The Wareham High School DECA team made a splash at the State Conference in Boston Thursday, March 14 and a couple will be heading to an international competition in California.

Paige Vespa, who finished second in her category, and Brett Labonte who finished fourth in his, will go on to represent Wareham High School at the International Career Development Conference in Anaheim California, April 23-29.

DECA, the Distributive Education Clubs of America, is an extracurricular club that helps students gain marketing knowledge and skills needed to build a strong business background.

The team had to complete a total of four tests. Two were written tests, one in the area of "career clusters",  and the other in general marketing.

The students then performed two unrehearsed role playing exercises.

Jacob Cobb took home third place for his career cluster test in Principles of Business Management, and Jeremy Wilder snatched third place for his career cluster test in Principles of Business Finance.

Brett Labonte took home third place for a role playing exercise called Restaurant and Food Service Management.

Paige Vespa won third place in both her written tests in Retail Merchandising. Catherine Dumas finished third in her career cluster written test, as well as in a role playing exercise called Hotel and Lodging Management.

Michaela Bottino grabbed third place in a role play called Human Resource Management.

The competition went on for three days and Saturday was the Grand Award Ceremony, during which the top ten finalists in Massachusetts were recognized.

The finalists from Wareham include Paige Vespa, Brett Labonte, Hannah Jacobsen, Catherine Dumas, Cindy Pham, Elizabeth St. Germaine, and Anna Richard.

Wareham High School DECA President Paige Vespa contributed to this report.