The academic team is more than a group of brilliant people with big brains. This team has built a community atmosphere that doesn’t center around competitiveness.

“We have a lot of fun,” World History I teacher and academic team coach, Thomas Jordan said. “The students that sign up are typically highly intelligent, and in the setting we have that often comes out as humor.”

Junior and academic team captain, Emma Alpern can attest to good times and good vibes that can be found within the academic team.

 “The team has a great time before, during, and after competitions and practices,” Alpern said. “The whole thing is packed with traditions and unity between team members and with our amazing coach.”

Not only does the academic team offer a time to have fun, but it also offers a chance to get to know teachers who are known and loved from a different standpoint. The humor found within the group is admired not only by Jordan, but by members of the club.

“My favorite parts about being on the team are the crazy, fun practices,” junior and academic team member Kaili Baker said. “When answering a question from Mr. Jordan, someone is bound to say something funny as an answer; I also love seeing a different side to Mr. Jordan. During school hours, he’s known as Mr. Jordan, but during practice hours, he’s known as Mr.Train.”

There are reasons for everything. People reserve the right to make choices and try new things. Baker chose to join the academic team when she was looking for something to do after school.

“I came in not knowing a lot but wanted to see what it was like and how much I would learn from it,” Baker said.

The academic team holds their practices after school on Mondays and Tuesdays and their competitions are held on Wednesdays.

As coach, Jordan puts together practice materials, drives the van to and from competitions, decides who starts in the competitions, and makes necessary substitutions. He has been coaching for nine seasons. 

 “I used to coach softball, but when I had a child, I felt like that was too time-consuming,” Jordan said.

Jordan ultimately decided to coach the academic team as a means of personal gratification.

“I wanted to still do some student activity – working with students in a competitive, fun environment is very rewarding,” Jordan said. “Academic team is something I had done as a student, so it felt like a good fit.”

Alpern has been the team captain for three years. She joined the team as a chance to rekindle her love for Jordan’s class when he was her sixth-grade history teacher. Her role as captain came out of the blue. During Alpern’s freshman year, the team needed a new captain as most of the previous members had graduated. And she happened to fill this role quite nicely.

“The chance to pseudo-re-experience [Jordan’s] class with my past classmates as an extracurricular was very fun and appealing,” Alpern said. “I tended to fill this role the most after a while. Our first competition quickly approached, and Mr. Jordan informed me I would continue serving as captain from then on. I actually didn’t find out until the day of the competition, which was a very interesting surprise to throw at me.”

  Some of her duties are to discuss with her team and choose the best answer as the judges cannot accept any answer except hers when following a specific competition format. Alpern also must contact the team with important information; keep track of the team and get them to where they need to be; address concerns of her teammates; and, at times, she serves as the coach and performs coach-oriented tasks such as keeping score when Jordan is tasked with other things. Hence, Jordan says “she’s basically the assistant coach at this point.”

Alpern’s biggest obstacle is being tasked with choosing an answer during competitions. For her, it is difficult when someone suggests the right answer, but she uses her judgment and goes with another answer that is wrong. Things also get difficult for Alpern when she mishears a teammate or misspeaks as the team does not receive points for mispronounced answers. Because Alpern is a listening ear to others’ answers and knowledge, she sometimes feels guilty whilst serving as captain.

“It’s also difficult to feel like I suit my job well,” Alpern said. “I sometimes feel like I’m not contributing enough to the team as far as my own answers and intelligence.”

While being academic team captain can appear challenging, Alpern doesn’t feel overburdened and works towards further developing the inclusivity that is already present within the team. 

“The team does not typically have many obstacles honestly,” Alpern said. “We genuinely are all friends, and any new members quickly become friends. So there are rarely any disputes among team members. I try my best to work with other highly involved, or long-time, members of the team to help everyone feel included in team traditions. And I help new or unsure members feel ready and capable of serving in a round or two of competitions and getting more comfortable with this.”

The academic team wholeheartedly grasps the idea that fun is a priority on the team and a mutual understanding is present amongst the teammates.

“When being a member of the academic team, my responsibility is to have fun and buzz in when I know the answer,” Baker said. “I also would know to not buzz in when someone else on the team knows the topic really well. Each member knows a certain topic better than the others.”

Although growth is not always linear, in the end, it shines through since there was a time when the academic team was not bringing home many competition wins due to the newness of the freshmen competitors following the graduation of the previous members.

“My favorite part of being the team captain is witnessing my team grow,” Alpern said. “Our first year, freshman year, the entire team was new to the competitions and wasn’t performing well. But it was still incredible to see everyone just happy to be there and participate, and still be so happy to try our best even if we lost.”

Overall, togetherness and enjoyment is what makes the academic team so successful. Their wins do not define them, for the wins are solely an added bonus.

“Academic team is honestly far more fun than anything else, and competitiveness only adds to this fun, not takes away from it,” Alpern said.