The UC High Academic League Team begins the 2019-2020 season with a win against Cathedral Catholic.

   Academic League is a non-physical sport where teams of students compete in trivia competitions against other local high schools. 

   UC High has three teams: novice, junior varsity (JV), and varsity. Typically, the Novice Team, coached by Teacher Scott Patterson for the last three years, is for ninth and tenth graders.  Junior varsity, coached by Teacher Aaron Pores, is for anyone eleventh grade and under. Junior varsity matches last 25 minutes. Lastly, varsity is open to all grades but is geared toward seniors. This year, varsity consists of five seniors and four juniors. Huszar has coached varsity for the past six years. Each varsity match is 30 minutes long. All of UC High’s competitions are held in the Media Center.

   During a competition, five people from each team sit at the competing table with a buzzer for each player. The questions can be about pretty much any topic ranging from things about pop-culture to math to history to science. Senior Richard Masserfry said, “The questions are on a broad range of topics, drawing from both STEM fields and humanities. There are even some questions concerning current events and recent politics, so it helps to stay up to date.” 

   The team as a whole contributes to all topics, but each member has different strong suits. “I’m probably best at anything science-related. Each person on our team knows most topics, but our weakness right now is literature,” said Junior Peter Eckmann.

   Competitions require the teams to answer a variety of different types of questions including “toss-ups” and bonus questions. Senior Alexis Engebretson explained, “A toss-up is a question anyone can answer from either team. You buzz in when you know the answer, and if you’re wrong the other team gets to answer and you lose five points.”

   “However, if you are right then it is ten points and you get a bonus question which has three parts where each part is worth ten points. The questions are asked by a moderator and teams can make substitutions whenever they wish,” Engebretson continued.

   There are many reasons Huszar took on the mantle of coaching. “I was on the Academic League Team when I was in high school, and I think it is very cool to know random interesting stuff. We go to school to learn so much; why not express that proudly?” said Huszar. 

   “I love the reaction kids get when they pull some random fact out of a part of their brain they hadn’t even thought of in months or even years,” explained Huszar.   

   President Junior Elle Truchan has been competing since her freshman year. “I found out about the team on our school’s website and learned more about it during club rush. I was intrigued to learn about a variety of topics as I feel I’m best at helping contribute miscellaneous facts. I think anyone interested should join as it’s really fun and a good way to meet new people,” noted Truchan.

   The team practices once a week, on Thursdays during lunch, all year long. Competitions began on January 30 and will continue until March 12.