The BHHS Model UN Team is ranked among the best in the nation.

“There’s a website called bestdelegate.com and it looks at the success of schools and teams across the country,” said Model UN coach Matthew MacLeod. “Because of our success at Michigan State, we were recognized, along with one other school, as being the two best teams in the state of Michigan and therefore two of the best teams in the country.”

According to the website, the 25 teams in the Midwest Region consists of 12 states and the two schools from Michigan were BHHS and Cranbrook.

MacLeod  explained that along with the team’s success at tournaments, other factors were reviewed.

“The panel is a group of former Model UN participants from across the country who look at recommendations from other teams and they recognize teams with a strong history of accomplishment,” he said. “Fortunately the Bloomfield team has been pretty strong over the past few years so their panel acknowledged and recognized our team.”

Upon hearing the news, Model UN representative senior Tamer El-Gamel said he “was very excited and proud of the team for the accomplishment. It’s one thing to win state titles, it’s another to be nationally ranked so this is a huge step forward for BHHS Model UN and for BHHS as a whole. This team has grown so much over the years and I am honored to be a part of it.”

MacLeod adds that although the purpose of Model UN is not for the awards, he dies “appreciate the recognition because we had a group of kids last year who worked incredibly hard. They work together to unify the team and I appreciated those students being recognized because a team winning an award doesn’t mean much to a coach, it’s all about the students and I felt great having our students recognized for all their hard work.”

Looking forward MacLeod said this recognition only adds to his confidence in his students’ abilities to make the season another success.

“Every year is a whole new battle with a whole new team. While it was great to be recognized for last year we are already beginning to focus our attention toward this year. We have to work even harder every year because people know who we are now we have a reputation,” he said.  “Last year was an incredibly strong team but it seems like every year a whole new group of students step up, take the mantle from the last team, and just keep running.”