The Naperville North math team was honored by the Naperville District 203 School Board on Monday for its 16th state 4AA championship, solidifying the mathletes as having won the most state titles of all teams and activities offered at Naperville North.
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Principal Stephanie Posey said the math team over the course of the year “managed to win first place in just about every single competition and category known to man, culminating in a state championship last week.”
Team co-captain Shruti Baxi said what sets Naperville North apart from other schools is the amount of practice that students devote to the team. The daily practices paid off.
“We’re very excited about the championship. It’s definitely a big win for the school,” Shruti said.
Where varsity sports often rely heavily on upperclassmen, freshmen and sophomores share an equally integral role on the math team.
“The freshmen were really excited and invested. They are poised to continue the tradition,” Shruti said.
Teacher Jong Ho Kim, who serves as head coach with teacher Liz Moore, couldn’t agree more. He said the freshman-sophomore team members were strong this year.
At the beginning of the school year, assistant coaches Howard Phelan and Noreen Olisar, who work with the underclassmen, told the students they could be champions, Kim said. The younger students responded, he said.
Because freshmen and sophomores gave such a steady performance this year, he said he is hopeful the team can repeat next year.
Naperville North became a math powerhouse in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the result of efforts by teacher and coach Robert Martin. Just six months after the team won its first state championship in 1994, Martin died in a private-plane crash in Champaign.
The school would go on to win consecutive titles from 1998 to 2007 and 14 titles in 16 years. The last win was 2011.
The reason for the drought has more to do with the competitors than with the Naperville North program, Kim said.
More schools’ math teams have upped their game since he started coaching 10 years ago, he said.
“We made small adjustments, but the program itself hasn’t changed,” Kim said. “The kids have changed a lot.”
When the team started, students mostly practiced for competitions using old tests, which they still do.
However, the Internet has become a more important tool as it allows students to find more competition problems to hone their math skills, Kim said.
Because students are under a time constraint or might have to solve an equation first, the Internet also allows students to gain competitive practice head-to-head against schools around the country.
Kim said many students attend summer camps focused on math competitions.
“Kids do all sorts of things at summer camps. Why not math?” he said.
The math team season runs throughout the year. Roughly 50 students compete in high school leagues in the fall, and tryouts are held before winter break for 32 to 36 spots on the state competitive team.
This year 36 students participated at state, including Shruti and co-captain James Zhu and team members Jack Boettcher, Richard Cao, Austin Chao, Vincent Chee, Alex Eastman, Danny Emge, Stephen Fan, Chris Fu, Karen Ge, Artur Genser, Michael Green, Ryan Guan, Howie Guo, Michelle He, Kathryn Jin, Benji Kan, Richard Li, Michael Lin, Grace Liu, Jason Liu, Lynnette Lu, Sarah Mansfield, Jatin Mathur, Terry Nguyen, Nicholas Ong, Alexander Ristich, Steven Shi, Zack Swartz, Jesse Wang, Jason Xia, Angela Xu, Danielle Yang, Richard Zhang and Lena Zhu.
In addition to the state championship, eight Naperville North students are among the 70 Chicago area teens competing on a regional team at the national competition in June.
Mathletes practice Thursday mornings during the fall, and they ramp up to daily analytical workouts in the spring.
“We don’t want to just teach them general knowledge, we want them to understand competition and working under time pressure,” Kim said.
Two other Naperville teams placed among the top 10 in the state. Neuqua Valley High School came in fourth and Naperville Central was sixth.
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The Illinois Math and Science Academy and Metea Valley School, both in Aurora, placed fifth and 21st.
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The answers are 48 words and 66 degrees.
Test your math skills
Here are two questions from the 4AA Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics Math Contest:
*Distinct five-letter “words” are made from the letters of the word “LAUGH.” No letter is used more than once in each “word” and the vowels must be next to each other. Determine the number of these “words” possible.
*Let k = |ANS|. Two ships, the Champaign and the Urbana, left the same port at the same time. The Champaign traveled at an average of 20 knots (that is, nautical miles per hour) and the Urbana traveled at an average of 15 knots, both ships maintaining constant headings. After k hours the two ships were 39 nautical miles apart. Determine the degree measure of the acute angle between the paths of the two ships. Express your answer rounded to the nearest degree.
More contest questions can be found on the ICTM High School Math website.