Every year, some of the sharpest students at Quartz Hill High School gather together to try out for one of the most competitive “sports” teams: the Mathletes. Within our school, these math “athletes” are divided into Varsity and Junior Varsity, similar to most traditional sports. Varsity Mathletes is open to juniors and seniors, while Junior Varsity is open to sophomores and freshman.

   Last Friday, September 9, the Junior Varsity team had their tryouts for this year’s team. At the tryouts, students had to complete several difficult math problems, similar to ones that would appear in a competition, under a ten-minute time constraint. Fortunately, most of these bright minds solved these questions with ease.

   Joseph Park, a returning sophomore to the team, said, “The problems were not that hard. I got a nine out of nine on it.”

   Out of all of the people that try out, the top seven scores are chosen. This year, four freshman and three sophomores made it onto the Junior Varsity Mathletes team.

   Later in the year, these students will compete against other teams in the district to test their math skills and to see who is the best out of them all. The date for this competition is November 10th.

   Even with a minimal amount of preparation for the event, Quartz Hill has remained one of the stronger teams in the event. In fact, Joseph Park stated that he won third place in the individual scores last year.

   Many of the teammates have never seen each other around school before tryouts, so they want to bond with one another. In addition, they plan to put an emphasis on fun rather than just on math. Also, they want to make sure that they do not stress about the math too much so they can focus on enjoying themselves during the season.

   Although the Varsity mathlete tryout dates have not been announced, juniors and seniors interested in joining should look out for the announcement to tryout for this great opportunity.