The Mad Hatters, Cedar Park’s Destination Imagination Team 2, has been competing together for three years and placed second at regionals on March 7 at Hendrickson High School. Normally, second at regionals means advancing to Globals, however, two teams tied for first, so Cedar Park’s team didn’t advance.

“We were driven to work harder,” sophomore Jarred Huffman, who has been a part of DI since fifth grade, said. “I feel fine about the loss because we tried our hardest and that’s what matters most.”

In DI, teams compete in different challenges that they receive around the time school begins. They then have until regionals to prepare for their performance. The Mad Hatters’ challenge this year was improv, in which teams performed three two minute skits and had to incorporate four unknown aspects -which were revealed right before the team’s performance- within one minute.

“DI allows you to go wherever your mind takes you,” Huffman said. “I also learned how to work with challenging individuals because of DI, and I have gained a better sense of who I am as a person.”

Once the team receives their challenge, they try meet every weekend for a three to four hour practice, according to sophomore Macy Loyd. She said that even though it is difficult to coordinate the schedule, they have been able to get in enough practice before each competition the past three years. From their years together, the team has also figured out their strengths and weaknesses, according to Loyd.

“We work really well together and always get good teamwork points,” Loyd said. “We’re also very good at building off each other’s ideas and projecting our voices. However, we have a problem with staying in character. We have good characters, but we occasionally fall in and out of them during skits.”

Another member of the Mad Hatters, sophomore Kalena Lee, who has been competing since sixth grade, said she has learned valuable skills from the organization.

“DI has taught me how to think on the spot,” Lee said. “I’ve learned how to be flexible and open to new ideas, not to mention working efficiently under pressure and crunched time.”

The team doesn’t travel far very often, but when they do the time they spend together strengthens the team’s bond.

“Travelling is when we really get to know each other,” Lee said. “The time we spend driving helps us create bonds and friendships together.”

Members from this team plan on competing in DI for the rest of their high school career.

“We’re definitely competing in DI again,” Lee said. “We just need to work on our characters. Sometimes we get too caught up in the fun of the skit to remember that we’re actually competing.”