On Nov. 16 and 17, Bel Air High School hosted an academic tournament and the BAHS Academic Team received 2nd place out of the 18 teams competing.
The Academic Team has two coaches, Mrs. Bates and Mrs. Roppelt. The team has met for an hour after school every Wednesday to set up their buzzer system and practice buzzing in their answers. Questions range from math to sports, science to literature, and anything else that can be thought of.
Last year, competing in the Bel Air Invitational, the Academic Team only made it to the semifinals. This year the team improved and placed 2nd.
Mrs. Bates commented, “We area more well-rounded than last year, I think. The A team has some students good at literature, a student good at science and chemistry, students good at math, and one good with sports. So I think we are a more balanced team. We have won the county tournament for the past three years and we are going for our fourth win and I definitely think we are strong enough to do that.”
Mrs. Roppelt and Mrs. Bates have coached the Academic Team for 7 years; they each began one year after they started teaching.
Mrs. Roppelt said, “Mrs. Payne, who used to teach at Bel Air said she no longer wanted to coach the Academic Team and asked if Mrs. Bates and I would be interested in taking over the team. So we took over the team because we had taught for one year and we wanted to get involved in some kind-of extracurricular activity and this was a really good match for us. Since we started until now, I think we really built a team, a strong team.”
The next tournament the Academic Team will be competing in is at Hammond High school on Saturday, Jan. 11.