Academic team season highlights

Gina Lin
CHS Class of 2024

(3/2023) Life isn’t always about winning. Sometimes, finding genuine enjoyment in everyday activities is more important. Although Catoctin didn’t make it as a top four team in the Academic Tournament competitions, many contestants can agree that they enjoyed participating in the events.

This year marks the 42nd annual Academic Tournament Competition. The program was started in 1982. Catoctin High School and has only won a single tournament, in 1982. Linganore High School accumulated the most wins– nine tournaments. Frederick High and Walkersville High have both won six tournaments. Gov. Thomas Johnson High and Middletown High both maintain five tournament championships. Urbana High and Brunswick High have each won three and Tuscarora has one championship.

Academic Tournament matches follow a similar structure at each game. Matches are divided into five rounds, with three schools competing against each other in each round over a course of eight weeks. Competitions are all held at Frederick High School. The rules are simple– each team participates in seven regular season matches, and the top four teams compete for a final round during the last week. During the 2022 season, Brunswick High School was the tournament champion.

Additionally, competition rules are pretty basic. Each of the rounds is allocated to a specific topic; and players earn a point for each correct answer, while losing a point for an incorrect response. All rounds include buzzers, with an exception of the individual team questions, in Round 2. Round 1 is composed of the "Common Thread" questions– the prompts in this round all exhibit a similar pattern. Round 2 excludes buzzers, as each team can earn points without interference from the other teams, kind of like free throws in basketball.

Points are earned if they answer correctly, and there is no penalty for incorrect answers. During the third round, teams put forth their strongest math players, as this round is reserved for math questions. The same rules apply for this round. In Round 4, players are quizzed on questions that reflect the weekly themes. Some themes include " Greek Mythology" and " World Cup Soccer". The themes change every week, and will require some studying in advance from the teams. The final round, Round 5, is dubbed the "Grab Bag". Contents of this round are implied in its name– trivial questions! The final round seems to be popular among participants. Catoctin’s Audrey Sare said, "My favorite part is the grab bag round because you don't have to study in advance, and it’s cool to represent our school in academics!"

Catoctin’s Academic team was relatively young; with three veteran competitors, out of the eight. The team did well last year so there would be noticeable differences in performance, as most of the team is inexperienced. Catoctin’s Academic team is coached by Doug Young and Rebecca Hurley– both science teachers. The Cougars did secure a victory in the sixth week of competition, against Frederick, Middletown, and Oakdale High Schools. The theme for that week was "Post WWII Europe'' and was held on February 10th. The three teams stayed at an equilibrium at the onslaught of the match. Frederick took the lead in the Math Round at first, but the Cougars prevailed with a point at the round’s conclusion. Round 4 earned Catoctin and Middletown two additional points. At this point, tension increased going into the final round, as the Cougars had a narrow lead against the Knights and Cadets. The Grab Bag proved to be tumultuous, but the Cougars finished the match and won by three points. The final score was Oakdale 7, Middletown 9, Frederick 10, and Catoctin 14. "I felt satisfied that our hard work was starting to pay off," junior Michael Metz discussed.

The Cougars barely missed a victory in week three and four. Week Three competitions were held on January 27th, with the theme being "Oceania Geography". Catoctin contended against Middletown High and Tuscarora High Titans. This match was riveting, as the Cougars, Knights, and Titans were neck-to-neck the entire game. "It is a little disappointing that we weren’t able to overcome the teams, if we did then we would be in sixth place overall, instead of eighth." Sare commented. The lead swung back and forth between the Titans and Knights, but the Titans were able to hold on for a very narrow win. Although the Cougars didn’t secure a round, they earned enough points to be even with the Knights and Titans. Titans took the lead in Round 1 with a score of 3-1-0. The Knights narrowly captured a lead in the second round. In Round 3, the Titans clapped back with a win, and tied the Knights in the specialty theme round. Heading into Round 4, the score totaled: Tuscarora 12, Middletown 10, and Catoctin 6. The Grab Bag was full of anticipation, the Knights added four additional points and had the Titans clutching the lead. The Cougars finished impressively by adding eight points. The final score added up to: Catoctin 14, Knights 14, and Titans 15.

Cougars also played hard in the week four match, which was held on January 27. The theme was " World Cup Soccer". Catoctin, Brunswick, and Frederick competed in the second match. Brunswick started off vigorously by leading with 5 points. The Railroaders continued their successes by earning three more points in the second round. But, the Cougars and Cadets advanced on the Railroaders in the math round. The Railroaders recovered and led by five points in the " World Cup Soccer" round. Catoctin and Frederick, again, rapidly gained points but it wasn't enough to throw off Brunswick. The final score was: Brunswick 13, Catoctin 11, and Frederick 10.

Week five, held on February 3rd, was also a noteworthy competition.

Teams were confronted with the category of "World Religions". Catoctin competed against Brunswick and Urbana. It was interesting to see how events would unfold as the Railroaders and Hawks are strong teams this year. Urbana, unsurprisingly, dominated the first round and led six points over the Cougars, and seven over the Railroaders. The Cougars surprised opponents by tying with Urbana– both teams added six points to their scoreboard. Also, Brunswick earned a point and closed the gap with Urbana. Urbana regained traction in the Specialty Theme round and gained six points, which left them with an 11 point advantage. Cougars secured the final round and tied with the Railroaders. The final score was: Brunswick 9, Catoctin 9, and Urbana 19. "I wasn’t expecting to do that well, and we definitely exceeded everyone's expectations," Metz recalled after the competition.

Overall, the Cougars did pretty well considering the fact that a majority of the team is underclassmen, and there are only two returning players, who are sophomores.