The White River Academic Team is a competitive way to use knowledge from a wide variety of subjects. Like the Brain Game that SHS used to take part in, the White River Academic Team competes in a trivia game where you answer questions about history, math, music, mythology, religion and more to get points for the team.

“It’s a lot of fun answering random questions, working together, studying different topics, using all your random knowledge from different courses and things you do during the weekend, hobbies that help,” one of the coaches English teacher Brianne Osburn said.

This year, changes to the academic team are happening. There are new additions to the team, there are new teams in their division that they will have to compete against, and now they no longer play in the Brain Game.

“We used to compete in the Brain Game sponsored by Westfield Insurance, but it ended last year because there is no longer a sponsor,” Osburn said.

Some want to reignite the Brain Game according to Osburn, but SHS hasn’t come to a clear solution. Instead, they plan on just competing in their already scheduled tournaments.

Another change this year is the number of students in the academic team. Two years ago, Southport’s academic team only consisted of three juniors and one sophomore, but this year they have enough people to have two teams: a varsity team and junior varsity team. Now, with two teams, they have five students on varsity and five on junior varsity. The only student that was on the team two years ago that is still on the team is a senior Bryce Hinton. The three coaches of the team, English teacher Brianne Osburn, English teacher Erin Ancelet and English teacher Brian Auger say that everyone plays as a team and has fun.

“I like it because you get to know everyone there and you get to be friends and it’s really fun because the three coaches are really fun and help you learn a lot of stuff and in the past three years I’ve learned a lot of stuff and meet new people,” captain of the team senior Bryce Hinton said.

Practices for the academic team are every Friday after school until 3 p.m. and they consist of going over different possible questions. They play against each other like scrimmages during these practices and sometimes they will stop to go over things.

All matches that the team participate in start the week before fall break. The first match is next Thursday, Oct. 5. In total, the team competes in seven through the year, starting in early October and ending in January. In the first weekend of February the team competes in state division tournaments.Then, in the first weekend of spring break is the state tournament they compete in.