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Date: 7/31/2015
HOLYOKE – The members of Holyoke High School’s “As Schools Match Wits” team were honored with city and state proclamations by Mayor Alex Morse and state Rep. Aaron Vega for winning the 2015 championship against five-time winner Longmeadow High School (LHS).
“I am very impressed with the progress and the work that you are doing and I think when the conversation around our students and the district in general – when it’s sometimes a negative story I think all four of you are shining examples of the possibility and the opportunity and the reality of what happens in Holyoke High School,” Morse said.
The Holyoke High School team includes Emma Price, an incoming senior; Nick Edwards and Brendan Kelly, now graduated students, and upcoming sophomore Patrick Morrison.
Mark Todd, one of the team’s advisors and a music teacher at Holyoke High School, said he’s been watching “As Schools Match Wits” for 17 years and to see the team win was one of the most exciting things in his life.
“I said, ‘Before I retire, I’ve got to see these guys take it all the way to the top and they did,’” he added.
The final score for the June 20 championship round was 275 to 270.
Todd said the teams were tied after the regulation ending, which was followed with two sudden death overtime rounds.
“During the second round they went back and forth and it wasn’t until the last couple seconds that they ended up winning by five points,” he noted.
Holyoke has played against Longmeadow for years and “it’s never been close,” Todd said.
Two other coaches for the Holyoke team were English teacher Kate Hebert and history teacher Kevin Berchard.
The competition was hosted by Westfield State University and aired on WGBY-TV57.
Todd said despite LHS’s loss against Holyoke High, both teams were “classy” about the end result of the competition. Both teams were featured in a photo in 2015 Holyoke High yearbook.
Edwards, who plans to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst for law and English, said the team is not composed of “whiz kids” and that Holyoke education made the win possible.
The team’s victory follows on the heels of a recent low point for the Holyoke school district, which was placed into receivership by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“Obviously their win is a weighted a little bit given the recent events of Holyoke going to receivership, but we’ve always known that our struggles in the Holyoke public schools were never at the high school,” Vega said.
He added that most of the struggles within the district are with its elementary schools.