BCS takes third in state at TAPPS academic

Brentwood Christian brought home the first place trophy in the middle school division at the PSIA state tournament, 59 points ahead of the second-place school, on April 30.
At the event, which took place in Fort Worth at Texas Christian University, seventh-grader Andrew Armstrong earned 45 points for BCS by placing first in all three of his math events.
PSIA coordinator Kay Taylor announced in chapel the next week that BCS had also earned the most points overall – including elementary competitors – out of the 253 schools that compete in PSIA, even though there was no official “overall” winner.
The 26 junior high and elementary students who represented BCS after qualifying at the district meet on March 5, left on Friday, April 29, to compete at state. Before the meet, elementary principal Dr. Libby Weed said she had had high hopes for this year as she expected “the middle school team to place at least in the top five, maybe top two.” Last year the middle school team placed second. This year, they ended the tournament with 156 points, and with 12 points from the elementary, this brought the team total to 168 points, which is 3.67 points ahead of Austin St. Theresa’s, the second-place school.

“I am extremely pleased with our students’ performance at state,” Weed said. “To end up as the highest-scoring out of all the 253 PSIA schools in the state is truly amazing! The students were well coached, and their parents were all very supportive.”

Armstrong’s three victories were in Calculator 6-8, Mathematics 7, and Number Sense 7. Eighth-grader Michael Lam earned first in Mathematics 8, and seventh-grader Josh Sass, who competed as an eighth-grader, earned first in Number Sense 8.
Sixth-grader Luke Allen placed first in Spelling 6 and third in Vocabulary 6. His sister, seventh-grader Tiara Allen, earned third in Spelling 7/8. Seventh-grader Brendan Hollaway was second in Mathematics 7, while sixth-grader Abby White earned second in Prose Interpretation 6, and sixth-grader Gabie Nguyen was third in Number Sense 6.

“I like competing at PSIA because it’s fun, and a good use of talent,” Armstrong said. “I also feel I did my absolute best this year in all my events. My favorite tradition though, after winning at PSIA, is to go to celebrate with my friends at the huge water park (in Grapevine), Great Wolf Lodge.”

Students started to prepare for PSIA in October and practiced at least once a week for each of their events. Practices were held after school in various classrooms, mostly led by parent volunteers. Some students, like the Allens, practiced a great deal at home so they were prepared when the competition arose.

Some of the coaches were teachers at BCS, like Kaleen Graessle and Cissy Johnson, who coached Calculator Applications 6-8 and Science 6-8, respectively. Most of the coaches, though, were parent volunteers. They usually stayed about an hour after school on their designated coaching days, and though most coaches only coached one event, some coached more. David Armstrong coached both Mathematics and Number Sense 6-8, and he stayed after school on Wednesdays and Fridays.

“I am blessed to work with a group of bright students who are willing to work hard to prepare for the math competitions,” Armstrong said. “The better performing students would take tests during the week, identifying the areas that needed focus, and bring back questions to ask during our sessions.”