For the fifth year in a row, Blue Mountain High School has won the 22nd annual Schuylkill County Academic Competition.
After three hours of question-and-answer matches Monday afternoon at Schuylkill County Courthouse in Pottsville, their fingers still feeling the itch to click answer buzzers, the students were given medals, and applause from their supporters. And they revealed the secret of their success.
"It's practice. And you have to practice everyday. And read, read anything and read as much as possible," Enoch Shissler, 18, a Blue Mountain senior and the school's academic team captain, said.
"It's hard work and enthusiasm," said Richard Tomko, a retired Blue Mountain American government teacher who coached the team this year along with Steve Zimmerman, a Blue Mountain High School social studies teacher.
Zimmerman agreed, "They have to want to do it."
It also takes a degree of confidence, Quentin Moyer, 18, a Blue Mountain senior, said.
When the Blue Mountain team members walked into the courthouse Monday afternoon, Moyer said they had no doubts about whether it would walk home with first place.
"We knew," he said.
"You're all winners if you step up to the plate to go in the competition. It's a very important thing to have this academic challenge and we're very proud of you and wish Blue Mountain luck as it moves along to the state competition," Schuylkill County Commissioner Gary Hess said at the conclusion of the competition.
Blue Mountain High School will compete in the Pennsylvania Academic State Competition to be held at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate chambers on May 2, according to Theresa Kozura, special programs assistant at Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29, Mar Lin, one of the event's coordinators.
In the past four years, Blue Mountain hadn't won the state competition, Shissler said.
"I think the closest we came was 10th place last year," Shissler said.
In May 2013, at the annual Pennsylvania Academic Competition, Blue Mountain finished 10th with a total score of 135.
But the Blue Mountain team is feeling good about the state competition this year.
Shissler said, "We got this."
The Blue Mountain team was made up of eight students. The other six were: seniors, Stuart Blair, Eric Zimmerman and Brendan Navin; junior, Muzamil Choudhry; and sophomores, Matthew Blair and Quentin Jurista.
In the championship match, held in Courtroom 1, Blue Mountain beat Nativity BVM Catholic High School, Pottsville, with a score of 115 to 60.
Nativity BVM came in at second place. Schuylkill Haven Area High School came in third and Pottsville Area High School placed fourth, according to Kozura.
A total of 75 students from 11 area high schools participated this year.
The other schools that participated were Mahanoy Area, Minersville Area, North Schuylkill, Pine Grove Area, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley and Williams Valley.
At the start of the final round between Blue Mountain and Nativity BVM, the moderator for that round, John A. "Jack" Shandor, Saint Clair, offered both sides well wishes: "Good luck to both teams. But it's not luck. You're both very intelligent groups. And here we go."
Shissler answered many questions.
"In September 2013, this man promised an unbelievably small response to what he previously called 'a Munich moment.' At subsequent talks in Geneva, he helped broker a deal with Sergei Lavrov of Russia to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons. Who is the current U.S. Secretary of State?"
"John Kerry," Shissler said.
"That's correct," Shandor said.