Everett Alvarez students advance to statewide Cyberpatriot competition

The computer science team of Everett Alvarez High School is participating in the top tier of the state round of CyberPatriot-X. It's believed to be the only one in Monterey County which made it this far in the competition.

The team is led by Chief Warrant Officer Edward Lawson and coached by math teacher James Clayton. Student members are Lenny Aleman, Ricardo Alvarez, Jose Lopez, Jasmine Montith, Xavier Avila and team captain Darren Osais. The team's performance earned it a spot on the state round, which concludes on Sunday.

“The team is currently in the middle of the state competition as I type,” Clayton wrote in an email. “Darren is working on Ubuntu 14, Jasmine is on Windows 2008 Server, Lenny and Xavier are on Windows 10 and Jose and Ricardo are working on the Cisco Quiz and Packet Tracer. It's a six hour marathon of fixing computer vulnerabilities. It's pretty exciting when they repair a vulnerability, a bell goes off indicating points being scored.”

The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was established by the Air Force Association to inspire students to pursue careers in cyber security and other careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The main competition challenges teams of two to six students across the United States, Canada and Department of Defense teams abroad to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities in simulated scenarios.

The Everett Alvarez team also has a friendly competition with other Monterey County teams, and for the second year in a row it's kept the ceremonial throphy that commemorates besting them all.

Good luck on the competition, guys and gal. Break a leg!