Making Math Team Cool Again: The Story of a Delinquent Captain

[Gale]

This is my third year on math team. I'm now captain. Like 4 or 5 years before i joined, my school was a state champ, we switched to int. math, and now we're close to the bottom. I joined for two reasons 1. i like math, kinda a lot. 2. i thought it'd be absofreakinglutely hilarious. I'm not exactly what people'd consider a math geek, heh, not at all, so i figured wouldn't it be a great joke if i was on this really geeky math team. Well, it turned out to be wicked funny, and more so since it was true. Now that I'm captain though, i want to win states again. Chances are like slim to nil, but i'd bet we could do it anyways.

Problem: Math team is still a joke to me. And, I've spread that philosophy to most of the team. No one cares about winning. Half the people this year can barely do algebra, but I've started a trend, and so they've joined. So, I've been going a long with the joke part (we're getting shirts that say geek and some cool glasses, all in school colors so our classmates can be proud...) and I've also been crackin' down and am making up extra pratcice sheets and like writing down things people should know, organizing practices and learning periods, all of which has never ever been done before.

Most people don't dissagree with anything I'm doing, except my co-captain. He's being a prick and refuses to really get into the spirit and be enthusiatic like I'm trying to get everyone else to be. He isn't really my problem, he's just a guy, easily dealt with, my problem is that I'm not sure everything I'm doing is cool. Should i chill and let things go like they always have? or should i at least slow down a bit? No one else really cares but me, i'd say not even the coach really. And i think all the responsibilty, though thoroughly abused, is still slightly cramping my care-free deliquent lifestyle. I'm just not sure what i should do as captain i guess. Usually captains do nothing, so i just don't know if i should too.

 

[dduardo]

I had a similar problem in math club back in high school. I was team captain, but no one cared about the competition. They just wanted to be able to write math club on their college admission papers. Also, the teacher was very unenthusiastic about having to stay after school to hold practices. I had to pull teeth just to get my hands on past exams. When the actual competition came around, I was the only in my division to participate. The school basically forfeited the team competition and all I did was the individual competition. After two years of this (freshmen and sophomore), I gave up and joined the robotics club, which wasn't any better.

The moral of the story is to do your own thing and forget the losers.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Rent Stand And Deliver. Make them all watch it. If that doesn't reve them up have them all shot for treason.

 

[dduardo]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
Rent Stand And Deliver. Make them all watch it. If that doesn't reve them up have them all shot for treason.

God no. I don't know how many times I was forced to watch that movie in school.

Whatever you do Gale17, don't show them that movie. Instead show them "PI." If they are not sucidial by the end of the movie then i don't know what to say.

 

[Gale]

wow great advice guys, thanks sooo much! so now i make em watch some movies and either shoot them or they kill themselves... good plan... solves all my problems...

 

[RageSk8]

I never joined the Math club at my school, mainly because I disliked the kids in it. Both the Math club and Mathletes were pretty big though, a lot of kids joined and participated. Half the people can barely do algebra? Jesus, kids at my school who participated were at the very least in algebra 2 and most were in their first, second, or third year of calculus.

 

[Gale]

yeah, know how i said i don't care about that dumb co capt of mine? yeah i do. i hate him. I'm really really mad now. See, I'm a really crappy student. terrible terrible grades, i'll probably end up in some ****ty college if i even go. Ben, co capt, on the other hand, is like high honors student, smart, athletic, and it going to some wicked awesome school. I really don't want some college looking at his app, and being like capt of math team... wow, the years you were captain you guys went from bottom 3 to top 3, (or even) bottom 3 to state champs! and really, i was the one who did all that work. he's always better than me anyways, i'd hate to add to his perfect awesomeness.

 

[RageSk8]

See, I'm a really crappy student. terrible terrible grades, i'll probably end up in some ****ty college if i even go.

Don't worry, I had a 2.8 gpa in high school and I got into a first tier school thanks to SATs.

 

[chroot]

Originally posted by Gale17
yeah, know how i said i don't care about that dumb co capt of mine? yeah i do. i hate him. I'm really really mad now. See, I'm a really crappy student. terrible terrible grades, i'll probably end up in some ****ty college if i even go. Ben, co capt, on the other hand, is like high honors student, smart, athletic, and it going to some wicked awesome school. I really don't want some college looking at his app, and being like capt of math team... wow, the years you were captain you guys went from bottom 3 to top 3, (or even) bottom 3 to state champs! and really, i was the one who did all that work. he's always better than me anyways, i'd hate to add to his perfect awesomeness.

Ga-ale and Be-en, sittin' in a tree..

- Warren