Eastside High School Academic Team Headed to Georgia Regional Academic Bowl State Championship
Eastside High School’s Academic Team will compete in the Georgia Regional Academic Bowl (GRAB) State Championship after their third-place win in the varsity competition at the Griffin RESA Regional Academic Bowl. High school teams from Butts, Fayette, Henry, Lamar, Newton, Pike, Spalding, and Upson counties competed at the regional event for bragging rights—and the chance to compete at the state competition. All Varsity and Junior Varsity teams finishing first, second, or third earned a chance to represent the Griffin RESA region at the GRAB Academic Bowl. The Newton College and Career Academy (NCCA) team just missed out on the state competition with their fourth place finish in the Junior Varsity contest. NCCA team members included Jackson Allred, Francisco Alvarado, Nevaeh Craven, and Gauresh Vittal.
The Regional Academic Bowl competition features five rounds from September through January that are taken by teams asynchronously. Teams must answer 100 questions in 60 minutes during the round window each month. Ten players may compete at a time. Teams are ranked by how many questions they answer correctly. A cumulative ranking is maintained throughout the competition.
“Although we prefer the more traditional style of quizbowl with buzzers and facing off against one opponent at a time, we participate in the Griffin RESA in the hopes that we finish in the top four and thereby qualify for the GRAB State Championship tournament, where teams qualify from several RESAs tournaments across the state,” explained Eric Adams, Academic Team Coach for Eastside High. “The GRAB state championship is formatted in the traditional quizbowl competition style. We will compete in GRAB State Championship February 25 for the 2nd year in a row at Apalachee High School.”
Members of the Eastside Academic Team include: Colin McGowan, Simon Reid, Breanna Epps, Daniel Bartello, Aaron Mull, Katie Bryan, Alexander Amerson, Jessica Wilson, Jonathan Crawford, and Trevor Hay.
“I am extremely proud of our Academic Team,” said Jeff Cher, principal of Eastside High School. “The Eastside Academic Team has an incredible history when it comes to quizbowl competitions and this year’s team has continued in that winning tradition. They represented us well at the regional competition and I have no doubt they will make us proud as they represent our school, our district, and our region in the state championship.”