Sabine Pass Sharks progress toward UIL state academic meet

The scene was familiar for any child who's attended a University Interscholastic League academic meet. Backpacks littered the floor, students were crammed into groups next to the power outlets along the wall, all charging their devices. Table after table contained dozens of students trying to study as much material as they could before their competition began. 

The same was true for the Sabine Pass Sharks. With dozens of students split between two lunch tables, the Sharks were ready to compete. By this point, they're used to it.

Feb. 11 marked just one of a few UIL Invitational Meets Sabine Pass competes at, aiming to get a better idea of how they will measure up at district competition, typically held at the end of March. What makes the Port Neches-Groves meet different is that the Sharks compete against every school in attendance, regardless of classification. Some of the schools Sabine Pass competed against had more than six times as many students as its entire district.

But they weren't sweating it.

For Sabine Pass, "UIL" is synonymous with academics, not sports -- the way that it is in arguably most schools across Texas, said Principal and UIL coordinator Andy Bates. That makes sense considering the 2A school is tied for the second-most UIL academic state championship titles in the entire state, regardless of classification, according to the league.

At 11 a.m. Feb. 11, most of the students were heading off to their respective competitions, leaving their sponsors behind.

Practice makes perfect

Science sponsor Hope Henderson brought eight students to the meet, but only six will make it to district.

"They're all vying for that sixth position," she said. "After district, it's only four (positions)."

Henderson opens up a binder with a sample test. The science competition consists of a two-hour, 60-question multiple choice exam, evenly divided into sections for biology, physics and chemistry. The questions are objective but change year-to-year, sometimes influenced by world events such as bacteria outbreaks or global pandemics, necessitating students to be aware of current events in addition to knowing facts.

"It's not just, 'Take this test, take this test' like math, because math is math, right?" she said. "Not science. Everything's game. It's challenging. When kids want to do this (event), (I ask them) 'Tell me what you need,' and I try and give them as much opportunity to (ask questions)."

Henderson, who teaches biology; chemistry; integrated physics and chemistry; and anatomy and physiology at Sabine Pass and has been the science sponsor for 12 years, didn't know what UIL academics was before she came to the school. 

"My first couple of years I'm like, 'What do I do?'" she said. "Over the years, you learn new tricks and new steps and how to help the kids. Do I know what I'm doing? Most of the time, yes. But you're always wanting to learn from all of the different experiences and we try to do as many invitationals as we can to give the kids the opportunity, more practice."

During Henderson's tenure, the Sabine Pass science team has typically been beaten out of the competition at the regional level, she said.

"There's a couple (of) just insanely brilliant young people from our region...they're so far ahead that their individual score beats out even our team score," she said. "They're amazing. But this year, I'm feeling good about my crew."

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"We do it all for our students," she said. "We're trying to give them the opportunity that some don't even know that's out there. It makes your heart just swell with joy to see these kids (go from) having zero self-confidence (to) gaining it. It's neat to watch young minds develop."

For literary criticism and current issues and events sponsor Kelsey Bates, who is married to Principal Andy Bates, the teaching techniques are tried and true. Sabine Pass has either won or placed -- individually or as a team -- at the state contests of those two events each year since she began sponsoring, some eight years ago.

Like Henderson, Kelsey also was initially unaware of the academic side to UIL, having only experienced the athletic side as a volleyball coach.

"It took me a couple of years to figure out the best way to teach the kids," Kelsey said. "It was gradual -- definitely daunting at first."

The 90-minute literary criticism test is comprised of 65 multiple choice questions and three parts: knowledge of literary terms and history; questions about that year's chosen book, play and poet, which changes year to year; and analysis of poetry. There is a fourth, tie-breaking component is an essay "that invites the competitor to exercise his or her skill in literary analysis," according to UIL.

"We always study part two first because that's the part that changes every year," Kelsey said. "This year, it's 'Frankenstein,' 'Our Town,' and then the poet is (William) Shakespeare. It's 15 or 16 of Shakespeare's sonnets, so we studied that pretty hard core. We just finished going through all of that in-depth and now we'll start focusing on (literary) terms. We'll do a lot of poetry analysis the rest of the year."

The current issues and events contest consists of a 40 multiple choice question exam focusing on current state, national and world events issues. Due to the nature of the contest, the study materials change each year and as the UIL season progresses, more recent events may be added to the exam.

"Current events rebuilds every year," Kelsey said. "Some of the leaders are the same and some of the same political parties (are in play), but current events is definitely a lot of study material. I literally scroll through stuff on my phone and just take screenshots and I print off massive packets every month (for the students to study)."

Kelsey hosts practice for current events and issues a few times a week after school. 

"We don't sleep much in spring," Henderson adds.

For literary criticism, reading the featured material one time isn't enough.

"All of my kids have already read the books at least one," Kelsey said. "I've told them they have to reread it again before district (in March) and if we keep going (to regionals and beyond) of course, they have to read it again. One of my top lit critters, she'll probably read 'Frankenstein' five times this year. She'll probably read 'Our Town,' which is a shorter play, honestly, on the drive to state, she'll probably listen to it on audiobook. A lot of questions literally have a quote (and then ask) 'Who said this?' So, listening to it, knowing exactly how every character would have spoken helps a lot."

But Sabine Pass doesn't have a lock on every event. Yet. 

Journalism and ready writing sponsor Sharon Mistry said it can be difficult to recruit students for her events, which are all writing based.

"This year is very rough because nobody really likes writing," she said. "The first year, I (started) with 14 students and I ended up with just about four. But we still made it to state."

Finding students who can balance a busy schedule, which usually includes sports or other academic events, is a challenge, Mistry said.

But the students Mistry does have are dedicated. Two of them spent the whole Saturday at the competition just for one event at 2:30 p.m. All it takes is one student to do well and it will encourage other students to get involved, she said.

"Even if one student places, it motivates the rest of the team to see that they can get close to winning," she said. "I have a student who's been winning constantly for the last couple of meets. He was not interested in UIL last year...I tried to convince him to use his abilities. And I think he's really happy that he's placing at these practice meets which means he's very competent. I have great expectations and great hopes for his future, he's a really good writer."

Accounting and computer science sponsor Lisa Tarver said UIL academics has a tendency to change the students involved in a positive way.

"It gives them something when maybe before they didn't have anything," she said. "It's a compliment boost. Especially with computers, I've noticed that you don't have to be the best kid in class or the smartest kid in class to come into my room and be amazing and be a state champion. I can't explain it, but it's true."

The accounting and computer science events have also had a pretty impressive record, being some of the top-titled events for the school at the state competition.

"Sometimes all I can bring to the table is enthusiasm and a positive attitude," Tarver said. "Some of these kids far surpass me with the computer science knowledge. So, if nothing else, I'm their biggest fan and cheerleader and I pump them up. To me, that's great when they go beyond what I can do."

Tarver has an accounting background and is a certified public accountant. Computer science, however was not something she felt intrinsically inclined to.

"When I got to Sabine Pass, I'd never seen computer science," she said. "And they said, 'Hey, we need you to teach computer science,' and I was like, 'You really don't want me to do that.'"

The school utilized one of Microsoft's educational programs to teach computer science while Tarver was responsible for monitoring the class.

"I got really into (computer science)," she said. "I started taking the class with the kids and I loved it. I'm actually about to graduate with a master's in management information systems because I took that first class with them one time and loved it. So, now I can teach it."

Echoing Henderson's earlier sentiments, Tarver tries to get as much sleep as possible before spring because once UIL starts, it's not letting up until after May.

"I tell (my students), 'If you want to be a state champion, come work with me,'" she said. "If they really want it, I will make it happen. And every time I've said it, they've done it. Knock on wood."

What it takes to be a winner

Sabine Pass has a habit of seeking out talent amongst its students and recruitment to join at least one team -- more likely multiple -- begins once the first hint of an inclination toward a certain subject is seen.

"(Sponsors would say), 'You should try it, see how you like it,'" senior Nataly Magana, who competes in accounting and literary criticism said. "But they knew what they were doing."

Senior Claire Londenberg, who competed in extemporaneous informative speaking, has been involved in UIL academics since fifth grade.

"I always do speaking events, that's what I find fun," she said.

Magana, along with other seniors Ty Schaller, Nehemias Dominguez and Soleil Tran all said they were at first nervous they didn't have what it took to compete. Magana, Schaller and Tran have been competing in UIL academics for Sabine Pass since their freshman year and have gone to state each year, though their freshman year competition was canceled due to COVID-19.

Though Londenberg hasn't been to state for speaking events yet, she's gone to state three previous times for other UIL events, such as theatrical design, film and One-Act Play.

Tran, who competes in accounting, literary criticism and calculator applications said the validation is what has kept her competing for the last four years, "It feels good to win," she said.

For Dominguez, who competes in computer science, current issues and events and accounting, getting to spend time with friends is the main draw.

"It's the trips mostly," Magana said. "Going to regionals or state, just getting to walk around and experience new things that not everybody gets to do is really cool."

The seniors commit up to 15 hours per week to studying and preparing for UIL, but they don't seem to mind. Even the thought of giving up a Saturday to seemingly take a bunch of tests isn't the drag one might expect.

"The trip (to state) at the end (is worth it)," Dominguez said.

The students have a healthy sense of competition. They don't automatically assume they'll win, but they definitely don't discount their abilities.

"It depends on the meet," said Schaller, who in calculator applications, mathematics, number sense, accounting and computer science. "At state, you're like 'OK, these are a lot of good people.' But at the invitationals, most people are just forced to (participate)...or it's their first time ever doing it."

UIL gives the students a chance to have experiences that they might not otherwise have until college, Magana said.

"It helps you meet new people and have new experiences," she said. "Since we're a small school, being in the same (competition room) as hundreds of kids is a different experience than just us knowing eight people to a classroom."

The perks of going to or winning state are more than just bragging rights, Tran said.

"At state, a lot of (local) businesses, they look at our scores and they immediately offer us jobs or scholarships," she said. Londenberg added that since she's started applying for colleges, she's already noticed how UIL is helping.

"I can write essays with ease because of my extemporaneous speaking," she said. "I have 30 minutes to write a whole speech, so I'm able to get all the knowledge I need in a short amount of time and it's an effective way, it teaches me to prioritize my time. With public speaking, when I was younger, I was always scared to talk to people but this had really helped me break out of my cocoon and talk to people."

Competing for a school with several state championships under its belt can be daunting, Tran said.

"It was a lot of pressure," she said. "If I wasn't good enough, then I didn't meet that expectation and we didn't win. Knowing that we had to fill the previous peoples' shoes (was challenging)."

But for Schaller, the school's record only made him want to do better than the previous year's team.

"I wanted to see if I could do better than them," he said. "Or, have my name up on a banner more times than other people did in the past."

Even though most students compete in more than one event, Tran said it's generally pretty easy to figure out which one they're the best at.

"It's like a ranking," Schaller said. "So, you have your main event -- you work on that one as much as you can and then eventually, you're going to plateau, push through it and then you're going to hit another plateau and then you move on to the next event. (For example) in calculator (applications), I don't really see myself improving very much, so I moved on (to study) for other events to try and get better at them."

The events echo the students' personal passions and interests: Magana enjoys learning more about how writers such as Mary Shelley composed their works -- Schaller just really likes math.

"I think it shows passion if you do well in an event because it shows that you're not just in school doing math all day," he said. "You also go out and compete and learn new things outside of just classes."

Londenberg encourages students to give UIL at least one try.

"Try one event out," she said. "These practice events are good to kind of break your shell because it's not too much pressure on you as opposed to, like, this is your make-it-or-break-it (chance)."

The results are in

The Sabine Pass Sharks walked away from Port Neches-Groves first place winners once again. They beat out just under two dozen schools, earning 33 more points than Nederland, who came in second place.

Additionally, the school's film team saw five films advance to the state meet -- the most its ever had, Bates said. The state competition, held separately from the rest of the academic state meet, took place in Austin on Wednesday.

In its division, the school placed second and third in the traditional animation category for films "Hatched" and "Love Grows On," respectively. The school placed third in digital animation for the film "Circle."

The film categories show how UIL academics affects a school's ability to expand its offerings. The categories have been offered for about a decade, Bates said. Because UIL has made an investment in film, Sabine Pass has been able to as well.

"Now we have film classes, we have audio and visual production as a class," he said. "More and more kids have gotten into it because of the opportunities that UIL has tied to it. Now some can get into (film) UIL aside. But that opportunity itself didn't exist until we saw UIL make a push for it."

The Sharks have one more meet, the Caney Creek Invitational in Conroe on March 4, before the district competition in late March.

olivia.malick@hearst.com

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