Academic team secures fifth national tournament appearance

Apparently there are three guarantees in life: death taxes and Jefferson Community & Technical College's Quick Recall Academic Team qualifying for nationals. For the fifth straight year, Jefferson's Academic Team has qualified for the Community College Championship Tournament (CCCT) to be held in Atlanta on Feb. 27-28.

We are in a unique position as the only Kentucky community college competing at the national level said Coach Pete Rodski, math professor on the Southwest Campus. Once again, Jefferson will be among the top 24 teams in the country.

Jefferson A team won the entire Kentucky Sectional to earn the bid to the CCCT. Jefferson B ended up just outside the initial bid list, but still has a chance for an at-large bid. Jefferson was the only KCTCS team competing out of 64 teams in the tournament.

Last year, the team was one win away from playing for the final championship round. We ended the season with our third consecutive top five finish, Rodski said. This year, we have several of our players back. But this field is really, really strong and there will not be any easy matches.

At the Kentucky Sectional, Eric Bradley took the scoring title with 65.8 points per game. Other top student scorers included Marion Eicholtz at 34.1 ppg., Katie Edwards with 32.32 ppg, Anthony Myers had 30.82 ppg., Will Edwards with 29.7 ppg., Paul Roederer at 27.06 ppg., and Launi Brown with 21.82 ppg. Also playing for Jefferson were James Mitchell, Joseph Moffett, Jordan Woosley, Josh Case, Kimberly Cissell, Bo Terkelson, Parker Jones and Charles Arnold.

Every team member from Jefferson scored, including four of my players who had never played in a tournament Rodski said.

Jefferson currently ranks 4th overall in D-value (306), but has the 2nd highest point per bonus average in the country, trailing only State College Manatee, and ranks 2nd behind Valencia Community College on total points per tossup heard. D-value is a complex ranking formula that includes things like points per bonus and points per tossup balanced against strength of schedule. Jefferson ranks first nationally in bonuses heard per tossup heard, another good indicator of team strength. Full statics can be found at, http://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-teams.jsp?tournament_id=6250.

Rodski said Jefferson's strength of schedule will help them at the national tournament.

This season, in addition to the regularly scheduled league matches, the team competed at several open tournaments, including one at Ohio State. This will be an advantage for us at nationals because we have already competed against Michigan State and Notre Dame.

The team also is coached by Amy Sprinkle, and Liz Boyd. Quiz bowl questions range over the entire spectrum of a community college curriculum, and include questions on current events, sports and pop culture.