A team of students from Rockville High School outlasted and outwitted the Gilman School (Baltimore) and Charlottesville High School (central Virginia) to become the 2010 It’s Academic Superbowl winner during the championship contest held on Saturday, May 15. The quiz show format of the competition tests a wide range of knowledge, from math and science, to history and current events.

Earlier the same day, Rockville defeated Quince Orchard and James Hubert Blake high schools in an all-Montgomery County Public Schools contest for the Washington-area championship that qualified Rockville for the Superbowl. This contest was one of the few times that the metro-area finalists were all from the same school system.

The members of the Rockville team, all in this year’s graduating class, are Greg Rind, Tyler Babich, Raheel Awan, and alternate Erin Strosnider. The team has played together for two years and was runner-up to Quince Orchard in the Montgomery County Public Schools cable TV show Quizmaster Challenge.

“The season started with 81 teams, so to end up as number one is a real thrill,” said Rockville High School Principal Debra Munk. “Each team member is bright and knowledgeable in his or her own right. But the team's ability to work together, to capitalize on each other's strengths, and to stay tough, even when the competition is strong, is what led them to this victory.”

The It’s Academic team at Rockville has been coached for two years by Dr. David Goodrich, an oceanographer working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who competed on the show in 1970. Goodrich succeeded coach Bob Lerner, who passed away several weeks ago. The team wore boutonnieres in his memory during the championship games. A Rockville team also won both the metro and regional championship in 2008 under the guidance of Dr. Lerner.

The Washington-area championship match airs on WRC, NBC-4, on June 26 at 10:30 a.m., and the It’s Academic Superbowl airs at 7 p.m. on the same date. The competition has been hosted for 49 years by Mac McGarry and is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running TV game show.