In North Shore high school District 128, saying “We’re back!” at the state math finals can be confusing.
Vernon Hills High School’s math team, defending state Class 3AA champions, is, indeed, returning to the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) state meet May 2, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Also returning to Champaign is District 128’s Libertyville High School math team. The Wildcats won state in 2013 and finished second in state last year.
Between the two schools, there are seven state championship trophies in math competition since the millennium. Vernon Hills won Class 2A in 2001 and Class 3AA in 2008, 2009 and 2014. LHS won in 2003, 2004 and 2013.
VHHS math coach Cheryl Ballenger said the school district’s whole success is a sum of its parts. Besides having motivated, high-achieving students and math departments that challenge them, “it’s also a testament to the middle school teachers (in the feeder districts), because incoming freshmen enter the two high schools with very strong backgrounds in math,” Ballenger said.
Ballenger, who leads the post-season math competition coaching, is part of a coaching team of Steven Korney, Jessica Chapman and Brittany Redig.
VHHS had 50 students out for the math team this school year, typical of recent years.
Many mathletes in District 128 have known each other since middle school, with familiarity breeding both friendship and rivalry.
“No one likes to lose to someone we know so closely,” said LHS mathlete Elliot Stahnke.
The intellectual competition extends beyond mathematics.
“The kind of people who do math team are on all the other types of academic competition,” said Stahnke. “We’re on Model UN, WYSE (Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering) and Science Olympiad.”
