Neeti Nehta; astronomy, James Martin and Thomas Sutton; bottle rocket, Dylan Bowen and Michael Hall; chemistry lab, Thomas Sutton and Neeti Mehta; food science, Casey Lewis and Rachel Thompson; mousetrap vehicle, Cameron Ashley and Thomas Hall; mystery architecture, Avery Woolard and Michael Hall; ornithology, Casey Lewis and Matthew Westcott; Sounds of Music, Sarah Nicholls and Reed Padgett; storm the castle, Avery Woolard and Dylan Bowen; towers, Dylan Bowen and Reed Padgett.

Silver medals: disease detectives, Emily Lobos and Matthew Wescott; ecology, Emily Lobos and Hannah Sandy; Mission Possible, Cameron Ashley and Sarah Nicolls; optics, Josh Crozier and Cameron Ashley.

Bronze medals: dynamic planet, Dylan Cutler and James Martin; forensics, Hannah Sandy and Jeff Swanner; helicopter duration, Michael Hall and Dylan Bowen; Microbe Mission, Casey Lewis and Emily Lobos.

Junior varsity gold medals: experimental design, Sarah Jennings and Katie Tate; bottle rocket, Davis Rumley.