Students are encouraged to join a great academic opportunity 

Many students take part in Poland Seminary High School’s Academic Challenge Team and for great reasons too. The Academic Challenge team offers many learning opportunities as well as a fun extracurricular activity. 

The team has a very long history, the three most recent coaches include Ms. Rinehart, Mrs. Ross, and current coach, Mr. Suchora.

Suchora states, “I’m just part of a long succession of a long and proud tradition, so we were good for a long time; the,n we’ve had rebuilding years and better years.” 

Academic Challenge is much like the popular trivia game show Jeopardy, and it is a small but strong team.

For those who may be thinking about joining, Suchora explains, “if you pride yourself in your intellectual athleticism. If you tend to be somebody who enjoys trivia. If you’re somebody who knows a lot of things about a lot of things. If you like to play Jeopardy and impress your family with the width and breadth of your knowledge-obscure knowledge at that, or current events, then Academic Challenge is kind of right up your alley.”

As for the students involved with the Academic Challenge team, they are all having a good time with it, and agree that it is a good experience. 

Junior, Avery Doctor states, “Academic Challenge is a lot of fun; it’s very low stress, and there’s quite a few things that you don’t know, so you get to learn some fun facts, and you don’t have to worry about messing up.” 

Getting involved with the team is not very hard either; all it takes is a quick visit to Mr. Suchora’s classroom. Although many of the current competitors were advised to join by some of their older friends. 

“So all of my brother’s friends, when I was a freshman, and they were seniors, wanted more freshmen to join, so they saw me as a younger sibling, so I got roped into it,” explains senior Philip Hockensmith. 

Hockensmith said that as the years went on, he grew to like it more and more. Stating that the more knowledge you have makes it more entertaining and you feel more accomplished. 

Sophomore Hope Sines was also advised by a friend to join and has had a good experience with the team. 

“It’s fun, I like it! I like the people too!” said Sines .

The team may be small, but the knowledge they all present at meets prevails and makes them all the more competitive.

Suchora elaborates, “Our kids are competitive. I tend to be less competitive because I’d rather everybody just have fun.” 

The tournaments are pretty simple as well. They play two games. Each game is 24 questions. Five seconds to answer a question once buzzed in, and 10 seconds to answer a math question. 

Practices are quite similar, by acquiring more knowledge about certain subjects through playing old games, and practicing buzzing in, and keeping time. 

Any student who is interested in joining the Academic Challenge team is highly encouraged to do so!

Hope Sines concludes by saying, “Join Academic Challenge!”