WEST IRONDEQUOIT CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Irondequoit High School

Rochester, NY 14617

To: All media

From: Lou DiCesare, Business Education Teacher - 336-4633

Date: April 26, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IRONDEQUOIT HIGH SCHOOL’S

LIFESMARTS TEAM

FINISHES 3RD IN NATIONAL COMPETITION

(Top (LtoR) Jonathan Yioulos, Mike Calabro, Lou DiCesare (advisor), Bill Finan, Bottom Rachel Nolan, Maggie Baum (captain))

Business students from Irondequoit High School competed in the 2007 LifeSmarts national competition during the past few days (April 21-24) in Orlando, FL.

LifeSmarts (www.lifesmarts.org ) is a quiz-show style competition that tests students' knowledge on consumer-related issues. LifeSmarts is a consumer education competition that tests teens in grades 9-12 about personal finance, health and safety, the environment, technology, and consumer rights and responsibilities. Students begin by logging on, taking a series of practice quizzes, and forming teams to compete first online, and then at the state level, for a chance to go to the national competition. The goal of the LifeSmarts organization is to make teenagers smarter consumers.

After having won the state title back in March, the Irondequoit team of seniors (Maggie Baum (captain), Bill Finan, Jonathan Yioulos, Mike Calabro, and Rachel Nolan) went down to Orlando on Saturday, April 21 to represent New York State and compete against 30 other state champions ( http://www.lifesmarts.org/event/2007/statechamps.html ).

This was the seventh time that Irondequoit High School represented NYS at the national level in the past ten years. The national contest was structured so teams competed over three days in a double-elimination format until the semi-finals where the contest became single elimination (http://www.lifesmarts.org/event/2007/national_grid_monday.pdf ).

During each match, four players are on stage at one time with an alternate subbing in at various times throughout the match. Each match contained four individual questions worth five points each, four team questions worth five points each, a team-plus round (using buzzers for one player one each team competing) also worth five points each, and finally a challenge round where all contestants use the buzzers and correct answers are ten points each.

Irondequoit (NY), dressed in their “I ♥ NY” t-shirts drew the state of Florida in its first match and won 170-140, and moved its way through the winner’s bracket. Any team that lost would be sent to the consolation bracket and would need to win additional matches to get back into the semifinals.

The second round paired Irondequoit (NY) against Alabama and New Mexico. This was to be an extremely tough match due to the fact that New Mexico was the defending champion and had three students on the team from last year’s national winning team. The result of the match had Alabama with 55 points, New Mexico with 90 points and Irondequoit (NY) winning with 160 points. This win put Irondequoit (NY) one win away from competing in the “final four” for the first time in 10 years of competing in LifeSmarts.

New Hampshire was the last hurdle to the “final four” in the next match. Irondequoit (NY) was solid in this round and not to be denied its first opportunity to compete as one of four teams left to compete on the last day of competition on Tuesday morning.

So for the first time ever, Irondequoit (NY) was in the final four. Two teams, including Irondequoit (NY) were in the final four from the winner’s bracket (not having a loss) – the other team being Washington. The other two teams had to win their way back to the final four through two more additional matches, because they had lost earlier in the competition. Those two teams included Tennessee and the team that Irondequoit (NY) had to compete against – New Mexico (the defending national champions) who Irondequoit (NY) had played and beaten earlier in the competition.

The final four matches on Tuesday were the only matches scheduled. All other teams competing were in the audience to watch. The matches were to be managed by consumer expert and TV consumer journalist – Herb Weisbaum (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/11620548/ ).

The match between Irondequoit (NY) and New Mexico included additional rounds of team activities and saw New Mexico take a commanding 90 point lead half-way through the match. But by the time the ½ hour long match was about to conclude the score had New Mexico leading by just five points. Irondequoit needed to answer the next two questions correctly in order to secure the victory, but fell short and lost to the team they had beaten earlier in the competition by two questions (255-240).

New Mexico went on to win the competition, but Irondequoit (NY) finished as one of the best teams to ever represent New York State in this event.

The third place finish earned each student $300 in US savings bonds and other gifts from many sponsors of the LifeSmarts program. Students managed a little bit of fun during the four days including time spent at Downtown Disney and Universal. The New York team of Irondequoit students competed in this event through the financial support of the New York Credit Union Foundation.