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Make way for more GHS Academic Super Bowl titles
Greencastle High School officials will have to put their thinking caps on to solve a dilemma created by the academic successes of their own students.
At least that's certainly a nice problem to have, however.
For the second straight year, GHS brought home a pair of state titles Saturday in the 27th annual Indiana Association of School Principals (IASP) Academic Super Bowl at Purdue University.
So now, with at least 16 state titles overall, GHS has won so many academic state championships over the past 25 years that it has run out of room to display the achievements.
A new sign seems to be in order, Principal Russ Hesler indicated Tuesday as he posed for pictures with the two winning teams and congratulated team members for their continued success.
"We're working on that," Hesler offered in reference to creating the proper tribute to the continued success of the GHS Academic Super Bowl teams past and present.
Besides the normal contest drama and tension of determining the right answers for 25 challenging questions about the Westward expansion of America, this year's GHS teams also faced some added distraction.
The pomp and circumstance of the school's 2014 prom loomed that evening. And then there were several agonizing delays in the competition due to scoring issues and questions about answers.
But smart students learn to use their time constructively, and that found Lily Spencer doing teammate Hannah Gellman's hair for prom in between the English and Interdisciplinary rounds.
"And it looked really nice," coach Nicole Kempf praised. "We really were pushed for time though with the scoring issues and delays."
Nevertheless Greencastle again claimed top state honors in both Class 3 English and Interdisciplinary (the category in which questions from all contest disciplines are asked).
Members of the 2014 state championship Greencastle English squad are team captain Gellman, Spencer, Kelly Hansen and Zach Wilkerson. GHS teacher Nicole Kempf coaches the English team.
The GHS Interdisciplinary team, also repeating as state champs, is composed of team captain Gellman, Beth Ann Hansen, Hailey Johnson and Katie Rose Parsons. It also is coached by Mrs. Kempf along with fellow teachers Brad Kingma, Glenn Hile, Robin Johnson and Samantha Burke.
In correctly answering 16 English questions, Greencastle finished in a tie with Garrett for the Class 3 English title since they also tied in the tie-breakers.
Meanwhile, GHS also posted 16 correct answers to earn the Interdisciplinary title outright.
The two latest state titles bring Greencastle's all-time total to at least 16 overall, dating back to the first year of Academic Super Bowl competition in 1987.
The chance at accomplishing a three-peat next spring brought a smile to Kempf's face Tuesday, knowing that only two of the students who represented GHS on four teams at Saturday's competition will be graduating (Gellman and Johnson).
"Every senior that went to state won something," she said. "I always like it when that happens."
Greencastle was one of only four schools to send four teams to the competition this year.
Also earning trips to the state competition were the North Putnam Interdisciplinary and the Greencastle Social Studies and Science teams.
North Putnam finished sixth overall in the interdisciplinary competition, while Greencastle was also fifth in social studies and sixth in science.
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