The Marblehead High School Math Team is about half-way through its six-meet season. I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Waitkevich, one of the math team coaches, about what goes into running the math team. She also answered questions about the math team that will inform people about the competitions.
Q: How many people are on the math team this year?
A: This year, there are approximately 35-40 students who are on the math team.
Q: How long have you been a math team coach?
A: This is my second year being the Math Team Coach for Marblehead. I was also the Math Team coach at a school in Austria, where we competed with other international schools.
Q: Where do the math team competitions take place?
A: Each meet takes place at a different school that we compete against in our division, which consists of a total of 8 schools (Marblehead, St. John’s, St. Mary’s, Beverly, Swampscott, Salem, Lynn English, and Lynn Classical). The first meet of the year is at Marblehead, followed by St. John’s Prep, Lynn English, Salem and Swampscott. The 6th meet is determined by each school’s team scores and the league overall (consisting of 42 schools). Last year we went to Concord-Carlisle for the last meet.
Q: What are some of the topics covered in the competitions?
A: We cover a wide variety of topics during the competitions. Everything from Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry, Number Theory, Probability, Pre-Calculus, etc.
Q: How does the math team practice for meets?
A: The math team practices each Tuesday afternoon. We usually have about 4 practices before the next competition. The day after each meet, the math coaches receive “look alike” problems for the next meet. These problems are similar to the first question in each round that will be asked during the next meet. Students work through these problems during the first practice. By the next practice students usually have an idea of the rounds they would like to compete in, so they are given more problems focusing on the topics in those rounds. The 3rd practice, we focus on “team questions”, and the 4th practice we focus again on the individual rounds.
Q: What are regulars and alternates and how is what they do at meets different?
A: During each meet we bring regulars (10 students that make up the team each meet) and alternates. Regulars are competing for the team score. If a student that is a “regular” is unable to attend a meet, an alternate can fill-in the spot. Regulars and alternates change each meet, so everyone that attends practice is eligible to attend the meet. We take 10 regulars and about 3-5 alternates each meet. When we host the meet, everyone can attend!
Q: What is the hardest part of running the math team?
A: The most difficult thing about running the meet is prepping for when the meet is held at our school. Each host school runs off all copies for each round for everyone competing, arranges classrooms where the competition will take place, and orders pizza and snacks for all attending. Everyone on Marblehead’s math team is very cooperative in making sure everything runs very smoothly.