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The Waynflete Wire |
On to Seattle: Lifesmarts Team a Three-peat Champ
According to its website, LifeSmarts “prepares students to enter the real world as smart adult consumers… Students who participate in the program begin competition online. The highest scoring teams are invited to in-person live state championships. State winners are invited to the National LifeSmarts Championship held in a different city every April.”
Below is an account of the 2015 State LifeSmarts Final. The match left Coach Steve Kautz exhausted and “completely bald.”
On Friday, March 13, Waynflete participated in the LifeSmarts Maine Finals. The first rounds were based on individual online testing. The four schools with the highest average online scores were invited to the finals – Waynflete, Woodland High School, Mt. Ararat High School, and a team of students from different schools, connected by the United Technologies Center. The teams played each other in a round robin, and the teams with the highest win totals met in the finals, which turned out to be Waynflete and UTC.
The final match was competitive and tense, with the lead changing hands several times. Waynflete gradually worked its way into the lead during the final round behind the quick buzzers and fearless responses of Alex and Sam, but just when victory seemed imminent, UTC made a charge and tied the score. Fortunately, Christian stemmed the UTC charge with a response that was so sophisticated that it took the judges five minutes of conferring to realize that she was right, and then Captain Sam slammed the door and secured the Flyer victory.
Waynflete will represent Maine for the third year in a row at LifeSmarts Nationals in Seattle on April 17-20. Most expenses are being covered by the Maine Banker’s Association and Jump$tart Maine. Between 30 and 40 states are expected to be there. Last year Waynflete finished 10th out of 35 states, missing the playoff round by half a question. This year’s team consists of Captain and returning player Sam Frederick ‘ 15, Emily Tabb ’17, Stephen Epstein ’15, Alex Lambert ’15, and Christian Rowe ’16.
Individual state-level awards were also handed out based on the individual online testing.
- Personal Finance: Christian Rowe
- Environment: Christian Rowe
- Health & Safety: Alex Lambert
- Technology: Sam Frederick
Here is a link to an article Sam Frederick wrote last year about his experience with LifeSmarts. Here is a link to an article on the team’s success at the 2014 Nationals.
