As the Weehawken High School Academic Team prepared to face Secaucus for the Hudson County Academic Bowl championship last week, senior team captain Alex Wagner was nervous. Weehawken had never captured the title in the 13-year history of the county-wide tournament, having reached the final round for the first time. There was a lot of pressure and intensity, just like in a sports championship.
However, when the subject categories were revealed for the final match, Wagner let out a sigh of relief.
"The last category was 'The Beatles,' " Wagner said. "And I love the Beatles. I'm a huge Beatles fan. That really took away some of the fear."
Fellow teammate Dennis Climent also was a Beatles aficionado, so that also helped relieve some of the anxious moments.
"Once we saw 'The Beatles' as a category, Alex and I just looked at each other and said, `We got this covered,' " Climent said. "Sometimes, you just wake up and you know it's going to be your day. That was it for us."
However, Wagner actually stumbled over one Beatles question, which was, "Who was the Beatles' first drummer?"
"I answered 'Starkey,' and I immediately knew that was wrong," Wagner said. "I had a momentary lapse of judgment."
Of course, Richard Starkey is the real name of Ringo Starr, who is actually the Beatles' second drummer. The first drummer? Pete Best.
"But I then got almost all of the rest of the Beatles' questions," Wagner said.
She rolled through questions like what sticky substance was found in the lyrics of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which, of course, is marmalade skies.
"I had to sing the song in my head to get that one," Wagner said.
Wagner also knew the answer to what song featured the characters Desmond and Molly, which is "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."
"Once we got those right, we all got excited," Wagner said.
Then, Wagner was amazed when teammate Yoan Hermida knew a history question that read: "What was the second country after the United States to declare its independence from a European country?" The answer: "Haiti." Hermida knew it right away.
"I mean, who would know that?" Wagner exclaimed. "When he got that one, I knew we were really home free."
The match was tied after 12 questions, but then, the Weehawken Whiz Kids just gradually pulled away, taking a 480-240 decision that gave Weehawken its first-ever Hudson County Academic Bowl championship.
Since the Weehawken High School athletic teams participate in the Bergen County Scholastic League, the victory marked Weehawken's first Hudson County championship of any kind since 1981.
"We just crushed them," said Mary Bea Kingwill, the coach and faculty advisor for the Academic Team. "It was unbelievable. This was the 13th year, and this was lucky 13. The kids were so psyched for the finals. It really is so similar to winning on the football field. It's just as competitive."
"It's a great feeling and great to win something for once," said Climent, who had extra incentive to want to defeat Secaucus. Climent is a wrestler who competed for the Secaucus/Weehawken cooperative program for three years, so he knew many of the students on the Secaucus team because of his association with wrestling.
"I used to go there [to Secaucus High School] all the time for wrestling," Climent said. "Before the match, they looked a little arrogant. They were saying, 'You're not going to win.' I think it's a little fitting that we got them so good."
Wagner believed that the victory removed a dark cloud from over her head.
"I'm usually very bad luck for any team I'm on," Wagner said. "I've never been on a team that won anything. It feels really amazing. Because there were no spectators and it was done in a classroom in another school, it didn't feel like we won anything at first. But when it was over, it was like, 'Hey, wait, we won the whole thing.' To finally realize that was a great feeling."
The students spent most of last week trying to figure out what they deserve for winning a county championship. "I was hoping for the varsity leather-sleeved jackets that the sports champions get," Wagner said. "We deserve them."
Sounds logical.
However, some of the other requests were a little outlandish.
"I told Dr. [Peter] Olivieri [the high school principal] that we're making a strong push to go to Disney World," Kingwill said.
"Since it was an academic championship, I think we should go to Hawaii," Climent said. "A membership to the Met sounded convincing. One of my teammates, Francis Petrie, wanted the Game Boy Advanced. Maybe we should get laptops. Hey, we have to shoot for something."
Spoken like true champions.
More to come
The Weehawken Whiz Kids are not done competing yet. They will now move on to the Rutgers Invitational Challenge Bowl March 29, but the students have to learn a different aspect to answering tough trivia questions - working with a buzzer.
"We've sent for them to practice with the buzzers," Kingwill said. "We need work with the buzzers."
Wagner, who will be the Class of 2003 valedictorian in June, says that the Weehawken Academic Team will be strong again next year.
"I don't think they'll have too much pressure to repeat," Wagner said. "They'll do fine."
"We have a lot of great recruits coming up the ranks," Kingwill said.
It sounds as if the coach is ready to drill some tough trivia questions to the newcomers, just in time to defend the county title.
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