RELEASE DATE: MAR. 29, 2022 – Contact: Jim Mehrling 440-463-2557
Headline: AVON DEFEATS ELYRIA CATHOLIC COMPLETING LIST OF QUARTERFINALISTS ON SCHOLASTIC GAMES QUIZ PROGRAM
All eight quarterfinalists were announced on this week’s broadcast of Lorain County’s high school quiz show, the Scholastic Games, now in its 32nd year on WEOL radio (AM930 and FM 100.3). Avon High School joins Amherst Steele, Sheffield Brookside, Firelands, Keystone, Lake Ridge Academy, Olmsted Falls and Vermilion in playoff eliminations for the program’s annual county championship. This week’s program was a 380 to 90 defeat of the academic team from Elyria Catholic High School. The program is broadcast weekly on Mondays from 6-7 p.m.
Avon’s team included Nicholas Stamatis, P. J. Yug, and captain Mattthew Downing, who won the program’s “Standout Scholar Award,” presented each week by judges to the student determined to have contributed the most to his or her team. The honor includes a $50 award. It was Downing’s second such honor this year. The team from Elyria Catholic consisted of captain Connor Sisson, Gabriel Nagrant, and Owen Volney.
The competition’s “Initial Round” required answers beginning with the letter “I” ranging from Illinois to Iberia, and the Iroquois to the Incas, and proved a challenge to both teams, ending with a tie score of 20-20. Avon moved ahead in the Current Events round which ended with a 60 to 30 lead, and advanced further when the buzzers came out for a geographic theme round on mountains.
Avon entered the fourth round with a 100 to 50 point advantage and proceeded to continue its domination. Round four presents a series of clues for each answer, with a correct answer to a first clue yielding fifty points, with diminishing point values for up to four additional clues, the last of which is ten points. The first series, about American jurist and diplomat John Jay, eluded both teams, but Avon earned 30 points naming Northern Ireland, 40 points by identifying the pilgrims, 10 points after all of the clues about South Carolina, and 50 points for naming Mary Shelley from the clue stating her father was William Godwin.
Entering the final round with a 250 to 50 lead, over nine minutes of toss-up and bonus questions providing the quick buzzers of Downing and his teammates won Avon another 150 points and a strong victory to ride into the quarterfinals. Over the years, twelve different schools have won the championships, including Avon in 2009, 2016, 2017 and 2019. Defending champion Lake Ridge Academy’s 2021 win was its third (with earlier wins in 2006 and 2010). Other championship winners have included Amherst Steele (1991, 2015), Avon Lake (2001, 2005, and 2020), Elyria (1992, 93, 94, 97, 2000), Admiral King (1995, 1998), Oberlin (1996), North Ridgeville (1999, 2002), Midview (2003), Keystone (2004), Vermilion (2007, 08), and Olmsted Falls (2011, 12, 13, 14, 18).
The broadcasts will end in May with the program’s 32nd annual County Academic Championship. Following broadcast the station archives the programs online (http://weol.northcoastnow.com/2022-lorain-county-scholastic-games/ ). Programs air between 6 and 7 p.m. on Mondays, with one exception in the upcoming schedule. Here is the schedule, subject to further modification if there are conflicts with live sports coverage, such as tournament NBA basketball.
4/4 —Quarterfinal #1: Lake Ridge Acad. vs. Vermilion
4/11—Quarterfinal #2: Firelands vs. Olmsted Falls
4/18 – A special 4:30 p.m. rebroadcast of the exciting Amherst-Avon match from February precedes a Guardians baseball game in the usual 6pm time period
4/25 –Quarterfinal #3: Amherst vs. Brookside
5/2—Quarterfinal #4: Avon vs. Keystone
5/9, 5/16, 5/23 – Semifinals and Championship
The program has enjoyed long-term support from Nordson Corporation and various funds of the Community Foundation, this year including the Steve Boyza Fund, the Patsie C. Campana Sr. Fund, the Schaeffer Family Fund, The Stumphauzer, O’Toole, McLaughlin, McGlamery & Loughman Co. Fund, the “Touch the Future” Fund, the Al Hillegass Fund, the Ford MacArthur Endowment Fund and the Madeleyn Metzger Fund. Additional support is from the Nord Family Foundation and the Community West Foundation. The radio sponsors this year are EcoTree Services and the Elyria Public Library System, which has provided venue space for program sessions for several years.
Area colleges and universities participate by providing $1000 tuition credit awards for allocation by participating high schools. Participating for all or most of the program’s thirty-year history were Lorain County Community College, Oberlin College, Ursuline College, Ashland University, Heidelberg University, John Carroll University, with more recent additional awards from the University of Findlay, Lake Erie College, Tiffin University and Notre Dame College of Ohio.
The program’s host and producer, Jim Mehrling, is a veteran northeast Ohio broadcaster. After seven years as Chief Announcer at WEOL, he was Production Manager for, first, Cleveland’s WERE-AM and later at Cleveland’s WCLV-FM. He was recipient of a 2019 President’s Award from the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters. Again this year, most Scholastic Games programs will be followed by a talk feature, “Dialogues in Education,” which presents education success stories with its host, award-winning journalist Bob Tayek.
BROADCAST ON AM 930 – WEOL