Academic team wins first competition
Photo courtesy of "Its Academic"
Sophomore Jack Plumer, Academic Team captain junior Drew Forthman, and sophomore Paul Capobianco (left to right) pose with the Academic Team moderator Chris Deaver, sophomores Pierce Berger and Ryan Newberry, freshmen Alexis Loder and Leo Hojnowski, and former Russian teacher Edward Miller (left to right back row) at the taping of “It’s Academic.” The team beat Hereford High School and Calvert High School in the first round of the show on the Sept. 24 game.
On Sept. 24, the JC Academic Team won their first-round competition on the TV show “It’s Academic.”
The team went down to the WJZ-TV studios to compete against Hereford High School and Calvert High School as well as film their first episode for the show.
“It’s Academic” is a quiz-show where high school teams compete against each other by trying to answer questions from various categories. The show is made up of five rounds. During three rounds, students from any team can answer questions, but in two of the rounds,questions are asked to each team specifically.
Each school’s team is made up of three students. The JC team that competed on Saturday was made up of junior Drew Forthman and sophomores Paul Capobianco and Jack Plumer.
According to Academic Team moderator Chris Deaver, the competition was a close one throughout the day. All three teams were tied until the end of the third round when JC began to pull ahead.
“We did pretty well in [the third] round. This is where we started to separate ourselves from the other teams, and by the end of that round we had a 20 point lead on Hereford,” Deaver said. JC ended the third round with 300 points, Hereford ended the round with 280 points, and Calvert ended the round with 220 points.
However, the score was tied again by the end of the fourth round between JC and Hereford who both finished with 420 points each.
The team finished strong and won in the fifth round, according to Deaver. “In the fifth round, we just killed them. We totally dominated,” Deaver said.
When the competition ended JC had 530 points, Hereford had 480 points, and Calvert had 380 points.
The team was very proud of their win on Saturday, especially after losing a group of talented seniors and their moderator, Bob Schick, at the end of last year. “We didn’t expect to do badly, but we didn’t expect to do great either since it is a rebuilding year and most of our team last year was seniors, and they all left,” Capobianco said.
The second round match will be Jan. 8 against North Hagerstown High School and Urbana High School, and while the team hopes to continue to do well, they are unsure of their future performances. “We probably will do well this year, just not as great as last year,” Capobianco said.
The JC Academic Team’s competition against Hereford and Calvert will air Nov. 5 on WJZ.
Grace Mottley is the Assignment Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.