WHS Academic Team Tied For First Place, and Poised for a Championship Run
by Sarah Grace McElwain
Every year the Walkersville High School Academic team competes against other schools in the county to prove their academic superiority.
Matches are held on the stage of Linganore High School, where three teams of four students all from different schools face off. There are ten academic teams in Frederick County, so one school gets a bye (meaning they do not have to compete) each week.
The teams play five rounds of questions each with a different topic. Some topics include math and geography. For each question answered correctly the team earns a point. Wrong answers will deduct one point each.
The Walkersville Academic team consists of 25 students, but only 20 play a night. However some students usually the best ones on the team can play more than one round a night. “We want our best players to go up more than once,” said English teacher and Coach John Van Bloem.
So far this season the Walkersville Academic team is undefeated, winning a tough match against last year’s champion Urbana High School. They are currently tied for first in the county with Brunswick High School.
A lot of hard work, and dedication goes into becoming a winning team. The team meets twice a week to practice. “We’ll basically just do practice matches over, and over,” said math teacher and coach Darrin Drum.
On certain days the advisors write practice questions, and on other days students write their own to share with the team. These practice questions help the coaches judge who will play at the match that week. “We as coaches take a look at those [questions] and see ‘Alright these students are ready’ or ‘Oh these students aren’t quite ready to play’,” said Drum.
Team members also have to put in time outside of practice studying. Each week the matches have a special themed round that many players spend extra time studying for. Although, there are certain subjects that the team cannot easily prepare for.
“In addition to all of the practices, I probably study for about an hour on the special topic of the week. You can’t really study for the math round except for knowing your equations, and the rest is random knowledge so it’s just learning your basic random facts,” explained junior member Emily Sims.
Despite the pressure, intensity, and time commitment academic team members enjoy what they do. The members have fun with it, and enjoy the competitive atmosphere. Junior Susanna Chen, one of the team’s high-scorers, said her favorite part of Academic team is “The adrenaline rush because when you’re on stage, and you buzz in you get this fleeting moment of happiness, or like euphoria because you got to beat everyone else.” Chen added with a laugh, “and also winning.”
Team members’ thirst for knowledge keeps academic team an interesting, and challenging activity. Improving is one of their main goals. “I’ve done better than I’ve done previously because you learn a lot every single year. I’m getting better, and I really hope that I can contribute more to the team in the future,” said Sims.
The Lions and the Railroaders will be able to fight for the championship title during the County Finals. “We are eager to play them again, but because of a quirk in the schedule we may not meet them until finals night,” said Van Bloem. The team thinks their chances of winning are high. “I think it will be a very competitive match. I think that we can beat them, but we have to play well,” said Drum.
This Friday February 3rd, the Lions will compete against Middletown, and Gov. Thomas Johnson. If they win, and Brunswick loses their tough match against Urbana, and Frederick, Walkersville would move up to first place. Finals will take place on February 24th, at Linganore High School.
Moving in to the end of their season, the academic team keeps up high hopes for a county championship win. “The last time WHS won the county championship was 2006. Maybe this is our year,” hopes Van Bloem.
