Of course, the parish was ecstatic when the Venomous Agendas made their historic run through the HSNCT and finishing one tossup shy of the semifinal. But many in the parish believe this quiz bowl success would be very difficult to replicate next year even with Anna stepping up to the plate to replace William, unless both Anna and Sadie can jointly bridge the science gap. Or another player ends up playing science to replace Imélie that they don't know about.
In the months to follow, while Jennifer gets to spend 3 weeks at Carnegie Mellon, all expenses paid, Valerie spends one week at Duke with only transportation the family needs to pay for from their own pocket. After Valerie has departed Bâton-Rouge (it was cheaper to get Valerie to Durham from Bâton-Rouge than from Lake Charles, even with the extra distance driven), the parents return home, and the gossip intensifies. Glen can't even go around shopping for groceries without being asked about changes in the math and quiz bowl rosters for the following year.
"While I wish the best to Imélie, Vontae and so on, so forth, who will be new on the math team next year?" Catalena's mother asks him.
"Female mathletes have recently been more predictable than male mathletes as to who will play, and, broadly speaking, VA female mathletes fall into two camps: either top mathletes in middle school or top pre-calculus students as sophomores. That is not to say that male mathletes don't belong to either one, however"
Éliane came in from somewhere in the Calcasieu parish as a freshman but was a top mathlete at a middle school that's not so good, Glen gets a flashback about what brought Éliane to the VAs, and Faith's mother then gets up to him, inquiring as to whether her daughter would actually play or not.
"I accepted to sub for Trent for the USAMO, now my question is: will my daughter get to play on the math team?"
"You really think spots on the math team are earned by administrators cashing in favors owed to parents of would-be mathletes? What did your daughter accomplish as a mathlete in middle school? Where did she stand relative to the other mathletes at school?" Glen has questions for her.
"If not my daughter, who else could play?"
"I'm not allowed to release names of other potential mathletes at this time, because making the math team is partially based on their track records in math courses" Glen warns Faith's mother.
Basically, not getting an A in the latest math course is a big no-no for the math team. But I can't take for granted that either Faith or Nicole would replace Imélie on the math team. I hope both will play, and hopefully take pressure off Valerie, however. These are the two names that circulate most; granted male mathletes are also in the conversation, Glen gets another fleeting thought about the makeup of the math team roster. I'll have Trent issue invitations to every student whose name appears in gossip to play for the math team! That ought to calm the rumor mill down... He then turns to Catalena's mother:
"Madam, I'm not sure. However, I would like to know how Trillian is handling herself in elementary school; last year she expressed a desire to become a mathlete for the Venomous Agendas – in Spanish"
"Trillian is very advanced for her age. However, since there is no mathletics in this region for elementary school, acceleration is her only choice. And I must regularly make her do math over the summer, not just multiplication or division, but geometry, probability, number theory..."
"That's a bit much for a rising second-grader, but it's not uncommon for parents of IMO hopefuls to plan their kids' entire childhoods around getting to it" Glen then comments on Trillian's mathematical evolution.
Often parents of IMO hopefuls will plan the entire childhood of their kids around it. From what little I heard about it, some of them will make their kids attend increasingly advanced camps if they can afford it, while others will just accelerate their kids using material they can find online for free, Catalena's mom reflects on what she heard about what the parents some IMO hopefuls do.
"But until your daughter makes it to high school, we must scout town-wide for talent to support and identify who has the most mathletic potential in fifth grade" he then comments on supplemental actions that need to be taken in the area.
However, for quiz bowl, Cristiano appears poised to join the team, and hence use the math team's earmark on it, while Anna is virtually certain to move up to the A-team for the next quiz bowl season.
And debate not playing at Nats last year made it noticeably absent of any gossip among the townsfolk, so it will have to make do with Monday morning announcements for the better part of another season. I guess, our daughter should be able to win in international extemp without the town breathing down her neck, I don't envy the parents of Jennifer or even Anna, Chantal's father then thinks when he realizes that, whenever people in town talk about the high school's teams, not once has international extemp been brought up. Or debate in general hasn't either.
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Yet, weeks later, when Jennifer returns from Pittsburgh (with parental insistence, Valerie keeps attempting to solve older EGMOs and IMOs), so many in the parish tune in on the parish radio. They are awaiting the results of the TSTST, which determines who gets to enter the gauntlet of tournaments that make up the race to the IMO. On the morning of July 4, the family is around the dinner table for breakfast, with the podcast from the radio station active:
"This is Jennifer Gagnon, I was invited at the request of the radio station on this morning of Independence Day. At the TSTST held in Pittsburgh at the end of the MOP last week, I finished in tenth place, first among girls, and therefore I am in the race to the IMO!" Jennifer shouts in the radio station's mic.
To think this wouldn't have been possible without the so-called Title IX money that the parish started giving out during the pandemic with ESSER 1 money to maintain the extracurricular teams in operation, and we're reaping the fruits of it. Back then the parish expected at most 2-3 girls to pay out that dough for. The neighboring parish only pays, like, $40-50 per girl for mathletics or quiz bowl. But I remember Gen talking last year about how the top 30 plus any number of additional girls required to have 4 girls total, if any, are in the race to the IMO, Glen muses, realizing also that Jennifer is going to be competing at the EGMO as well.
"Here's the deal, Valerie: you should practice with Jennifer over the summer. She is in the race to the IMO, I want you to coordinate practices with her so that, when the time comes, you will be fully prepared to compete at the USAMO" Glen then warns his daughter.
"Then I'm praying that Jennifer does make it to the IMO" Valerie them proceeds to pray for her teammate. "Amen"
"I told you: if she doesn't make it to the IMO, then it falls upon you to try getting to the IMO! So you'd better practice with her!"
"Fine, dad..." Valerie sighs.
Notwithstanding that, was I studying anywhere else, mathletics would fly under the radar. Nevertheless, the pressure would still be on me, albeit a different kind of pressure. So rather than the need to achieve solely in the mathletic arena, I would have felt the pressure to not only join as many extracurriculars as possible, but also to get good grades, to take courses I don't necessarily like just so it can look good to a college, and so on, so forth, Valerie reflects on what would her life have been like if she attended any other school the others at SWiM attended. They were interested in what it was like to be a mathletic rockstar in one's local community and, as such, there were times where I was the center of attention.
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She then returns to her room and texts Jennifer regarding practice schedules for the summer, as well as when she can and cannot come over to Jennifer's home for practicing for the USAMO and all these competitions that form the gauntlet of competitions for the IMO, then spending all weekend with Jennifer for that purpose.
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But then on July 7 (since July 5 and 6 are over the weekend), Glen returns to his office and there's a long lineup of people coming for season tickets of any kind, the secretary and the teachers who coach sports teams, substitute or titular, are all called in to deal with the long lines for season tickets, be it math, football, basketball, baseball or softball, in descending order of popularity.
"Look at the size of the lines! Last year we didn't sell math season tickets and now we do. But people were reluctant to buy math season tickets until now" the secretary then points out to the principal.
"How many math season tickets did we sell prior to today?" Glen then asks him.
"Ninety"
"It's obvious that Jennifer is going to star on this math team this year, and people are really into it" the principal comments on what it implies for the entire mathletic infrastructure of the town, as well as the financial implications for band, debate and quiz bowl. "At the same time, I'm worried about whether people will still be into the team in the future, especially in years where there won't be anyone in the race to the IMO"
When I started out as a principal, there was no real expectation regarding mathletics among the population. Now the population seems to almost expect stuff such as winning gold at the VMC, and being in the race to the IMO, a before-after image flashes in Glen's mind as the season tickets get sold at a blistering pace.
The math team's season tickets having all sold out means that he can set money aside for the HSNCT because he feels confident that, even with Anna and the possible science player replacement, as well as the losses of talent these mean, the VAs can return to the HSNCT, albeit with maybe $200 less in Title IX money for quiz bowl.
As for the debate-Nationals' budget, which has remained unspent for two years now, he can now plan for sending both Sadie's pair and Chantal to compete, because he also feels Chantal stands a chance to qualify this year.
"One more thing: this year we will no longer have the students on athletic teams pay for their athletic uniforms and other basic equipment!" Glen then announces over once he can get to the PA system again.
And that's assuming the math team can sell out both first-round playoff games, the fall and the spring one, to the tune of 3460 residual tickets apiece at $7.50. Because all 800 tickets are sold for the regular season by virtue of them being part of the season tickets.
But now that the would-be athletes no longer have to pay for their equipment out of pocket, maybe the VAs' athletic misfortunes can be stabilized. Yet, they don't expect much of a turnaround, at least not this season, just less of a burden placed on the athletes.
However, in lieu of gossiping about math and quiz bowl rosters, a few parents start gossiping about college applications while waiting in line for their season tickets. Such as the orat player's father, who wonders whether it's worth aiming for higher than LSU given his son's apparent lack of success in orat. Or Phil's father, whose son also feels overshadowed by Jennifer's and Valerie's accomplishments in the mathletic arena, but nevertheless asks the same question, this time with Tulane.
He realizes, however, that it's only a handful of high-achieving kids whose parents actually gossip about college admissions; the majority of the parents of the college-bound kids are not engaged in these gossip games. Even Jennifer keeps quiet about college applications because she knows that, for the coming year, she will be the center of attention in town, along with her parents, thanks to this race to the IMO.
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When, some time in August, Trent realizes there is a lot of demand for the math team, or at least more than in past years, he realizes that thank God there are tryouts for the team, because, as much as this team makes money for the other extracurriculars at school, he feels like too large a team would be unmanageable. But unlike the other two academic teams, where the limits on roster sizes are there because of logistics and finances, here it was a different kind of resource that could bottleneck the team.
Obviously, the main returning mathletes are exempt from the tryouts, but what spots remained up for grabs were bound to make some people unhappy. Like Faith's mother, whose daughter was cut.
"Sir, please! Let my daughter play on the team! I'll even sub for you at every math tournament this season!" Faith's mother pleads with Trent.
"It was a close call, but unfortunately your daughter is perhaps too young to play at that high a level. You only need to look at Valerie to know the dangers of pushing mathletes too fast too early!" Trent warns Faith's mother.
"Too young to play at the AMC-twelve level? I'll see about that! I'll go complain to the principal!"
"Not sure it's a good idea!" Trent warns the upset mother before she storms off.
Faith's mother then dashes to the principal's office, angry that her daughter would be unable to play on the math team for the season. Distraught by the cut, she believes the principal can intervene.
"Sir, you have to get my daughter to play on the math team! She worked so hard in middle school and when she finally gets a chance to play with her idol, she was cut from the team!" Faith's mother then continues her complaint, while Trent transmitted the roster to Glen for administrative purposes, namely Title IX money.
Speaking of Title IX money, he sends his request for it with 6 names on it: Anna and Sadie for quiz bowl, Jennifer, Valerie, Faith and Nicole for math, hoping that the extra $200 will help the math team enter more players at the Math Madness.
Ouch: the parish denied our request for funding 6 players under the Title IX grant. They said that our request would exceed the requirement that no school can lay claim to more than 50% of the Title IX money available for a given division. Yet last year there were a total of 5 girls for whom Title IX money was claimed; the parish therefore has enough money only for 10 female high schoolers under Title IX, Glen reviews the answer from the parish finance department, and then submits a new claim but without Jennifer on it, since Jennifer is, to his eyes, the one who brings in the revenue for the math team this season. On the other hand, there would be several additional players who would get to play if Faith plays. The extra entry fees attributable to them would be a small dent in the team's budget.
"You must understand there is only so much Trent can do on his own as a coach. The question is: what can be done to get more students to play without requiring another coach?" Glen asks Faith's mother.
"If we can get the veteran mathletes to play a more active role with the rookie mathletes, kind of like how you want our female mathletes to mentor female middle school mathletes" Faith's mother then causes Glen to summon Trent to his office. "Just one question: if we make the veteran mathletes play a more active role with the rookie mathletes, how many more people can we get on the team? For these additional mathletes, including Faith, it's not about winning"
"Of course, it's not about just Faith, and the benefits are not tied to winning when you talk about rookie mathletes. There are, like, four or five behind her who might be invited onto the team if we're willing to stomach the additional costs for the Math Madness and the AMC-twelve and have the veteran mathletes taking more responsibilities for the rookies. But I fear it might be too much on their plates" Trent explains himself.
And certainly, Cristiano as well as Valerie: they are both poised to make it to the USAMO this year and Cristiano also has quiz bowl to deal with. Phil and Jennifer have their own issues to deal with under the form of college applications; they already asked me to write letters of recommendation for college, Trent reflects on what makes it too much on the veterans' plates. He also reviews the results of the other mathletes scoring below Faith to see whether they are close to her or not, as well as whether they are, like Faith, underclassmen.
"I don't want to deprive would-be mathletes who worked so hard in middle school to be here. We also support the middle school team financially, so we want to have these same mathletes continue in high school to show for it" Glen exposes his logic for expanding the math team to fifteen to sixteen mathletes total.
"All right, you win; I'll let Faith and a few more mathletes I ought to notify they made the team" Trent proceeds to email each of these mathletes, realizing the race to the IMO made more kids want to become mathletes.