MOUNT VERNON — For two decades Mount Vernon High School has fielded “In the Know” teams, giving students the chance to demonstrate their knowledge of a variety of subjects — from history and music to sports and games to math, science and entertainment. This year’s junior varsity team earned a second-place trophy in a fall tournament. And team members have continued to practice. They left at 6:30 this morning for a meet at St. Charles High School in Columbus.
This year’s team includes Alana Newman, Amy Rice, Bridget Fawcett, Corey Street, Daniel Kasper, Emily Coscia, Emily Teater, Glynis Schumacher, Isaac Lee, James Hoeffgen, Joseph Kasper, Justin Long, Kate Klesner, Luke Skon, Lydia Hartzler, Michael Murry, Roger Melick, Sam Clarvoe, Sarah Rowe and Shayna Noonen. Rob Fetters is the coach.
Justin Long, unofficial team captain, said the team practices for about an hour and a half each Friday after school. He said actual competition team members are determined by practice contests; the four individuals with the highest scores from Fetters’ variety quiz books are usually named to the varsity team, and the next four to the junior varsity team.
Long joined In the Know because, he said, “I like learning new things. That’s one of the key things we do here. We learn new things.”
Sophomore Bridget Fawcett is a novice team member and joined In the Know because she has “always liked school,” and especially loves history, math and reading. She said she doesn’t mind giving up Friday afternoons to practice.
“The more you practice the better you are in competition,” she said. “Practice really does make perfect.”
Although all the students bone up on all the subjects, they do specialize in certain areas. Luke Skon thinks that works out well.
“The good thing about having a diverse cast here,” he said, “is that we’re all into different things.”
Long agreed.
“While we all have pretty much universal knowledge, [in tournaments], some of us do focus on certain subjects. Daniel Kasper is very, very good in math, so he answers those questions. Russell Melick is amazing with sports and things. Sarah Rowe is outstanding with current social events and issues, and I like to think I can do some things with science,” he said.
“These are truly Renaissance students,” said Fetters. “They are in the play. They play instruments. ... Sometimes it is a little difficult to field a team, but it’s good that anybody on the team can step up and compete.”
Sam Clarvoe, whose specialty is mythology, likes the challenges of In the Know.
“I admit that some of the questions have been really hard,” he said. “One problem with studying for the tournaments is, it’s random information. I hope that something I know will come up in competition, and it does a lot of the time. I’m glad to be able to answer.”
In addition to tournaments held at various schools, Mount Vernon’s In the Know team members have competed on the televised version which airs at 9 a.m. Sundays on WOSU. The team’s Jan. 22 contest against Worthington-Kilborn will air on WOSU sometime in March. Team members declined to reveal the outcome of that match prior to airtime.
