LSHS Chess Team Finishes 7th in State Championship

I am so pleased to tell everyone that the LSHS Chess Team finished Seventh in the state in the NC State Chess Championship held this weekend in Charlotte!

Converging upon the Blake Hotel for this 38th annual tournament, over 500 of the best student chess players from dozens of schools competed, including one grandmaster-level student from the NC School of Science and Math. 

Our team is comprised of Nico Reyes (11th grade), Daniel Owens (12th grade), Karan Deocharran (10th grade), Charles Milam (10th grade), and Juan Arcia (9th grade). The team has met at least twice a week for the entire year and played in other tournaments to prepare for this event. Our players competed in the upper, open, championship division against very stiff competition, but fought some extremely close matches all the way down to the end. While playing against some of the largest schools in the state, and some exclusive private schools, our players showed class and determination all the way; we even had one player who began walking from home at 4:30 am Saturday morning to meet the bus at school for the departure. 

With points for this event, Lexington Senior High School still holds onto its first-place lead in the NCASA Scholastic Cup standings, the award for the "Top High School in the State."

Please congratulate these students! They will be proudly wearing their light blue T-shirts bought for them at the event as mementos. Coach Plaster also awarded Nico Reyes a portable tournament chess set as an award for winning the school-wide chess tournament last week.  

We left Charlotte Sunday night with the motivation to continue learning and growing our team to become better and better. 

Lexington Misses State Championship By Narrow Margin; Now Ranks First in State in Scholastic Cup Standings

"It's awesome -- Jacket pride, amplified," says Lexington City Schools Board of Education Chair Sherraine McLean. Lexington Senior High hosted the state championship NCASA The Quill writing competition Saturday, March 3 and came away with a close second-place finish, missing the top spot by decimals. The Lexington team of four high school students finished second to Atkins High School by less than a full point, with a total team score of 89.67 vs. Atkins' 90.50.

Lexington won two of the four categories, with Atkins winning one and Myers Park High School winning the other. With points awarded for this competition, LSH now ranks second in NCASA's Scholastic Cup annual standings. The North Carolina Association of Scholastic Activities (NCASA) hosts a number of academic competitions open to its member schools, and partners with various other competitions to award its Scholastic Cup to the "Top High School in NC." For more information about the NCASA, see its website at http://ncscholastic.org.

For The Quill, each school brings four writers to address four separate prompts and students have 90 minutes to complete their compositions. While the students break for lunch, the papers are judged anonymously by a panel of carefully chosen teacher judges, then awards are announced and trophies presented at an afternoon presentation. Lexington student Sethea Seang was the top writer in Literary Analysis, and Daniel Owens was the top winner in Creative Writing. Rachel Woodridge finished second in the Argumentative Writing category, and David Powell also finished second in his category of Problem Solution. Students winning their categories were awarded individual trophies. "It made me so happy to see the proud look on all four of our students' faces. Their sense of accomplishment was so apparent. We are very pleased with all of them," said Coach and LSHS Scholastic Director Scott Plaster.

Leon Pfieffer, Executive Director of NCASA said, "Congratulations to the Lexington Senior High School The Quill team for their second place finish in the State Finals. This is a dramatic improvement from last year's seventh place finish. Long hours of studying and practice paid off for these students, especially Daniel Owens who took first place in the Creative Writing event, and Sethea Seang who won the Literary Analysis topic." Lexington's other competitors included Myer's Park High School from Charlotte with an enrollment of over 2,800. Myer's Park is regularly ranked in the top 50 schools in the country and competes nationally in several academic competitions. Another school at the competition was Page HS, with around 1,800 students. Winners in the Argumentative Writing and Problem Solution categories were Meredith Hemphill from Atkins High School and George Robertson from Myers Park High School.

"Our students' excelling in each of the four areas of competition speaks to the instruction they are receiving across all disciplines at LSHS. A student's ability to respond to a problem-solving prompt can be attributed to excellence in his science and math classes; addressing an argumentative prompt attributed to the social sciences and CTE courses; and creative writing skills are heightened in all liberal arts classes," said teacher Dawn Poole, who taught three of the Lexington Quill team's four students this year in her AP English classes. Plaster added, "It does truly take an entire faculty to prepare students for a competition like The Quill."

Lexington history teacher Steve Raker has been teaching at the school for ten years and graduated from the high school in 1967. He said, "I remember the day that our school had academic teams and was competitive with every school around. It's good to see us returning to those traditions." "It was a goal of the Scholastic Program from the start that our academic teams represent the true diversity of our school, and that has been no problem to accomplish," said Plaster, who said the school's academic teams have included an equal mix of both genders, grades 9-12, and a broad range of ethnic groups, including Caucasian, African-American, Cambodian, Hispanic, and several students from Guyana.

Pfieffer commented on Lexington's current top ranking in the Scholastic Cup, "In my meetings with superintendents and principals I repeatedly said that any school can win the Scholastic Cup. It is not just for the elite or magnet schools to pursue. This statement is greeted with raised eyebrows and strange looks. However, the current standings bear out this claim. Lexington Senior High School has 65% free and reduced lunch and more extreme poverty students than any high school in North Carolina." Over 500 of Lexington Senior High's 782 students qualify for free or reduced lunch. A January Dispatch article reported that one in five of the school system's children live in extreme poverty.

Lexington City Schools Superintendent Richard Kriesky said, "The Lexington City School System is very proud of the recent second place finish in the Quill writing competition. The writing excellence that our Lexington Senior High students displayed in the statewide academic contest speaks volumes for the quality of students and instruction
at our high school. Congratulations to the outstanding student competitors from LSHS and a special thanks to Mr. Plaster, the team's coach. At this point LSHS is in first place overall in the comprehensive state competition. Good luck, Jackets. Continue to make us proud." LSH Principal Travis Taylor said, "Out of sight, wonderful work for our first year. Great for our image, reputation, community and students!"

Scholastic Director Scott Plaster assembled a full team of academic coaches at the beginning of the year with the idea, he says, "You can't win if you don't compete." The coaching staff includes Kristen Wall for Science, Dawn Poole for a general competition called the Twelve, math coach Tiffany George, choir director Lee Mabe, Quiz Bowl coach Dr. Keith Curry, and Economics coach Robert Hairston. Plaster also coaches the school's chess team, which will be attending the state chess championship later this month. Other upcoming competitions this year include the NC Economics Challenge, the State Mathematics Contest, and the NC Glee Club Competition.

The school's Quiz Bowl team will compete in the District competition on Saturday, March 10 at Guilford College. Curry said, "It has been great to be involved in the school's scholastic program and to get to work with such bright kids. We've been working hard in our weekly meets to prepare for the district competition and hope to do well enough to advance to the state championship." The Quiz Bowl is NCASA's most popular competition, with over 30 schools competing for a chance at the title. The six-week quiz bowl conference play marks the first time in North Carolina history that academic teams have competed in regular "conference" play.

For more information about Lexington Senior High School's academic competition program, contact Scholastic Director Scott Plaster at 336-473-7369 or http://mrplastersclass.com.


A chart with the Cup standings:
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Scholastic Cup Standings after three events:

1 - Lexington Senior HS - 105 pts
2 - Ardrey Kell HS - 95 pts
3 - Atkins A&T HS - 90 pts
4 - Myers Park HS - 85 pts
5 - NC School of Science and Mathematics - 55 pts
6t - Chapel Hill HS - 50 pts
6t - Raleigh Charter HS - 50 pts
6t - Thomas Jefferson Classical - 50 pts
9t - Jordan-Matthews HS - 40 pts
9t - Newton Conover HS - 40 pts
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Updates from our Scholastic Program....

Lexington Finishes 8th in State

Lexington Finishes 8th in State in "Twelve"

"The Quill" State Championship 

hosted at Lexington HS March 3

Lexington Show Choir to Compete

in NC Glee Club Competition May 5

Lexington Students to Compete in Regional Qualifying March 22

Two Jacket Teams to Compete in NC Economics Challenge 

the week of March 12-16. Beware the Ides of March!

Lexington Jacket Chess Team to Compete in State Championship March 16-18

Lexington Starts Quiz Bowl Season 2-1

Lexington High School's Quiz Bowl Season is off to a tremendous start, as its A team came away from the first meet with a 2-1 record in the Triad Conference of NCASA's unprecedented weekly conference play.

Coached by Dr. Keith Curry, the A team is made up of LSH seniors Sethea Seang (captain), Marcus Johnson, Daniel Owens, Crystal Nem, and Jennifer Rivera. "It was SO fun! I wish we could do this every Friday night of the year," said one of the players. LSH also fielded a second team made of sophomores Alex Leng (captain), Arefa Bacchus, Karan Deocharan, and Ariadna Martinez.

For the first time in North Carolina history, quiz bowl teams are competing in "conference play" on a weekly basis; the North Carolina Association of Scholastic Activities (NCASA) is sponsoring this six-week long period of contests that will lead up to the District Competition on Saturday, March 10. At the district competition, Lexington will field a single team and will battle to go to the State Championship on March 24th.

With two, top-ten finishes in state championship academic competitions (one at the Science Bowl and the other at Twelve), Lexington Senior High is ranked 2nd out of 79 member schools in NCASA's Scholastic Cup standings. The annual cup's winner is billed as the "top high school in the state."

The standings for the weekly quiz bowl conference can be followed here: http://ncscholastic.org/index.php/quizbowl/101-conference-quiz-bowl-standings

LSH Scholastic Director Scott Plaster also attended the meet, saying, "I was very impressed with all of our students' performances tonight. This helps show that our students can compete with the smartest students anywhere in the state. It takes an entire faculty and the entire school to prepare students for this type of competition."

Lexington High School will play host to other schools on Fridays Feb. 24 and March 2, both at 4:30. Spectators are welcome to attend.

LSH Science Finishes 8th in NC Science Bowl

Four Lexington Senior High Students in the NC Region of the Science Bowl on Saturday, January 28 and brought home another top-ten state finish to put the school second in the NCASA Scholastic Cup standings. The LSHS team competed admirably against even the repeating champions from the NC School of Science and Math, winning three straight toss-ups before the half. They were also able to beat a team from Raleigh Charter School, a school that made it to the semi-finals. Team members were MiKayla Cross, Evan McIntosh, Sethea Seang, and Alexander Leng. The team was coached by science teacher extraordinaire Kristen Wall.

The Science Bowl is sponsored by the US Department of Energy and the NC contest was held in Durham on the NC Central campus. A general opening and introduction was planned for all teams on Friday, and the competition started early Saturday morning and lasted into the afternoon.

It takes an entire faculty to prepare our students for such academic challenges. Congratulations to all teachers at the school who have taught these students, in any subject. Lexington High School has some of the best teachers and students anywhere. We can and will become recognized for our academics if we all continue to work together in our goal of excellence.

High School Competes in State Championship Academic Competition

Lexington Senior High School competed in its first state championship of the school year on Saturday, December 3, but it wasn't in basketball, wrestling, or even football. In fact, the contest was an academic competition, and the team was made up of some of the brightest students in Lexington.

The competition is called "Twelve" and hosted by the North Carolina Association for Scholastic Activities, of which LSHS is a member school. The NCASA sponsors a number of academic competitions for its member schools all across the state. Twelve students make up each team and they are presented with rounds of twelve different topics with twelve questions per category. At the end of the day, the Lexington team amassed 36 points, narrowly behind the next two highest schools, finishing in eight place overall.

Lexington's eighth-place finish gives it 20 points in the NCASA's Scholastic Cup competition, which is billed as the ranking of the "best schools in the state." Competing against Lexington were some of the most reputed schools in North Carolina, including Myers Park from Charlotte, which regularly competes in academic contests even on a national level. Myers Park finished in 3rd place, while Ardrey Kell, also of Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools was the champion. Both schools have enrollments of over 2,000 students. Finishing second was Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy of Rutherford County.

The Lexington Twelve Team is coached by English teacher Dawn Poole. Team members are Furwah Hassan, Daniel Owens, Marcus Johnson, Sethea Seang, Alex Leng, Mikayla Cross, Camille Miller, Josey Parker, Arefa Bacchus, Suzannah Brown, Evan McIntosh, and Crystal Nem. The team was selected from a larger pool of applicants and teacher nominations from grades 9-12. The team proceeded to the state championship after a preliminary competition held in October and final team selections were based on regular team study and practice sessions held by Ms. Poole.

The two-hour competition was a grueling experience for its participants, and the team's performance holds promise for future contests. Student comments included, "It does make you feel bad when you don't know an answer, but it also makes you feel really good about how much you do know and how much you have learned." Another said, "This makes me want to go back and tell all my teachers how thankful I am that they worked so hard to teach me all of this." Students kept a positive outlook: "We'll win next year."

"Lexington High School students competed admirably in the Twelve State Final held this past weekend. Their outstanding performance in US History, Algebra / Geometry, and Life Sciences led them to an eighth place finish. These scholars represented Lexington High School well and has earned their current eighth place standing in the NCASA Scholastic Cup standings," said NCASA Executive Director Leon Pfeiffer.

LSHS Scholastic Director Scott Plaster said that this is just the first of a string of related competitions that the school will compete in this year. "Our students need to know something beyond the walls of our own school. Challenging them to compete against the brightest minds in the state should give them that hope. There's no reason why Lexington cannot become as well known for academics as it is for athletics." The school now has an entire coaching staff for a slew of academic contests in history, math, science, writing, glee club, quiz bowl, speech, and even chess. Last year the school competed in only one of those competitions, but this year the program expands to at least a half a dozen academic contests.

The NCASA was formed last year to promote academic competition across the state. Its membership nearly doubled from last year; 76 schools this year are eligible to compete, including a few entire school systems. Other schools include small charter and magnet schools that have an intensive academic focus. Upcoming events include weekly Quiz Bowl conference play, a statewide Glee Club competition, and the Quill writing contest. More information about the NCASA, including contest schedules and descriptions, member schools, and practice materials, can be found on the organization's website at http://ncscholastic.org.

Lexington High Chess Team Competes in Asheboro Open

The Lexington High School Chess Team competed in a regional tournament in Asheboro this weekend against players of all ages from around the area. The following players competed: Nico Reyes, Charles Milam, Daniel Owens, Karran Harold, Karan Deocharran, and Mr. Plaster. Mr. Plaster and Charles each earned one victory, and Nico won two of his three games. Mr. Plaster and Nico also earned official rankings, but both lost to the same player who was rated over 1400.

The Chess club meets Tuesday and Thursdays in Room 15 on the blue hall. It is free to join, but there are sometimes fees to compete in tournaments. The team is preparing to compete in the state championship in March.