Academic challenge team members hope to build on previous years’ success as they prepare for the season under new leadership.

Last year the academic challenge team won first place in the National History Bowl small school division. The team also won the Eastern Ohio History Bowl in March. This year’s team captain Ryan Reilly was champion in the individual competition at the Eastern Ohio History Bowl and placed 21st in the national competition.

After math teacher John Kaminski resigned from coaching academic challenge so he could spend more time with his family, the team found a new adviser in long-term library substitute and football assistant coach Matt Kostelnik.

“Principal Klein told me [academic challenge] needed someone to step in, and I’m always happy to help out,” Kostelnik said. “I enjoy trivia personally, so I thought it [would be] fun and interesting.”

In academic challenge, teams of four students compete answering questions about a variety of topics, such as history, literature, math, science and pop culture. Tournaments are held on Saturdays during the season.

“[There are questions about] anything and everything,” Reilly said. “It sort of synthesizes every [topic] that you could possibly know [about].”

“We’re pretty good at history, art and literature, from what I saw in practice,” Kostelnik said. “If we need to study specific areas, we will spend time with questions on those topics.”

“There are questions on basically every school subject and some other topics like pop culture and religion,” sophomore Swathi Srinivasan said. “[There’s a lot] of history and literature.”

“I think the biggest things [I will bring to the team] are organization and competitiveness,” Kostelnik said. “I think we should have a pretty strong team this year.”

“Academic Challenge really focuses on team coordination and communication, unwavering concentration and speed in answering questions,” junior Henry Grasso wrote in an email.

“I’d say the competition is about knowing things, knowing more things, and knowing things faster,” Reilly said.

Kostelnik said Reilly has been a leader for the team.

“Ryan has been instrumental in helping me learn,” he said. “Learning from him and Mr. Kaminski is going to be really important.”

The academic challenge team’s success can be attributed to its practice regimen.

“We meet every week,” Reilly said. “We play practice games and someone reads questions. We also write questions ourselves, which helps us learn about new topics.”

“I like to look at frequency lists,” Srinivasan said. “They have topics that have been commonly brought up in the past. At the beginning of practice we’ll usually start with them.”

“I think I’ve gained a larger knowledge base and a greater appreciation for that knowledge base [from academic challenge],” Reilly said. “It makes a lot of things in school easier too.”

“I joined Academic Challenge because I have an interest in knowledge-based competitions and games.” Grasso wrote. “It is also quite exciting if you dedicate yourself enough to it.”

“Beachwood is a strong academic school, and academic challenge is a way for kids to step out and compete using their knowledge,” Kostelnik said. “I’m excited for this year and for the season to get started.”

The team will be competing in Aurora on Nov. 22 and will make a pre-recorded television appearance  on Jan. 17.