June 5, 2023 -- While the CH-UH City School District was celebrating Memorial Day weekend, the Heights High School Academic Challenge team was in Atlanta, Georgia. Over three days, they competed against the brightest from schools across the country at the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) National Championships. The team qualified for Nationals by winning the NAQT Fall Northeast Ohio Regional Tournament in Solon earlier in the year.
The Heights High Academic Challenge team includes captain Natalie Bier, Niko Bell, Gabe Dodson and recent graduates Derek Korane, Kenji Sakaie, Noah Sears and Arthur Stadlin.
304 out of a possible 23,500 high schools from across the country qualified for the tournament. Cleveland Heights High School finished the preliminary rounds with a record of 6 - 4 and secured a playoff spot. “We did really well at Nationals,” said Natalie, “but even then there were some teams that did so much better than us.” Victorious in their first ever National’s playoff match, the Tigers unfortunately were knocked out in the second round - earning the rank of 65th in the nation.
They also excelled in the competition as individuals with Kenji Sakaie earning the highest rank out of the Heights team at 86th out of the 1,500 participants. The individual rankings are based on their points per 20 tossups heard (PP20TUH) or number of points scored by an individual in an average 20-tossup game.
“One of the things I’ve come to realize is that the game is as much about luck as it is skill,” said Arthur. Highlighting that while you can try to study, it really comes down to whether or not you know the answer and can determine what exactly the questions are asking. “Each question drops these little hints that I can use to piece together the answer with my own knowledge,” said Arthur. “What wins a game is being able to piece together the answer faster than the other team.”
Additionally, the team enjoyed winning their
first match on News Channel 5’s Nordson Academic Challenge television show where they scored 865 points, the highest score in the history of the show. They then went on to win the
Championship Finale, defeating Revere and Cloverleaf High Schools in extremely tight competition. The victory earned them a $6,000 grand prize which helped to fund their trip to Atlanta.
“I’m honestly still a little surprised we won the tv show,” said Natalie. “Going into the championship game, we knew Revere was really good, and then they were ahead the whole game. So I had sort of accepted that we would get second but then we won in the last round and it was just amazing.”
Kenji believes that the team's true strength is that they truly care about learning and that “we already know what we need to know.” Unlike other teams that may dedicate themselves to specialize in studying certain topics and memorizing answers, the Heights High team simply learns information which they find interesting to create a collective "reservoir of knowledge."
“I have an amazing, brilliant group of students,” said advisor Karl Neitzel, a social studies teacher at Heights High. “They have been training for this moment since middle school and it shows.”
All of these accomplishments are a first for the program and while the team will miss their graduating members, they are extremely proud of what they accomplished and look forward to competing again next year.
