A competitor boards a bus with their team for their first ever meet. They enter the location of the event, shuffling up to their spot. Their fingers tremble over a buzzer as they await their moment to shout the correct answer. The question is spoken, and they pounce on their chance. A smile fills their face when they realize they are right. This is what a typical Academic Challenge match looks like for Revere High School (RHS) students and the expected appearance of them for the rest of the 2024-2025 school year.
As students settle into their schedules, clubs begin to open their doors to new members. Academic Challenge began their tryouts on September 16, 2024 for their Varsity and Junior Varsity teams. The team consists of seventeen students. They had their first competition on October 7, 2024 at Cuyahoga Falls.
New opportunities are presented to students this year, as emphasized by co-advisers Jeff Fry and Nicholas Kos, as well as senior member Samuya Sharma.
“This fall, we have two Varsity teams competing [as well as] a JV (Junior Varsity) team,” Fry said.
Six new freshmen have joined Academic Challenge, making a “pretty strong” new team, Fry said. Team member Sharma added on to the thought, agreeing with Fry’s statement.
“In tryouts, we had to cut a lot of really good people because there’s so many people that want to do it. They were really good,” Sharma said.
The team is already succeeding, especially when it comes to achieving one of Fry’s overarching goal: winning a championship. The team boasted great success at their first match, already sending them down a path that may lead them right to a trophy.
“The [Varsity team] won all of their events,” Kos said. A perfect streak means winning all seven rounds. Sharma added his insight into their win as a member of the Varsity team.
“We won all our matches by a lot. It’ll definitely get harder as the year progresses,” Sharma said.
“I think we’ll continue to do well and we’ll improve over the year. I think we’re in a really good position to improve. . . . We have a ton of sophomores and freshmen, so I think the future’s very bright for Academic Challenge. We have a lot of people that are really good,” Sharma said.
Kos explained more about the experience the Junior Varsity team had at the competition.
“They lost one time to a team that had two of our members on it because that team was short. . . . Rather than have that team forfeit, it [became] good practice,” Kos said. Instead of letting their fellow competitors lose out on an opportunity, the Junior Varsity team gave up two of their own team members to allow their challengers a chance to compete.
The Junior Varsity team showed off both their academic capabilities as well as their sportsmanship at the match.
With a strong new team, the Academic Challenge team hits their buttons and speeds through trivia, hoping to take home the title of champion.
