First title in five years on back of powerhouse regular-season performance
On Feb. 20, Haddonfield Memorial High School’s Academic Challenge Team won the Colonial Conference championship for the first time in five years. The team, led by co-captains Sam Tichansky and Mo Jishi, finished this season with a 9–1 record.
When The Sun caught up with Tichansky and faculty advisor Jeff Boogaard on March 15, you could bet that one of the two made sure the championship trophy was clearly visible between them while the interview commenced.
“Academic challenge has been around the school for at least 30 years, maybe longer. This is my second year as the advisor. We look for students who are well-rounded academically, but we have students who are stronger in history, some in science, some in math, literature,” Boogaard related.
“Students compete four at a time, as a team and compete against eight other schools, mostly from Camden County. It’s different from sports (since Haddonfield competes athletically in Group 2), some local schools are closer together, like Haddon Heights and Haddon Township, but some are larger schools and further away schools like Eastern.”
The team begins its preparation each year in November, practicing twice a week after school. Boogaard asks various questions in a “Jeopardy!”-style format of different subjects and team members will practice answering, and practice using buzzers. In that way, it can be easily determined which students are stronger in different subjects and mix them in four at a time. Boogaard admitted there’s some strategy involved, but also sometimes just guessing works.
“We have a variety of questions asked of us. It’s basically 20 academic questions, which could be anything from a math problem to a history tidbit to a grammar question, where you have to identify an antecedent or something to that effect. And then at the end of a round, you get five current events questions about the country and the world,” Tichansky said of how the head-to-head matchups are structured.
“The scoring format goes: If you get a non-current event question correct, you get a bonus question that you discuss with your team; the other team can’t steal it. I feel like we were very good this year because we hit a lot on those bonuses, and we did very good at current events, we were very efficient.”
All schools participate in a 10-game regular season, and the team with the best regular-season record ends up winning a trophy upon whose base the name of the victorious school and year is engraved. Following the regular season, there is a tournament featuring the top four finishers, but the tournament itself doesn’t determine an ultimate champion.
“Sometimes, if there’s a tie at the end of the season, the tournament is the way of breaking the tie. We had the highest record with Sterling High School, but then we beat them head-to-head so that’s why we ended up winning the trophy,” said Boogaard.
Considering this year’s 12-member squad featured six members of the senior class, Tichansky urged anyone who might be interested to give it a try.
“I’m co-captain of the academic challenge team with my friend Mo Jishi. Anyone who is interested in the club and who has a passion for academics can join,” Tichansky added. “I’ve had a lot of fun during my four years of being with this club. I would encourage others to try out if they get the chance.”
The academic challenge team picked up the trophy as winners for the 2018–19 school year at that season-ending tournament. They will be officially honored for their achievement at the March 28 board of education meeting.
