Elder High School is well known for its many sports accomplishments, from football to Track and Field panthers have been put in print for decades for their prowess in the pit or the diamond, but one team never seems to get any attention what’s-so-ever. The Elder academic team.

And yes, technically the team is a sport, according to EHsports.com, but you shouldn’t feel too embarrassed if you didn’t know this little fact as Elder its self often forgets this fact as well, providing the team with two GCL titles in two years with exactly $0 for all expenses that the team may have.

This is why the team members were forced to choose to either to trek out Columbus the night of Elderfest and spend the night, or to make the journey in the wee hours of the morning.

Some of the wiser members decided that five in the morning would be a little too early of a start for a day and decided to share rooms at a Days Inn that was only a few blocks away from where the tournament would be held the next morning. Although, as senior Nick Conda attested to in my video interview with him during the tournament, sometimes you can get even less sleep if you have a roommate that is a snorer.

This fact hasn’t seem to have daunted the academic panthers at all though because, as was stated above, the team has put together a team that has won two back-to-back GCL titles and the only run at the state tournament in the school’s history.

That’s right, the Panthers made it to the State academic tournament this year for the first time ever, and although the team only won one of their five games the team remained cool and collected and played well to win their last game of the season in a solid victory to end the day with their 1-4 record.

Leading the Panthers in Columbus were team captain Will Brueggemeyer and the rest of the varsity academic team including seniors Chris Ochs, Chris Deters, Nick Conda, Rick Briedenstein, Alex Rolfes, and Collin Schwiers. All of whom were only the varsity members of a team that included many other players who had a great JV season.

At the end of the day, when all was said and done Elder finished their season ranked 10^th in the state of Ohio out of over 200 teams this season.

To celebrate their accomplishment of finishing a great season by going to a local restaurant Raising Cane’s to end the day. The group enjoyed the meal and the final bit of time they could call themselves a team while enjoying the food across the road from the Ohio State University. It was a good way to end the year, all of us around a single table, talking and laughing a little too loudly for the comfort of the other restaurant patrons before saying goodbye and starting on our quite literal journey home.