Schaumburg High School’s math team delivered an outstanding performance at the recent Prospect Meet, with both the freshman and senior teams earning first-place finishes in their respective divisions.
While strong individual scores contributed to the success, the results reflected the effort of the entire team. The freshman team demonstrated consistency and collaboration throughout the competition, with Sofia Gulfan emerging as the top scorer.
The senior team was equally impressive, earning first place through a shared commitment to preparation and teamwork. Abraham Thomas and Paritosh Vaghasiya both achieved perfect scores. With first-place wins from both teams, the Prospect Meet proved to be a major success for the math program.
The Math Team meets every Thursday after school for practice. They are divided into five teams: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and the oralist team. Each meet focuses on a specific topic or source that is provided ahead of time, so practices are centered around working through those problems together on the board and discussing strategies. Specifically, opener enrichment problems as a whole group, special topic/level practices and special teams for state qualifying.
Students are also encouraged to take the materials home to continue practicing independently. Occasionally, they also mix things up with practice, trying different meets such as calculator-style meets where students from different grade levels work together in teams to complete a large set of problems.
These practices emphasize teamwork, strategy, and problem-solving under time constraints that they will experience at larger meets like regionals or state. Over the summer, their head coach Mr. Salatino and some of their other coaches hosted a math team event for incoming freshmen, which helped spark a lot of early interest.
This year, they’ve had a large freshman group, many of whom are testing up a level and performing very well. Earlier this year, they had a big enough group for 2 buses which is a first in math team history.
“It’s been exciting to see students challenge themselves beyond their grade level while still keeping the experience fun. We’ve also focused on recognizing effort and improvement on top of just high scores, which has helped build a really positive team environment and stronger results,” said Ms. Shirley, the sponsor and coach for the oralist team.
At the beginning of the year, Ms. Shirley worked with one individual student, and later in the season it became a two-person event. Oralists prepare using a different source material from other teams, and instead of taking a written test, they present their solutions at the board in front of judges.
During practice, Ms. Shirley heavily focuses on helping students practice presenting at the board confidently, explaining their reasoning, and getting comfortable speaking under pressure. The orals judges score on both mathematical accuracy and presentation, so communication is a big part of their preparation.
“Students on the math team often learn the most by explaining concepts to one another, and it’s great to see their confidence grow,” remarked Ms. Shirley.
“Math team gives students a place to be around other students who share their interests and love for math. The energy that the team gives to each other is amazing to witness and be a part of. We hope to have more underclassmen join the math team and find their niche here at SHS!” remarked Ms. Zasada, another math team sponsor.
(Ms. Shirley)