A Team of Their Very Own

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Written by Jeannie Causey, Editor-In-Chief

Thanks to a little hard work, Captain Jag Sparrow, the academic decathlon team mascot has two more team medals to hang around his neck.  Although it did not advance to state level, the ACADEC program brought home some pretty big awards both individually and as a team. The group brought back seven individual awards and two team awards from Saturday’s regional competition at Keller Central High School.

“Acadec is like a sport,” C team member Stewart Poindexter said, “football players only have to play one game, we have to play ten. I would love to see a football guy try and take our tests.”

The team of nine is divided into three sections based on skill level. “A” team consists of junior Hasan Sumdani, senior Will Wood, and senior Davina Sassoon. On “B” team there is senior Anh Nguyen, junior Allison Ninedorf, and senior Derek Pearce. Last but certainly not least is the “C” team consisting of seniors Corban Williams, Ronny Kim, and Stewart Poindexter. Every year there is a main subject that the teams have to study for, and also ten different subject areas on top of that. These subjects touch every branch of education, and can be extremely broad. Chemistry, math, economics, speech, language and literature, interview, art, music, and essay are the ten chosen subjects that the team prepares for the first semester in order to win at the regional competition.

“There isn’t alot of competition between the three sections. I mean we all try to help each other out when we can because we’re a team overall,” A team member Hasan Sumdani said.

On Saturday the team spent all day studying, taking tests, and competing against different schools for first place. They took a break for lunch, and got some sandwiches from Jason’s Deli, and then jumped right back into the race. At the end of the day they were awarded a Bronze medal in Super Quiz, a Silver medal in the Super Quiz Relay, a total of around 35,000 points only 2,000 short of making it to the state competition.

“This year’s competition showed me when you have a goal in mind you can achieve it with the help of a team,” C team member Stewart Poindexter said.

The team has some quirky habits to help them get in the right mind set, ranging from singing “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha, to C team member Corban Williams rapping and singing, to patting the head of the Alphie the alpaca (a llama looking animal) made out of real alpaca fur that sits in the team room.

“Acadec is a lot of fun, and we all get along really well so it makes the experience that much better for us,” Hasan Sumdani said.

For the rest of the year the class will focus on studying the fundamentals of music and economics, and start preparing for next years competition when Summit’s team will battle it out again for a chance at State.

Awards given to Summit’s team:

Silver Medal in Speech – Allison Ninedorf

Gold Medal in Math – Corban Williams

Silver Medal in Math – Anh Nguyen

Bronze Medal in Art – Derek Pearce

Bronze Medal in Super Quiz – Whole Team

Silver Medal in Interview – Davina Sassoon

Gold Medals in Interview – Stewart Poindexter & Corban Williams

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1. thy Says:
   February 6th, 2010 at 4:35 pm

   you spelled Ke$ha wrong! and it’s Captain Jag Sparrow, not Jack Sparrow.
   

   [Reply]

2. Anonnymous Says:
   February 17th, 2010 at 1:05 pm

   Sweet! That’s what’s up guys!

   [Reply]