FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE N.R. #127, 1/27/98

Date: January 27, 1998

Contact: Irene Cromer

703/791-8720

GAR-FIELD WINS FIRST VHSL ACADEMIC COMPETITION

Gar-Field High School was the winner of the first annual Cardinal District Academic Competition Tournament sponsored by the Virginia High School League (VHSL) and held at Potomac High School on January 17. As the Cardinal District winner, Gar-Field, along with second place finisher Manassas' Osbourn High School, will represent the Northwest Region of VHSL at the state tournament scheduled for February 28 in Charlottesville. Stonewall Jackson High School finished third in the tournament. Other participating schools were Woodbridge, Hylton, Osbourn Park and Potomac high schools.

Gar-Field was also this year's regular season champion for the Cardinal District Academic Competition, winning the majority of the inter-school matches held before the District tournament.

The Gar-Field team is comprised of Chris Townsend, Mike Novacek, Matt Smiley, Sam LeGrone, Jared VanMeter and Ben Charlton, who secured victory for his team by correctly spelling "diphtheria." Gar-Field's coach is Jean Bittner.

According to the Virginia High School League, the competition marks a return to the organization's roots and is its first new academic activity since 1932 and its first new team championship in a decade in activities other than sports.

The state championship tournaments in Groups A, AA and AAA will be held at Charlottesville High School on Saturday, February 28 and will pit four-person teams in a test of knowledge of English, math, science, social studies and miscellaneous areas like current events, entertainment, the arts and sports. A double-elimination format in six rounds of team-on-team face-offs will be used to pare a field of the top eight schools in each group to the eventual champion. The field will include two representatives from each geographic region of the state.

Although each playing team is limited to four persons, schools may carry as many as eight students and substitutions are permitted in each match between groups of questions. The questions, to be based heavily on Virginia's new Standards of Learning, are being prepared by Dr. Claude Sandy, retired director of the State Department of Education's testing program. As commissioner for the new competition, he will also direct the tournament.

Although this will be Virginia's first state championship in academic competition, many schools have previously participated in academic competition, utilizing as many as twelve different formats. Many of these have been geared to television, such as the "It's Academic" television program broadcast from Washington, D.C., in which several Prince William County high schools participate.

VHSL regions are free to select representatives to the state contest using any method they deem appropriate. This year eleven of twelve regions are holding tournaments to determine the top two teams in the district. The Northwest Region in AAA, in which all Prince William County High Schools except Brentsville participate, is not holding a tournament, but will be represented at the state competition by the top two teams in the Cardinal District, Gar-Field and Osbourn.

The Virginia High School League began as an outgrowth of a debate competition started by the Washington and Jefferson Societies at the University of Virginia in 1913 for twenty high schools. Competition in public speaking, which has grown to ten different forensic events, began a year later. Championships in basketball, baseball and track were introduced the next year.

The League began recognition programs for student publications and creative writing in 1924 and added theater in 1932. VHSL also sponsors state championships in twenty-four sports: baseball, boys and girls basketball, cheer, boys and girls cross county, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, boys and girls indoor and outdoor track, boys and girls soccer, softball boys and girls swimming, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls volleyball and wrestling.

For more information, contact Jean Bittner, Gar-Field's Academic Competition coach, at (703) 730-7000, or Bob Button, VHSL Coordinator at (804) 977-8475.