We sat down with Academic Team Captain, Junior Keerthi Selvam, and quizzed her on Lightridge’s high performing quick recall team.

What made you join Academic Team?

As a child, I would always watch Jeopardy on TV with my family. We kept score each night, and as I got older, I began to beat my parents more consistently. However, when I first discovered that Lightridge had an Academic Team in my sophomore year, I was hesitant to join— I didn’t know if answering a couple questions correctly on Jeopardy qualified me to compete against other students. But after constant prodding from my mother, I logged onto the club’s Google Meet one Wednesday afternoon. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is that made me stay— it might have been the small group, Mr. Crisp’s encouragement, or the exhilaration of getting a question right— but I haven’t regretted it one bit.

What’s your favorite part of the team/playing?

While I love competing, my favorite part of the experience is definitely the synergy that our team has. Our members constantly encourage each other, and even intense matches turn lighthearted when we laugh at some of the questions and crack jokes. Everyone always has the welfare of the whole team in mind, so even the members who aren’t playing during a match try to answer questions on their own and keep morale up. It’s amazing to see how much we’ve all grown in the past year and a half, and I am perpetually in awe of all the knowledge my teammates have.

What do you think has most contributed to the growth of the team this past year?

In the end, I think it just comes down to practicing often. Relative to other teams in the district, we definitely have a rigorous practice schedule, but it has definitely proven to be helpful during tournaments. I also can’t thank Mr. Crisp, our coach, enough for everything he has done for us. Despite his busy schedule, he makes time to help us as much as possible. I know that we couldn’t have done it without him, and I’m also grateful to my teammates for their unwavering dedication.

What have been some challenges you have faced/overcome this/last season?

Morale has been a really crucial part of every match, as it can be really easy to start doubting yourself or get thrown off by an incorrect answer. Several of us lose confidence after an incorrect answer (myself included, of course), but as I mentioned before, my teammates are amazing and make sure to reassure one another. As the year has progressed, we’ve gotten better at shaking off the mistakes and managing the anxiety that comes with playing difficult teams. A lot of this came with trusting ourselves— we just needed to see that we really were a good team.

How do you feel about the future of this team after you graduate next year?

As of right now, the vast majority of our team members are juniors, so we certainly need to do some recruiting before we graduate. We do have two very outstanding freshmen, though, and I hope that they can get some of their classmates on board. I’m very proud of all the work we’ve done so far, and I hope that the successive generation of the Lightridge Academic Team can continue the legacy once we’re gone. 

Will you all win States? (The only right answer is “yes.”)

Official answer: As I said before, we know that we’ve done an outstanding job so far, but States will undoubtedly be a challenge. Our goal is just to play at our best, and we’ll see how it goes from there.

Honest answer: We all know that there’s only one right answer to this question.