The spring sports season has been in full swing for a few weeks now, but one winter group here at East Noble is just drawing to a close: Academic Super Bowl. On Tuesday, April 18, the group headed to Hamilton High School to compete against five other area schools in its third and final competition, the state qualifier. In the end, none of our EN teams secured a spot in the state competition in May.

“It was a fun experience,” said Zarna Patel, a junior on the math, science, and interdisciplinary teams. “I am ready to do better next year.”

The Academic Super Bowl team consists of six smaller teams: English, science, fine arts, social studies, math, and interdisciplinary (a combination of the previous five). Each team sits at a table and answers 25 multiple choice questions as they are read, one at a time, by the emcee. While each team score contributes to the school’s overall score, only individual team scores determines which groups move on to the state competition.

The biggest success stories of the night revolve around DeKalb’s social studies team and Lakeland’s English team, which qualified for the state finals. Since 4,980 students from 275 Indiana schools competed in Academic Super Bowl this year, this victory is a huge achievement for them.

DeKalb also followed up its NE8 win by placing first overall at Hamilton, answering 99 of the possible 150 questions correctly. Full results are as follows:

1st: DeKalb – 99
2nd: Lakeland – 78
3rd: East Noble – 73
3rd: Angola – 73
5th: Fremont – 59
6th: Hamilton – 58
7th: Prairie Heights – 49

Although these placings have absolutely no influence on state qualification, each school prides itself by vying for the top spot, and our EN students were thrilled to have come in third place, although they were in second place and close to first at a few points during the competition.

After finishing in fifth place out of six schools at the NE8 Conference in March, our group had limited hopes of making it to state, so a third place victory is a victory nonetheless.

Of the seven schools involved, our fine arts team did the best, placing second behind DeKalb with a score of 14 out of 25. Our social studies team experienced similar success, placing second behind DeKalb with a score of 13. The English and interdisciplinary teams ultimately finished in fourth with 13 and 11, respectively, while the science team placed fifth with 12 points and the math team placed sixth with 10 points.

Individual team scores are as follows:

Science
DeKalb – 18
Lakeland – 16
Fremont – 15
Angola – 14
East Noble – 12
Hamilton – 10
Prairie Heights – 9

Fine Arts
DeKalb – 18
East Noble – 14
Hamilton – 12
Lakeland – 11
Angola – 11
Prairie Heights – 9
Fremont – 8

Social Studies
DeKalb – 19
East Noble – 13
Angola – 12
Prairie Heights – 7
Hamilton – 7
Lakeland – 7
Fremont – 5

Math
Fremont – 17
DeKalb – 16
Angola – 13
Prairie Heights – 12
Lakeland – 11
East Noble – 10
Hamilton – 6

English
Lakeland – 20
Angola – 15
DeKalb – 14
East Noble – 13
Hamilton – 13
Fremont – 7
Prairie Heights – 0 (no team)

Interdisciplinary
DeKalb – 14
Lakeland – 13
Prairie Heights – 12
East Noble – 11
Hamilton – 10
Angola – 8
Fremont – 7

The seven schools were also divided into their four respective classes. Unfortunately, East Noble was unable to overcome DeKalb, its sole opponent, in any of the categories, although the EN English team maintained a strong lead over DeKalb until the final three questions.

Only one EN team has managed to qualify for state in the past two decades—the interdisciplinary team back in 2014, which only team members Michael Lehman and Emily Engle remember. The two seniors will be graduating next month alongside Sage Halsey, Lief Brandgard, Kristin Baermann, and Cassidy Fisher, a few of whom have participated in Academic Super Bowl all four years.

With a small roster comprised of juniors, seniors, and two freshmen, EN’s Academic Super Bowl team will definitely need some new recruits next year. The group is tight-knit, has a lot of fun, and has a history of welcoming new members with open arms.

“Being able to learn and connect with others through study, I believe, is a great thing,” said Makinzie Slone, a freshman on the fine arts team. “It’s extremely fun and I enjoy it very much.”

The team’s five coaches have a lot of fun as well. This year Mr. Swartz, Mr. Hamlin, Miss Salway, and Mrs. Mapes returned to coach science, math, social studies, and English (respectively) while Miss Christian, EN’s newest history teacher, coached the fine arts team for the first time.

“I was really excited to be able to be a part of a new community at ENHS,” she said. “As a new teacher, it was a good way to meet some students I did not have in class as well as share my love of fine art.”

This might not have been the group’s most successful season, but its legacy of fun and camaraderie was evident this year and will undoubtedly return when next January rolls around. The category for next year’s competition is World War I, so hopefully they come back armed with knowledge and ready to fight.