When you’ve done all you can for yourself, your team and your school, you have to leave the sum of your efforts to a higher power, as Aiden Conley did.
Conley, a senior for Andrean High School in his last year competing during the 37th Annual Academic Super Bowl at Merrillville High School Wednesday evening, was a bit rattled after the Social Studies portion of the competition. Unlike last year, when the competition’s theme was Canada, this year’s was the Age of Exploration: 1400-1650, and it was a lot.
“This year was a little rough, so it’s God’s hands now,” Conley said.
In its second year after the pandemic, there was one big change to rules this year, Merrillville’s Academic Sponsor Janelle Bowen said: The Interdisciplinary portion of the contest would be invite-only as opposed to a category in the competition for the Senior division. Instead, the squads with the highest cumulative scores over all five categories would be invited to state, she said.
Eight of the 15 squads attending will move on to the state finals May 6, according to the Indiana Association of School Principals’ website.
Students start getting their practice material at the end of November or early December, and they have the option to participate in invitationals in their areas, Bowen said, of which there’s usually one or two.
Andrean, which is sending its Fine Arts and Math Squads to state, was pretty pleased with its performance overall, Coach Deb Price said. For being only a Class 3 school, her squads were competitive with the Class 1 and 2 schools, she felt.
Andrean junior Chris Marlow proudly held his blue ribbon in English as the team waited for the others to finish.
“Like sports, this is the end of our season: Spell Bowl is first, the Quiz Bowl, the Super Bowl,” Marlow said. “It’s fun to do and gives you a sense of accomplishment.”
“We have meetings once a week to train where we do practice questions, and then there’s a lot of on-your-own work,” Conley added. “It’s like 50% memorization and 50% application.”
Hammond Central High School had its first workable team in a year participate Wednesday, Coach Megan Brown said. Between COVID and Hammond’s merging three schools into one, she’s up for the challenge.
“Not all of the schools had an Academics team — Gavit did, and Hammond High did — so a lot of these kids didn’t know they could do it, and we’re starting from scratch,” Brown said. “We’re starting from the ground up again, so if you didn’t show up to practice but came here today with a permission slip and said you studied and are ready to go, I’m happy to give you a chance.”
Seneea Boyd, a Hammond Central sophomore, came from Gavit but didn’t participate in any of the bowls. She participated in the science portion, and she was glad she took the chance.
“I enjoyed learning about the different subjects — especially the biology — and I enjoyed the poems. It’s like trivia to me,” Boyd said. “I plan on sticking with it.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
State qualifiers
The following local schools qualified in several categories for the state competition on May 6 at Purdue University.
Class 1
Valparaiso High School — English
Crown Point High School — Fine Arts, Science and Interdisciplinary
Lake Central High School — Interdisciplinary
Munster High School — Science
Class 2
Lowell High School — Interdisciplinary, Math and Social Studies
Class 3
Boone Grove High School — Fine Arts and Interdisciplinary
Wheeler High School — Fine Arts
Andrean High School — Fine Arts and Math
Class 4
Hebron High School — English
Kouts Middle/Sr. High School — English, Interdisciplinary, and Science
Washington Twp Mid/High School — English, Fine Arts, Interdisciplinary, and Science
