Vail Christian Cyber Saints roll to state title, finish third in national event

EDWARDS — Winning a state title is good. Winning a state title in something that can become a lucrative career is better.

The Vail Christian High School Cyber Saints recently won a Colorado state title and finished third nationally in the Gold Tier of the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition.

Cyber Saints/CyberPatriots

The CyberPatriot competition is part of the National Youth Cyber Education Program. It pits teams of high school and middle school students against each other in the scenario of newly-hired IT professionals.

Their job is to manage the network of a small company and keep out bad guys — cyber scoundrels.

“They give us an unsecured system that they had made vulnerable. We have to harden the system, secure it,” Jordan Ehrlich, a member of the senior boys team, said.

“Also, we’re not just keeping bad guys out. We’re making it harder for them to get in,” Keaton Brausch said.

There’s a subtle but distinct difference. If you’re these kids, you understand what it is. You learn it the same way you learn and improve any skill set.

“It’s the interest, the ‘want’ to do well,” Ehrlich said.

Understanding computers helps, Brausch said.

“We went in already pretty good at using computers. The drive to succeed in the competition caused us to learn,” Ehrlich said.

The Cyber Saints competed against 932 teams across the country, based largely on the same scenarios.

“Our goal is to fix as many vulnerabilities in the system, and fix more than all the other schools,” Ehrlich said.

Scores are based on how many vulnerabilities teams fix, and how difficult those fixes were to make.

Teams have six hours from the time they log in. Scoring is live, so competitors know where they stand all the time.

They had a small technical glitch that might have cost them the title. Ehrlich’s work somehow disappeared with about 30 minutes left, and he had to start over, Pyke said.

Vail Christian also entered one of the nation’s all-girls teams, Team Girl Power. Madison Ritsch, Mollie Ritsch and Blake Layman finished second in the state in their tier and 133rd nationally of 932 teams.

Preparation is key

As with any competition, preparation is everything.

“You can’t just dive into this,” Ehrlich said. “There are all sort of materials online to help you prepare for the competition.”

Cisco Systems provides materials that help prepare for the networking part of the competition. Regular people have to pay Cisco to get access to this sort of material. Jim Pyke, the team’s sponsor and coach, said Cisco gives it to these teams for the registration fee.

Teams range from three to five students from middle and high schools. Every team goes through two rounds and you’re scored on two challenges from each round.

Those first two rounds are early winter, then mid-winter.

Vail Christian’s three teams advanced to the state round. The senior boys team won a state title with skills they’ll apply for the rest of their lives — building firewalls, configuring routers and switches.

Three tiers, one goal

There are three tiers. The gold tier, where VCHS competed during its rookie season, is the middle tier. To make the nationals you have to make the top tier, platinum, and be one of the top 12 teams.

“This is our first year. Not many first-year teams are as successful as these guys were. The work they did, the way they rolled their sleeves up, how they understood the material is amazing,” Pyke said.

That platinum tier can be pretty heady stuff. Competitors travel to Baltimore for the national finals and during the competition meet with Cisco, the Department of Defense, and other industry heavy hitters, Pyke said.

“We are so proud of these students,” Steve O’Neil, the headmaster at VCHS, said. “They were coding late into the night on several Friday nights. VCHS is fortunate to have Jim Pyke teaching these students how to solve real-world problems.”

Real life/cyber life

Team members worked their CyberPatriot competitions around all sorts of other stuff — basketball, track, and a bunch of other stuff.

The season starts in the spring and runs through mid-winter. Pyke will start again in April with next year’s teams. They’ll do some exhibitions in May through July. When school starts they begin practicing in earnest.

“Seeing how the kids were so excited, how engaged they were, all the learning and things they were exposed to, it’s unbelievable,” Pyke said.

Pyke said the Cyber Saints already know more than many college students studying this field.

“It helps when it’s something I’ll use in the future,” Brausch said.

There are countless jobs available in this field.

The government is creating a pipeline to train these people, and pays them pretty well. Private firms such as Cerner Systems plucks them away by paying them vastly more, Pyke said.

via:: Vail Daily