The Greatest Game Ever Played We’ve never, in 38 years, presided over a contest as exciting at the 2020 Junior National Academic Championship finals between rookie Emerson School from Ann Arbor, Michigan and Edmonson County, the defending champs from Brownsville, Kentucky.

Emerson School Coach Bryan Seymour and team …

The score was tied 70-70 after the first period. In the bonus round, Emerson swept the FOUR LETTER WORDS and BUSINESS bonuses, but Edmonson County swept the MATH bonus and led 175-155 at halftime. It was 90-90 in the Sixty Seconds Round, Emerson having chosen AMERICAN REVOLUTION and

Edmonson County, POETRY. Edmonson County led 265-245 going into the final period, “Stump the Experts” round, where we prefer to see games won or lost. Consider the last half of the fourth quarter. Edmonson Co. took an 80-point lead after answering this Geography question: “Baffin Bay lies between what second-largest country in the world and what autonomous territory?” (Ans. Canada, Greenland). Emerson cut that lead to 60 after a History question: “One was formed on April 4, 1949, and the other, in response to the first, on May 14, 1955. Their headquarters were in Belgium and Poland. The Cold War became deep-rooted in the mid-1950s after the formation of what two adversarial military alliances?” (Ans. NATO and the Warsaw Pact) Emerson trailed by only 20 points after adding 40 points on a pair of Farming questions: “What 12-letter portmanteau A-word defines the entire system of commercial farming by large corporations, in which all steps and sectors in the chain of food-processing, from supply and production through retail sales, are integrated?” (Ans. Agribusiness) and “Monsanto, the agribusiness company, has developed soybean and corn varieties that are resistant to a herbicide that was developed by Monsanto itself. Such modified crops are referred to as _______ Ready.” (Ans. Roundup). But Edmonson Co. led by 40 after an American History question: “It was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, at the site of the present-day city of Maumee, Ohio. What battle in which Anthony Wayne was the victor is so-called because it happened in a region where a recent storm had brought down many trees?” (Ans. Battle of Fallen Timbers). Emerson drew to within 20 points of the lead after answering their American History question: “The original of this document has been lost, but it was transcribed in the Journal of William Bradford. Name this 1620 political document, a set of guidelines for self-rule established by the English pilgrims who landed in Massachusetts instead of Virginia.” (Ans. Mayflower Compact). Emerson moved into a tie after an Interdisciplinary question: “A spy's fake identity, or a recording of a tune that was another person's hit -- those are two definitions of what word? It’s also a type of charge imposed as an entry fee; the front of an album, book, or magazine; and another name for the lid on a container.” (Ans. Cover) The next question was a rare miss for both teams: “As a verb, this word means to kidnap a sailor from one ship and force him to work on another. As a noun, it’s the world's busiest container port. What’s the word?” (Ans. Shanghai). Edmonson Co. broke the tie on Asian Nations: “Geologists say that 15 million years ago, what is now this country drifted away from east Asia, and the sea of the same name formed in its wake. Of its 6,852 islands, all but four have an area less than 500 square miles. Name this, the only Asian nation in the G7.” (Ans. Japan). Emerson’s Asian Nations question: “Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA confirm the location of Osama bin Laden in 2011, was jailed afterward

and is still imprisoned in which Asian nation?” (Ans. Pakistan). The score stood at 445-445 at the end of the contest, and that’s where it stayed. Emerson and Edmonson County were both declared national champions.

Edmonson Co. Coach Nick Skaggs and team …

HallofFame

• Jon Leidenheimer (Longfellow, VA, 2009-2011)

• Myles Siglin (Flushing, MI, 2012-2014)

• Brandon Fairchild (Johnson County, KY, 2013-2015)

• Anna Zheng (Paideia, GA, 2014-2017)

• Jonas Miller (Edmonson County, KY, 2018-2019)

• Brody Johnson (Edmonson County, KY, 2018-2019)

WINNERSOFOUR13TOURNAMENTS

• 2008 - Bate Middle School (Danville, KY)

• 2009 - Longfellow Middle School (Falls Church,VA)

• 2010 - Longfellow Middle School (Falls Church,VA)

• 2011 - Longfellow Middle School (Falls Church,VA)

• 2012 - Trickum Middle School (Stone Mountain, GA)

• 2013 - Flushing Middle School (Flushing, MI)

• 2014 - Woodland Junior High School (Fayetteville, AR)

• 2015 - Sutton Middle School (Atlanta, GA)

• 2016 - Wooster Middle School (Wooster, OH)

• 2017 - Chaffin Junior High School (Fort Smith, AR)

• 2018 - Edmonson County (Brownsville, KY)

• 2019 - Edmonson County (Brownsville, KY)

• 2020 - Emerson School (MI) & Edmonson County (Brownsville, KY)