In our view: Champions

May 05, 2008 09:19 pm

— Earning a championship is hard. Winning it again is even harder.
Winning it six of the past seven years is incredibly impressive.
That’s what the Academic Bowl team at Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School has done. The team competed Friday at the Missouri State High School Activities Association state championship in Columbia and won the first-place trophy in Class 1.
Academic Bowl events are like game shows: Teams score points by activating a buzzer and answering a question. Those questions are varied, detailed and, well, hard.
In terms of difficulty, Academic Bowl is much more like “Jeopardy” than “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” It covers a wide range of topics from advanced-placement math to pop culture. We like to think of ourselves as trivia buffs and hoarders of useless information, but the six members of T.J.’s team would probably roll us up like Jeff Foxworthy’s eyes.
Though the team has practice sessions, a competitor in Academic Bowl never stops studying. However, T.J.’s team members know about the value of teamwork.
In conversations on Monday with the Globe, we learned that each member of the team has areas of expertise. One knows sports and music, another is interested in current events and a third is the team’s authority on African capital cities.
The team did its job last week by competing against seven other teams and winning the title.
Congratulations to team members Virginia Geddie, Michael Madden, Will Humphreys, Stephanie Smith, Michael Reinsvold and Adam Ondo. You’ve set the bar high, and we’re proud of you.

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