Trickum Middle School's Academic Team Wins NATIONAL Tournament

Article contributed by Janelle Law who is the parent of Keaton Law, a member of the Trickum Academic Team.

For the first time ever, the Trickum Academic team journeyed to the National tournament held in Washington DC (two other locations also hosted sections of the National tournament – Chicago and New Orleans. Final results were tabulated based on number of losses and then total points for all three locations.) A total of 47 teams competed on the National Level. Competition began on Friday June 1st and continued through to the finals on Sunday, June 3rd.

Throughout the entire tournament, for all three locations, Trickum was the ONLY undefeated team on the National level and set records for their high scores.

The Trickum team, comprised of four eighth graders, Julie Wang, Jordan
Rice, Keaton Law, and Brent Bessemer; one seventh grader, Jason Fan; and one sixth grader, Ansel Ababue: is coached by Cary Sell and Linda LaPerre. The team qualified for the national tournament by winning first place (out of 60 teams) at the GATA state finals and placing second (out of 133 teams) in the PAGE state finals .

Academic Team (sometimes called Quiz Bowl) is a purely knowledge based team. In order to be on the team, you first have to pass a written test, then pass a buzzer test, and finally participate in mock competitions.

Nearly fifty students tried out for the Trickum team this year.

Competitions resemble the game show Jeopardy, only played as teams. Questions cover geography, science, math, language arts, art, history, music, literature, sports, spelling, and current events. This is the 14th year that Trickum has had an Academic Team.

The trip to Washington DC was financed entirely by the families of the team members and by fundraising efforts of the team. While in DC, the team was able to visit the National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, the MLK Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the National Mall.

About our coaches:

Cary Sell is a Certified Georgia Master Teacher. He has been teaching for 21 years, 14 of those at Trickum Middle School, and will be moving to teach at Parkview High School in the coming school year. He has a BS in Biology and both a Masters and Specialists degree in Secondary Science Education. He served as the chair of the gifted department at Trickum for ten years. In addition to co-coaching the Academic Team, he is also in charge of the Trickum Science Fair and serves as the state director for the PAGE Academic Decathalon. He is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia.

Linda LaPerre has been teaching for 29 years, 18 of those as a gifted teacher. She graduated from the University of Texas, received her Masters degree from the University of Houston and her Specialist degree from Nova Southeastern University in Florida.  In addition to co-coaching the Academic Team, she is in charge of the highly acclaimed Trickum Odyssey of the Mind organization.