In academic games, there are five competitions. There is only one competition out of the five left, called Nationals. If you qualified in two of the other four local competitions, you get to go to Nationals, in Atlanta, GA, on April 17-20. The Academic Games offered to Freedom students are Equations, Current Events, Presidents, Propaganda, World Events, and Theme. This year, the theme was the Supreme Court. 

This year, six students qualified to go to Nationals: Nicholas Metzger, Olivia VanDeCar, Chloe Lundy, and Trevor Denhup in fifth grade, Alexa Davis in eighth grade, and Luke Snavely in ninth grade. Congratulations to all of those students! Those six students have been trying very hard for months. Now, we must wish them luck for when April approaches,  but, until then, this is what Mrs. Glover has to say about Nationals.

“I am very excited, it’s a great opportunity for the students to meet new kids and compete at a high level.” Mrs. Glover, the academic games coach, said.

If you get to go to Nationals, you can decide which competitions you want to compete in, preferably the ones you qualified in. Equations is where you shake a box, and race to find a solution to a hard math problem. In Current Events, you have to memorize all events that happened around the world in 2019. In Presidents, you have to learn facts about the first 17 presidents; for example, James Buchanan was the only president born in Pennsylvania and never married. Propaganda is a game where there are nine different techniques of bribing in a section, with six sections, but only playing four of the sections each year. This school year’s sections were sections A, B, C, and F.

Unfortunately, the AGLOA (Academic Games League of America) National Tournament which was supposed to be held in Atlanta, Ga, has been canceled and will not be rescheduled, due to COVID-19.

“I absolutely hate it. It was at first not as sad, but I was really looking forward to it and my parents and family were so proud of me. We went out to eat. We even had our plane tickets and room reserved.” says Trevor Denhup.

He dislikes the fact that Nationals has been canceled and is rather upset. The students are all looking forward to next year’s academic games season and are hoping to qualify for the 2021 Nationals tournament. Next year’s competition will take place in Wheeling, WV at Oglebay Resort.