Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? Tuesday, February 21, 2012 By Junior Adam Ussher The CMS academic team practices for future matches. - Adam Ussher Advertising Are you smarter than a fifth grader? How about a CMS seventh or eighth grader? The time of the year has come once again for CMS to bring its best and brightest students together and test their knowledge against other schools. Head Academic Team Coach Mike Roper has been involved in the middle school academic team for over five years. “I believe the middle school academic team has been around for twelve years. I was the assistant coach for four or five years, and this is my first year as head coach,” said Mr. Roper. There may not be any plays to drill through on a football field, but practice is still the key to success. Seventh Grader Jordan Bradford said, “The academic team members take turns going through questions to keep their minds fresh. The team is strong all-around, but I would say its strongest point would be math.” Similar to the high school’s junior varsity and varsity teams, the middle school’s academic team is split by grade. “Academic team is split into seventh and eighth grade teams, which seems to be the way most schools are going now. The Missouri State High School Activities Association, or MSHSAA, seems to be pushing schools to split their academic teams that way. At this time, about half of the schools the team competes with have the team split, and the other half do not,” said Mr. Roper. “I can pull seventh graders up to the eighth grade team, but I can’t do it the other way around,” Mr. Roper added. Academic team is a great place for students to not be afraid to show off their scholarship. Eighth Grader Hannah Winder said, “I enjoy being able to share my knowledge and show what I know on academic team. The team practices every day, except for Fridays. There can be questions about math, social studies, language, science, miscellaneous... there can be anything.” After plenty of practice, the academic team is ready to face-off with other schools. “The team has matches once or twice a week through January and February. There are generally two major tournaments during January and February. Unfortunately, the seventh graders had a previous engagement through band, so the team was unable to participate in the January tournament,” said Mr. Roper. “There seems to be a correlation between the academic team and the fine arts, as there were only two students who could go to the tournament,” Mr. Roper added. As with any team, teamwork is a must. Jordan said, “The team working together is very important, because different members bring different strengths to the table. Teamwork has to be constant.” The CMS academic team’s next major tournament is this Saturday in Chillicothe. Good luck, academic team!

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