Later this month Academic Superbowl will begin assembling its teams for the academic competition on May 4. More information on the state-wide competition will be released at the annual coaches’ meeting on October 4. Academic Superbowl is led by Matt Dillon and Joe Stuelpe, sponsors and social studies teachers. The club is open to all grade levels.

Having already hosted its first callout meeting, Academic Superbowl’s student applicants are currently being sorted into squads based upon background knowledge and prior experience. In addition, captains are currently being selected. Captains are responsible for recruiting members, dividing up the material and preparing for the competition.

“We are looking for people with prior experience,” Dillon said. “We are looking for background, maturity level, people who can delegate authority, work well with other people and don’t have an enormous amount of conflicts.”

Dillon recently announced to students that this year’s theme will be “Colonel and Revolutionary America.” “It’s crucial for the team as a whole to be able to know the majority of the topics being covered as enumerated on the outline provided by the organization,” Jeff Hou, former captain and senior, said. The competition is split into the five subcategories of math, English, science, fine arts and social studies. For each subject there is a captain who will sit with two other members of his or her subject squad at the competition. The event itself is a semiformal occasion where teams of students sit at their respective tables and answer multiple choice questions with a time limit of approximately 25 seconds per question. Last year, the CHS team traveled to the state competitions in both social studies and math.

“It’s a fun club, and a way for students to learn more about a certain period of history in time. What’s most important is that it’s an activity where people with similar interests can get together, do what they love to do, eat free food, and have fun,” Hou said. “We get to take a break from multivariable calculus and our AP classes to commune with peers and friends as we take on a number of intriguing questions under the guidance of our sometimes serious, always fun sponsor Mr. Dillon.”

“This club is a great way to be active at CHS,” Dillon said. “Not everybody is an athlete or a musician. There are kids that love literature; kids that love history or science or even math. That, and it provides for students something that looks good on a college application.”