Team Phoenix soars in tourney: High school Academic Challenge team is conference champion

The Oberlin High School Academic Challenge team closed out a very successful year of competition with matches at the Ohio Academic Competition Northeast Regional Tournament at Copley High School on Saturday, April 26.

Team Phoenix joined the 14 other top teams in the Northeast Region of Ohio in competing at Copley for an opportunity to finish as one of the top two teams in the region and advance to the state finals in Columbus on May 3.

Oberlin earned its berth in the NE Regional Tournament by virtue of its undefeated season and championship title in the Patriot Athletic Conference Scholastic Challenge held at Lorain County Community College from January through March.

"The kids were very relaxed despite being in a tournament with several past regional and state champions," said coach Rick McDaniel. "Their year-long season has given them a lot of match experience and personal maturity. They were definitely ready to go."

The regional tournament was a double-elimination competition with a possibility of 10 rounds of matches during the day. The Oberlin academic's opening match was against the Comets of Solon High School.

In attendance and competing for the Phoenix were Nora Stewart, Kevin Gilfether, Emily Frye, Dyani Sabin, Avery Kalyn and Ian Ting.

The match stayed close throughout the first two rounds with a scoring difference just several points either way, however, Solon pulled away with a tremendous showing in the final Lightning Round to take a 59-35 victory. One particular member of the Solon team buzzed-in first for 17 of the 20 Lightning Round questions and answered 15 of them correctly by himself. It was an amazing solo performance and the Solon whiz-kid received a round of spontaneous and heartfelt applause from the Oberlin team at the end of the match.

Despite losing the match, Oberlin spirits were upbeat as their overall performance and scoring in the advanced-level match was excellent. Coach Jason Craigo had nothing but praise for the Oberlin effort.

"Solon is a perennial power in state competition and for our kids to stay with them point-for-point for two rounds says a lot for our team. I was really pleased with our team's display of sportsmanship at the end of the match. The Solon folks seemed to appreciate it, too," Craigo said.

Round two found the Oberlin team squared against Chippewa High School from Doylestown. From the very beginning it was all Team Phoenix, with OHS leading in the match with a 28-16 lead after the first round alone. When the final question had been asked and answered, Oberlin had a very decisive 35-22 win and Chippewa's tournament was over as the OHS victory was the second loss that day for the Chipps.

"Great match," said McDaniel of the win. "Regionals are tough, very tough, and our kids wanted to win at least one match, not go two-and-out like we did in 2006. They achieved their goal of winning at least one this time and they did it in very convincing fashion."

The Phoenix day did end in the third round, though. Matched against Beachwood High School, Oberlin fell behind by eight points in the first round and could never manage to make up the deficit. The final score was 33-26 in favor of Beachwood.

The Copley tournament went the full 10 rounds before Garfield Heights High School defeated the Phoenix' first-round opponent, Solon, in the finals to become regional champions. Both of those teams went on to the state tournament the next week and again they finished 1-2; Garfield Heights took the state title with Solon as runner-up.

Craigo is optimistic about the team next year.

"We're losing only one of our players to graduation and the returning members of the team are all experienced after the season we've had this year. We've also had a number of other students express interest in the program for next year so we're looking forward to a great time in 2008-2009," he said.

In addition to their Patriot Athletic Conference title, Team Phoenix won the Erie Shores championship in the fall and also participated in the WEWS Channel 5 Academic Challenge television program and the WEOL-AM Radio 930 Scholastic Games of Lorain County. Members of the team will be recognized for their championships at the annual Oberlin High School awards assembly at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, June 2.