The Butler High School Junior Classical League is the biggest in the state and sent 79 members to Penn State last month to compete in the annual Pa. Junior Classical League State Convention. The Butler contingent came home with the second-place overall trophy.

For a language seen mostly in textbooks and heard mostly in church, Latin provided a fairly lively weekend for 79 Butler High School Latin students.

On May 25, those students traveled to Penn State University to compete in the annual Pa. Junior Classical League State Convention. Butler took home the second-place overall trophy, winning 81 awards in the academic, athletic, graphic and creative arts categories. The Butler students even won the overall chapter spirit competition.

Jim Kasparek, Latin teacher at the Butler Intermediate High School, said, “We took second place. We did really, really well, better than ever academically.”

The PAJCL conventions meet every year on the Penn State campus.

The Butler Area Junior Classical League, or BAJCL, which is the official name of Butler's Latin club, has been attending these conventions since 2001.

This local JCL chapter is the largest in Pennsylvania, with an enrollment of 203 students.

As a language, Latin is currently studied by more than 300 students at Butler from 8th through 12th grades.

A full story will appear in the Butler Eagle.