by: Sydney Carper

Oakdale High School’s academic team has been around for six years and is one of the school’s most successful groups. This past season they won two 1st place matches, three 2nd place matches, and two 3rd place matches. They finished their season by coming in 6th overall in the county.

There were 21 people on the team this year, and they met twice a week for an hour and a half. The team practiced assorted trivia, ringing the bells, and conversing with their teammates during this time. A significant portion of the practices was also dedicated to establishing lineups.

 Senior, Chase Lemley, explained that his brother, who was on the team for two years before, would always tell him how amazing it was, so Lemley wanted to join the team to show his own skills, and has been on the team for all four years of high school.

Lemley felt the academic team was more competitive than he expected. He described the 2015-2016 season as “being pretty good for Oakdale”, but he admitted “[his] first two years were a joke as Oakdale was undoubtedly the worst.” However, he wasn’t discouraged.

Senior John Sun modestly voiced that, “a big part of [the academic team’s] success is the dedication of the coaches” before adding that Ms. Anne Truitt and Mr.Nate Smarick go the extra mile.

Sun revealed that a major accomplishment the team made this year was that Oakdale was the only team in the county to beat the championship team Brunswick. Sun also admitted he is “really proud of of how [the team] was able to band together this year, losing by one point in the semifinals round.” Many may think such a loss is a low point for the team, but Sun “is thankful for all the fun [the team] had this season”.

Sun gave some advice to people thinking about joining the academic team by saying, “If you think you can do it, go for it- A lot of the members are seniors so they will need new talent..

Lemley revealed that, “confidence is worth so much on this team”.

Both seniors expressed their desire for a larger student section, and implored that matches are more fun than people think.
After their accomplishments this season, people will definitely want to check out the academic team in the future.