Brandon is a member of the National Academic League (NAL) team, which is a group of exceptionally bright teenagers at his school who compete against other exceptionally bright teenagers from a different school, on various academic subjects, from math to current events. They even have team uniforms. Today our team wore jeans and a dark blue hoodie with a Central Davis NAL logo on it. The opposing team wore sweater vests and dress pants.
The competition resembles a group Jeopardy game; each team has a buzzer and 30 seconds to answer very difficult "junior high" questions. After collaborating with their team members, the "captain" would push their buzzer to answer the question. If they got it wrong, the other team would have the time remaining of that 30 seconds to try and answer. The questions were fired off rapidly and I felt like a character in a Charlie Brown cartoon listening to the teacher talk: "wa wa wa wa wa...." Many of the questions were 3 parts, and required 3 answers, all of which had to be correct to get the points. I've always considered myself an intelligent and educated person, but I tell you, I didn't even understand the questions sometimes.
Brandon and some of his teammates were given a topic with very specific criteria that had to be answered and sent to another room for 30 minutes to prepare. They then had to come back and present their argument, including scientific facts, to the moderator in 3-5 minutes with no notes. They are judged on fact, presentation, and how well they knew their materials. I was very impressed. Brandon's team got 16 out of 20 points; the other team received 9 points.
At the end of the 4th quarter, Brandon's team won 38 - 27. They celebrated just like any other team that wins a competition. They even gave the other team a cheer. I was bursting with pride and realized that this was my first "team sport" moment. Afterward, Brandon said he was nervous and it was really intense. They took it VERY seriously.
It wasn't your typical team sport, but it was just as intense and important to these kids as soccer or basketball is to athletes. I was grinning to myself as I watched these sometimes socially awkward kids finding their niche. I can't wait for the next game.
And no, I'm not an "armchair quarterback". Brandon knows way more than I do.
