On March 24, the high school's academic competition team emerged victorious at the Chester County Academic Competition. The event is organized by the Chester County Intermediate. Unit (CCIU) and sponsored by the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union and Chester County Regional Education Services (CCRES) Educational and Behavioral Health Service.
The high school team beat 23 other schools and will go on to represent Chester County at the Pennsylvania Academic State Competition on May 2.
The academic team is composed of students from all grade levels and is supervised by Mr. Kevin Long, a math teacher at the high school. "We answer questions from a variety of categories, including literature, world and American history, math, science, and current events. Every month we compete with two other high schools, with some questions being answered individually ... and others being answered after talking with your teammates and writing the answer on a whiteboard," said senior Thomas Gibson, one of the captains.
During the fall and winter, practices are held after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During the spring, practices are held during Lunch and Learn to not conflict with spring sports schedules. In addition to the CCIU competition, the team also participates in other quizbowl competitions to face off against other schools. "We also like to hop on Protobowl, which is a website that has questions similarly formatted to the ones on the competition, and you can buzz in and type your answer as it's written out," said Gibson. The team is divided into Varsity and Junior Varsity (JV) teams. Students are ranked by their ability to answer questions quickly and accurately. "You don't have to be super knowledgeable or good at answering questions quickly to join the academic team," said Gibson. "It's open to anyone, and even if you're not that good your first year, if you practice enough, you will become better with being quick on the buzzer and listening for clues in the questions that will lead to an answer."
The team was led to victory by four student leaders: seniors Anand Shah, Ismaeel Qureshi, and Thomas Gibson, and junior Katie Connolly. They achieved this position through years of steady improvement and dedication. "Some of our top varsity players weren't even good enough to make the JV team their first year...but they kept showing up to practices and learning, and they got much better by their senior year," said Gibson.