Everett Alvarez shines at CyberPatriot competition

A team of high school students from Everett Alvarez High School just finished a remarkable round of competition in the eighth season of CyberPatriot – the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition.

Led by Coach James Clayton, students Jose Amador, Jose Avina, Jose Matamoros, and Steven Lum, excelled in the CyberPatriot VIII qualifying rounds. The games, established by the Air Force Association, the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program, demand students demonstrate the teamwork, critical thinking skills, and technical knowledge needed for a successful career in cybersecurity.

 The team’s performance earned it a spot in a regional round held February 19-21, during which it outscored other teams to win the open division’s West Silver 2nd Place Tier Award.

The students are stoked, Clayton said.

"Our initial goal was to get more than 100 points during the first round, we had never scored more than 50 -60 the prior year in practice or competition. We scored 124," he wrote in an email. "The next round, the team score 138.7 and we were placed in the Silver tier based on our score, the lowest tier entering the state round. In the state round we scored 231.75 and didn’t place but was high enough to allow us to move on to the Regional Round (not all silver teams moved on to the regional round)."

The team scored 251.175 in the final round in the regional competition. which included California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The team did not qualify for the next, national round, but Clayton's excited nonetheless.

"Although we didn’t win a trip to Washington or make the Gold tier, I was proud of the team’s performance. The team improved each round," he said.

In all, 3,379 teams registered to compete in CyberPatriot VIII. To have scored that high against so many teams is truly impressive. Congratulations. Eagles! You make Monterey County proud!