Salem Academic Challenge team reflects on the year | News, Sports, Jobs

Morning Journal/Mary Ann Greier
Salem High School Academic Challenge team members and coaches pose with some of the hardware they’ve earned this year, including Columbiana County Varsity Academic Challenge Champion, Mahoning League Quiz Bowl 2022 Varsity First Division Champion, Mahoning Quiz Bowl Tournament Champion and Columbiana County Junior High Third Place. Members include from left, junior high coach Jesse Dotson, eighth grader Bella Gallagher, who practiced with the high school team, sophomore Noah Frank, junior Gabe Murray with the Columbiana County champion traveling trophy, senior co-captain Colin Gallagher and senior co-captain Nick Colbert with the Mahoning Quiz Bowl Tournament Champion traveling trophy, sophomore Ethan Shelhart with the Mahoning Quiz Bowl League traveling trophy, freshman Ina Henthorne, junior Stephanie Watkins and high school coach Sue Skiba. High school team members not pictured include freshman Camron Bodine, senior Katie Wassem and freshman Kaitlyn Young.

SALEM — At a very young age, Salem High School senior Nick Colbert learned all the states and capitals, then moved on to the presidents.

Fellow senior Colin Gallagher watched a lot of the quiz show Jeopardy.

Six years ago the two joined forces in Academic Challenge, taking on a lot of bigger schools to beat their buzzers and answer questions correctly on any number of topics.

The two co-captains, together with their varsity teammates senior Katie Wassem, juniors Gabe Murray and Stephanie Watkins and sophomores Ethan Shelhart and Noah Frank, put their experience and knowledge on display this year, earning an invitation to the Small School National Quiz Bowl Tournament in Chicago, Ill. on April 21 and 22.

They’ve also earned a trip to the Ohio Academic Challenge Regional competition in Copley on April 9. From there, they could end up in Columbus for the Ohio Academic Challenge state competition in May.

The line from the movie Jaws where Chief Brody says “you’re gonna need a bigger boat” comes to mind.

This group of academic wonders needs a bigger trophy case.

“I can’t do what these kids do,” high school coach Sue Skiba said.

Undefeated 2022 Mahoning League Quiz Bowl Tournament Champs against 24 other teams. Mahoning League Division Champions four years running, winning 51 consecutive rounds, undefeated through regular season play four years straight, this year’s Division 1 champ. Columbiana County 2022 Academic Challenge Champions for the fourth consecutive crown.

She said these students have been on the quiz bowl and Ohio Academic Challenge radar for some time, showing themselves to be a quality, competitive small school team during an invitational in Kentucky last year and the OAC regionals last year.

They kicked off the season by hosting an invitational in Salem in October, attracting well-known teams like the former Small School National Champ Toledo School of the Arts and powerhouse large school team Solon. By placing first for Small School Public in this invitational, Salem earned the spot in the national tournament in Chicago.

During the NAQT Small School State tournament in Upper Sandusky on March 12, Salem earned first place for Small School Public and earned second place overall after a best-of-three playoff with Toledo School of the Arts.

Salem also competed in the Alliance Kiwanis/University of Mount Union competition on March 6, placing second after a tie-breaker with Alliance. On April 2, Salem will host a fun tournament known as Trash, with questions covering pop culture, music, games, movies and other fun topics. Even some adult teams will take part.

The high school members practice weekly as a team, but also do a lot of work on their own both separately and together on a practice app online. The varsity team also invites the junior varsity and junior high teams to practice with them in person, giving them more experience and game knowledge.

Skiba said they’ve achieved a lot and she’s just thankful they’ve taken her along for the ride.

A typical competition features tossup questions, then if the team buzzes in first and gets the answer right, they get bonus questions, allowing them to rack up even more points. The topics can range from descriptions of snakes to complex science or math equations.

“They can ask a question about anything, absolutely anything,” Skiba said.

Questions are framed to the level of competition, keeping in mind that some high school students are already taking college-level courses. Some questions deal with different languages, too.

Skiba’s been coaching since 2005 and took over the varsity squad in 2014.

“I think we’ve worked really well as a team. It’s been fun doing it,” Colin said.

This is his last year and he said he hasn’t taken it as seriously, so there hasn’t been as much pressure.

“We knew we could be good,” he said.

He’s going to miss being with his friends next year. He’s planning to double major in computer science and math at The Ohio State University.

His partner in knowledge, Nick, plans to double major in finance and accounting at John Carroll University and hopes to get involved in a collegiate academic challenge team.

“I’m going to miss this so much,” he said.

His advice to the younger students is to have fun with academic challenge. He admitted science questions are the hardest, but history is the easiest. He practices every day, but takes part in other activities, too.

Both he and Skiba said the group is like a family and the team members kind of feed off of each other with their energy during competition.

Custodian Mary Hough was described as their number 1 fan and Skiba introduced the team to the school board recently, touting all their accomplishments. She said they’re looking forward to Small School Nationals in Chicago after going up against some former national champs this year.

“These young people have earned it,” she said.

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