After a 12-year run of claiming the first-place Math Team regular-season trophy, Hollis Brookline High School has come in close second to their rivals, Bishop Guertin (BG) the last two years. This year, the team had something to prove, that they are the rightful holders of the first place trophy. On Wednesday, February 12, the team did just that and stole back the title. Once again, the HB Cavaliers’ Math Team adds another trophy to the school’s display case.

Math teacher and the head of the math department, Stacey Plummer, has been the advisor on the Math Team ever since she began working at HB in 1999. She and her co-advisor and co-partner in the math department, Susan Mooers, deny any credit given to them for their advising or coaching of the first-place team. “We truly believe that this is a culmination of kindergarten through high school knowledge and in no way, shape, or form do Mrs. Mooers or I think that we really have anything to do with how well the kids are doing on the team. These are skills and strategies that they have been developing since they started school in the SAU41.”

Cole Lorig ‘20 came to SAU41 in the fall of his junior year, and had never heard of a Math Team until the afternoon he stepped into the gym during a Freshman and Transfer-Student Orientation. Last season was Lorig’s first year on the team and helped varsity place second in the overall standings. At the end of last season, the team was not satisfied in the least, for they wanted the trophy back from Nashua’s BG. “It feels really good to have an academic championship, especially to bring first place back to Hollis Brookline after coming in second the past two years,” Lorig commented on behalf of the entire team.

One of Lorig’s teammates and classmates in AP Calculus and AP Statistics, Oliver Hugh ‘21, is also a two-year Varsity Math Team member. “I do Math Team because I like math, it looks good on a college resumé, and it is pretty fun and enriching while also being a low commitment,” said Hugh. 

Any New Hampshire state Math Team consists of two teams of students, Varsity and Junior Varsity, just like any other sports team has. Very similarly, each school is placed in a division, division one through three, based on the size of the school and their level of competition for the State Title. At each meet, there are five rounds, in which every member of the team has to take part in three of five, and then can participate in the team round to score more points. 

The categories of math questions make up the five rounds: General Questions, that use logic and creative ways to solve problems; Algebra 1; Geometry; Algebra 2; and Advanced Math, which can be anything from Precalculus to Calculus to Statistics. Each school’s varsity members add up their team’s combined scores in combination with the team score. The final number of points for each school goes up against the other schools to determine the winner, which is the school to have the most amount of points after all is said and done.

The HB Math Team now travels to compete in the State Championship Math Meet on March 10 at Plymouth State College.