CHS Academic Team excels

The 2014-15 Academic team members are, left to right, Jarod McKee, Mason Albertson and Jack Johnston. Morgan Carpenter was absent for the photo.
The 2014-15 Academic team members are, left to right, Jarod McKee, Mason Albertson and Jack Johnston. Morgan Carpenter was absent for the photo.

The California High School Academic Team for the 2014-15 school year is represented by four team members. Juniors, Mason Albertson, Morgan Carpenter and Jarod McKee and freshman Jack Johnston. The team is coached by Clarice Nelson.

Besides being teammates these four students are good friends. When asked the qualifications for being on the team McKee quickly responded, "A willing spirit and free on Thursdays." However these young people really enjoy learning according to Coach Nelson. She provides old tests for them to brush up on facts and information they may not have yet encountered in there high school classes.

Albertson shared he really likes being in a room full of people who have a lot of knowledge about a wide range of topics and that is why he decided to be on the team for the first time this year.

When I asked the youngest team member how he came to join the team he answered with a beaming smile, "Positive peer pressure. I run Cross Country with Mason and he really got me involved on the team."

When we talked about areas of expertise the team quickly decided Carpenter was the fine arts/math go to person; Albertson answers a lot of the science questions; McKee is certainly the history buff; and Johnston, well he can just answer anything you come up with.

To date the most exciting meet, according to the team, was the win over Southern Boone in sudden death. Albertson shared, "It was mine and Jack's first meet and they just kept asking questions no one knew the answer to and after about seven questions they asked one that Carpenter knew and answered correctly. "It was really exciting," according to McKee.

The team is excited to have two new prospects to compete with them next year, but according to Albertson it would be cool to have more to do rotations and share things most people do not even think about.

The team has five wins and three losses having competed in two dual and two quad meets. At the dual meet in Hallsville CHS scored 140 while Hallsville, last year's state champions, scored 460. In an exciting match against Southern Boone, California won in a sudden death overtime 270-260. In the quad meet held in California - California lost a close battle to Osage 290-260, followed by a win over Eldon 290-90. In the quad meet held at Versailles High School - California lost to Warsaw 300 -170 and took the win over Versailles 230-90. In most recent competition the California team traveled to Southern Boone where they defeated Blair Oaks 370-180, as well as, Southern Boone 370-290.

Their next event is the conference meet at Blair Oaks Saturday, Feb. 21.