A “Fun Side Quest:” books, basketball, and…Ireland?

Carmen Thomas
onwardtrojans.com

What activity could possibly combine literature, basketball, and 1900s-era Ireland? The answer might be unexpected: Academic Superbowl, where teams of students compete in English, science, math, fine arts, and social studies.
“They explore that topic, and then get together with other kids,” said English teacher Jennifer Jendrzejczyk, team sponsor. “They study, eat Oreos and snacks, and just geek out over this one thing. Then they go test their knowledge and hopefully take home some hardware.” She described the activity as “just a fun side quest.”
This year’s theme? Ireland in the 20th century.
“We’re talking about things like The Dubliners by James Joyce, the diaspora, the Potato Famine, quaternions, Graph Theory, the Cranberries, U2, and Irish biologists.”
The math team is the most successful this year, according to Jendrzejczyk: seniors Quinn Fleming, Sam Macker, and Luke Sparks.
“We had a streak going from last year of first places,” said Sparks. “But we messed it up at the DAC meet.”
The students on the team studied Irish math with the help of their AP Calculus teacher, Chris Hackett.
“We looked through some slideshows, watched some YouTube videos,” Sparks said.
Macker said they also did a math test and Fleming added that they “split up the jobs, so we divide and conquer.”
And conquer, they do.
“You can see right away when a kid knows the answer,” Jendrzejczyk said. “You can see them sort of jump at the captain, who has to write down the answers. Then you can see them high-fiving each other, waiting for the 20-second timer to go off. I feel a little Mama-Bear-ish, you know?”
When asked why they enjoy Academic Superbowl, the math contestants said it had had more to do with the breaks between rounds than the rounds themselves.
“Hacket recruited us last year…He’s a cool guy so we did it. And it looks good for colleges. It’s a good way to test ourselves,” Sparks said. His teammates seconded that. Then he added: “And we can play basketball.”
Academic Superbowl travels to other high schools to compete, where, according to Macker, “there’s always a basketball court.” Fleming added, “Yeah, we have a lot of free time where we just play basketball.”
Shooting hoops seems to be the highlight of it all, at least for the math team. But for the English team, it’s a bit different.
“I just love English,” said junior Sophia Sylvester, English team captain. “It’s my happy spot. I love looking at different perspectives.”
Sylvester oversees Jane Lewis, Sloane Colburn, and Callum Webb. Together, the team studies novels, plays, and poetry.
“I have to read two books this year, The Dubliners and The Playboy of the Western World. I have to read seven poems…I read each material, annotate, and try to make my own notes,” Sylvester said.
Out of all the material she’s read this year, her favorite is The Playboy of the Western World.
“They fall in love with a murderer. It’s the most messed-up play I’ve ever read. Doesn’t make any sense at all. It actually faced a ton of backlash back in its day, in 1907,” she said. “It’s like ‘Why would you write this?’ but at the same time, it’s funny.
The English team placed 3rd at its last competition, the Valparaiso Invitational.
To qualify to state, teams need to meet the minimum state-wide cutoff, which fluctuates every year.
The Academic Superbowl team will compete at the Area Tournament on Tuesday, April 22nd this year, where the team will find out who is going to state.