By Sophie Weinstein ’13, Contributor

After Academic Team’s successful season last year with wins against its biggest rivals Wyoming, Indian Hill, and Seven Hills, the team has graduated some of its most valuable players. This year’s team is working hard to fill the big shoes left by last year’s senior class.

“It is true that we lost several seniors last year who were powerful contributors,” said Faculty Advisor of Academic Team Jeanette Hecker. “We were very proactive last year and this year is about recruiting new talent,” she continued.

Madame Hecker said she is impressed with this year’s participation. “In the ten years, I have been working with the Academic team, I cannot recall a time when attendance at our practices has been so high,” Hecker said.

“I was a little afraid about this season because we had lost the dream team from last year consisting of Will Portman, Xanni Brown, Allison Lazarus, Kevin Baxter, and Sebastian Koochaki, ’10 graduates,” Captain Robert Park ’11, said. “However, we have a bunch of brilliant students this year [including] fellow captain Kevin McSwiggen ‘11, seniors Ilana Habib, Jordan Komnick, Cody Pomeranz, and junior Nicky Niedermeier.”

Even with these strong upperclassmen to lead the team, the team still welcomes new members and encourages students to join. Park said he recommends students join the team not just to fluff their resumes. “I think students should join Academic teams not just because it looks great on a college resume, but for the teamwork and life skills it teaches,” said Park. “Without strong team chemistry we wouldn’t be very good.”

Sophomore and Academic Team advocate Holly Dayton said she likes the club because “it puts random knowledge to use.” “Things I doubt I will use become important and a lot of random knowledge can make a big difference,” Dayton said.

As an underclassmen Dayton assures anyone looking to join the team that there’s no tension about being on JV or Varsity.  Dayton explained how the process of selecting teams works. “Our varsity is often the older, more experienced students that are more successful, the JV is everyone else,” Dayton said. “JV is a great place to develop A-team skills and get experience”.

The team is hopeful for this season. “I expect us to do fairly well, nowhere near as well as last year, but it will be a learning year and I’m sure we will have significant success!” Dayton said.

“With the great coaching staff and strong reserve, the Academic Team has a bright future,” Park said.

Photo courtesy of Ilana Habib