Academic Challenge Team Wins County Title
Places Fourth in State Competition
Devon Prep’s Academic Challenge Team came up against two very large and worthy opponents during the championship match for the county title. Both Unionville and West Chester East High Schools had excellent teams and much larger student bodies. However this year the “little guy” managed to walk away with the Chester County Championship and make history as well.
Not only was it the first time Devon Prep won the title it was also the first time a private school earned the county championship. This success earned the team the honor of representing Chester County in the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition in Harrisburg in late April. There they competed against nearly 30 teams and placed fourth.
According to Devon Prep’s long time coach and faculty member Mr. Paul Sanborn this year’s team was comprised of about 21 hardworking young men including the eight varsity members who competed in Harrisburg. The Varsity included Seniors Mark Rafferty Felix deRosen Kevin Mucchetti J.B. Parkes and Benjamin Limoges and Juniors Robert Smith and Christopher Smith.
“This year I was blessed with captains who took on the responsibility of drilling the team and working with me to insure we as a team reached our fullest potential” said Sanborn. “We try to draw students with quick minds who have read and retained a lot of information.”
Senior and Co-Captain Mark Rafferty has been on the Academic Challenge Team for three years. He enjoys watching quiz shows because the challenge appeals to his competitive side. As for working with the team Rafferty explained “We try to emphasize a combination of having the right knowledge and good playing strategy but we try not to over think it too much.”
According to fellow Co-Captain Kevin Mucchetti the team was very excited to have won the county title for the first time and move on in competition. “We really looked forward to competing at states and being the first team in our school’s history to go there.”
Eighteen teams participated in the Chester County Academic Challenge Competition. Nearly 30 teams competed at the state competition. Each intermediate unit in Pennsylvania is permitted to send one high school academic team to participate in the competition.
The Pennsylvania Academic Competition is hosted by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and coordinated by the Chester County Intermediate Unit.
Now in its 25th year the Academic Challenge Competition provides an opportunity for students to compete in a "college-bowl" format where students answer a wide variety of challenging questions from several categories including literature math science American and world history geography fine arts and current events.
The mission of the Academic Challenge Competition is to promote lifelong learning celebrate academic achievement and enhance self-confidence as members of a team by providing healthy yet challenging opportunities for high school students to develop academic social and personal skills.