Go Tigers: Exeter Academic Team takes State title

May 22, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
Exeter's Academic Team brought home impressive honors with a State Championship win earlier this month. Now, the team has their eyes on national competition.
On May 3, the Exeter Academic Bowl team travelled to Columbia to compete in the Missouri State High School Athletics Association (MSHSAA) State Scholar Bowl Class 1 Finals. Exeter was one of eight teams in the state qualified to compete in this class of the competition. Exeter qualified for the state finals after their victory over Weaubleau on April 17 at sectionals.
State began with each of the teams competing in a series of three preliminary rounds with the total points from each round averaged to determine the seeds for the tournament bracket. Exeter won two of their three preliminary rounds, finishing with an average of 320 points.
This made Exeter the competition’s third place seed, pitting them against Summersville in the first round. The Tigers bested Summersville and moved on to the semifinals.
The team then faced Appleton City. Exeter won a modest victory in the match, with a final score of 320 points to 240 points.
In the final round, Exeter faced off against Columbia Independent High School, who had won their previous round against Stanberry in a landslide victory of 450 to 90.
According to the team, this final round was appropriately grueling. The two teams battled neck and neck for the majority of the game, with Exeter down by 20 points on the final round of questions. Thankfully, a last minute play cinched the game for the struggling team.
“We were down by 20 points, but on the last question, Andrew Blake got the toss up and got the two bonuses that put us up by 10,” said academic team coach Michael Pisanti.
Blake, who admitted to struggling to perform during the preliminaries, said that he made an effort to push himself in the competition’s end.
“In the finals, I feel like I really stepped it up a lot," said Blake. “Every point mattered.”
With that final play, Exeter left Columbia as the 2019 Scholar Bowl Class 1 State Champs. This is the highest honor the school’s scholar bowl team has received since its inception four years ago.
“It was hard to believe,” said senior member Jarrett Brattin. “Even the next day, I had trouble believing it was happening.”
According to Brattin, the team worked hard to get themselves to this point, focusing not just on the knowledge but also on the reaction time required to beat the opposing side to the answer.
“I feel like our knowledge-pool at this point is where it needs to be,” said Brattin. “What we really focused on was getting faster on the buzzer.”
Pisanti, having been a long time scholar bowl team member himself, understood this and said it was a crucial part of their competition prep.
“I emphasize being fast on the buzzer,” said coach Pisanti. “It’s better to get a crack at the bonuses than it is to let the other team get it and hope for a rebound.”
Though much of the team, including Blake and Brattin, have now graduated, the full team plans go on to compete this summer in the 2019 Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence’s (PACE) National Scholastic Championship. This tournament will see the state champions compete against champion teams from 96 schools from across the country on June 8 and 9.
This competition will be the final meeting of the Exeter’s full current academic team, as many of the members, including Blake and Brattin, graduated earlier this month.
Despite losing some of his key players, Pisanti is hopeful about his team’s future in light of this win.
“It’s tough to lose my two best players,” said Pisanti. “But that doesn’t change the progress we’ve made. We’ll keep working on building up our knowledge and our speed, and hope we can get back to state next year.”
Vinnie Roberts
Exeter's Academic Team brought home impressive honors with a State Championship win earlier this month. Now, the team has their eyes on national competition.
On May 3, the Exeter Academic Bowl team travelled to Columbia to compete in the Missouri State High School Athletics Association (MSHSAA) State Scholar Bowl Class 1 Finals. Exeter was one of eight teams in the state qualified to compete in this class of the competition. Exeter qualified for the state finals after their victory over Weaubleau on April 17 at sectionals.
State began with each of the teams competing in a series of three preliminary rounds with the total points from each round averaged to determine the seeds for the tournament bracket. Exeter won two of their three preliminary rounds, finishing with an average of 320 points.
This made Exeter the competition’s third place seed, pitting them against Summersville in the first round. The Tigers bested Summersville and moved on to the semifinals.
The team then faced Appleton City. Exeter won a modest victory in the match, with a final score of 320 points to 240 points.
In the final round, Exeter faced off against Columbia Independent High School, who had won their previous round against Stanberry in a landslide victory of 450 to 90.
According to the team, this final round was appropriately grueling. The two teams battled neck and neck for the majority of the game, with Exeter down by 20 points on the final round of questions. Thankfully, a last minute play cinched the game for the struggling team.
“We were down by 20 points, but on the last question, Andrew Blake got the toss up and got the two bonuses that put us up by 10,” said academic team coach Michael Pisanti.
Blake, who admitted to struggling to perform during the preliminaries, said that he made an effort to push himself in the competition’s end.
“In the finals, I feel like I really stepped it up a lot," said Blake. “Every point mattered.”
With that final play, Exeter left Columbia as the 2019 Scholar Bowl Class 1 State Champs. This is the highest honor the school’s scholar bowl team has received since its inception four years ago.
“It was hard to believe,” said senior member Jarrett Brattin. “Even the next day, I had trouble believing it was happening.”
According to Brattin, the team worked hard to get themselves to this point, focusing not just on the knowledge but also on the reaction time required to beat the opposing side to the answer.
“I feel like our knowledge-pool at this point is where it needs to be,” said Brattin. “What we really focused on was getting faster on the buzzer.”
Pisanti, having been a long time scholar bowl team member himself, understood this and said it was a crucial part of their competition prep.
“I emphasize being fast on the buzzer,” said coach Pisanti. “It’s better to get a crack at the bonuses than it is to let the other team get it and hope for a rebound.”
Though much of the team, including Blake and Brattin, have now graduated, the full team plans go on to compete this summer in the 2019 Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence’s (PACE) National Scholastic Championship. This tournament will see the state champions compete against champion teams from 96 schools from across the country on June 8 and 9.
This competition will be the final meeting of the Exeter’s full current academic team, as many of the members, including Blake and Brattin, graduated earlier this month.
Despite losing some of his key players, Pisanti is hopeful about his team’s future in light of this win.
“It’s tough to lose my two best players,” said Pisanti. “But that doesn’t change the progress we’ve made. We’ll keep working on building up our knowledge and our speed, and hope we can get back to state next year.”