UIL recognition for six Coronado High School students

On Thursday morning, the Lubbock Independent School District Board of Trustees recognized six Coronado High School students for their UIL accomplishments.

According to the UIL website, UIL academics holds a competition for students as young as the second grade to participate in. Students start to compete within their district, advance into regional competition, then attempt to win it all at the state competition.

Cecilee Echols, the UIL academic coordinator for Coronado High School, said there are around 22 different academic events students can participate in.

She said students and academic coaches give up their Saturday mornings to study and prepare to take tests. Echols said it is great to see students working, asking questions, and helping one another.

“We serve a lot of students and give them a place to belong,” Echols said.

Brent Chamberlain teaches accounting as well as business information management at Coronado High School. As a football player in high school, he said coming to the academic competition world of high school was so different for him.

“I still love the competition,” Chamberlain said. “That’s still what drives me.”

Chamberlain said he has coached UIL for five years. He coaches two different UIL teams at Coronado: computer application and accounting.

Chamberlain said the Coronado computer application students reached the state competition for the fourth year in a row. He said the students that participated from Coronado were all first time UIL participants.

Jordan Olivas, a senior, received fourth place in the state competition. Alex Dugan, a senior, placed eighth in the state.

Chamberlain said the Coronado accounting team finished second in the state for the second year in a row. He said it was their third year advancing to the state level.

“We were truly, overall, the second best team in the state of Texas,” Chamberlain said.

The accounting team consisted of Abigail Newton, Adán Rubio, Kendall Brown, and Seena Firouzbakht. Chamberlain said Newton, Rubio, and Firouzbakht are graduates and now all attend Texas Tech.

Abigail Newton, a three-year competitor for UIL accounting at Coronado, received sixth in the state. Kendall Brown, a senior at Coronado, placed nineteenth in the state.

Chamberlain said the accounting exam is 80 questions, and the students have 50 minutes to complete it. He said that averages to about 45 seconds to answer each question. Chamberlain said the questions are not multiple choice; they are questions that need to be worked out.

Seena Firouzbakht was the state champion. Chamberlain said Firouzbakht only missed one question.

Berhl Robertson, superintendent of Lubbock ISD, said he knows UIL academics are not easy. Robertson said Lubbock ISD probably has more UIL competitors than they have ever had in the past.

Robertson said he is proud of the students, and that they do a good job of representing their district.

“You’re an example of what we’re all about,” Robertson said about Chamberlain.

Chamberlain said he loves teaching UIL and getting to build a different kind of relationship with those students.

“We’re just a bunch of nerds, and I love it,” Chamberlain said.

On the web:

UIL website –

https://www.uiltexas.org/academics