by anthony newbs » Sun May 09, 2010 4:47 pm
I will now nominate the 2010 version of Hirschi's number sense team. We had three of the top 4 scores in 3A number sense, won by 142 points (727 - 585.). We outscored every team in the state at regionals and state including the 5A teams(at state 727 - 696(Clements)), and I know it was a down year in 5A number sense teams, but still. This is the first time, I believe in 10 years that any team below 5A has had the highest team score. I also think we were the only team in the state with three scores above 200. There were only 14 total scores above 200, only five 200s below 4A, and Hirschi had three of them. What really says something about the depth of our team was the 2009 sophomore Brian Gregg, who finished 8th in the state a year ago couldn't make the four-man team this year. It's a shame for his sake we couldn't test five. I thanked him yesterday for making it competitive just to make our team. Brian made us better. It's a shame I can't give him a medal.
I will not tout Nathan Shih as one of the best number sensers of the decade, but maybe one of the most improbable stories. For those of you who don't know. Nathan Shih has only done number sense for two years. Two years, two individual state championships, two team state championships. He is one of the hardest working, most focused, and driven young men I have ever met. I told him yesterday, I will miss him. The most hard thing to replace will be his incredible determination. He used to come by my room when he was waiting to leave for swimming and eventually, I asked him if he wanted to try number sense, so late his sophomore year, probably after Hirschi lost at regionals, Nathan started practicing. He asked for practice tests over the summer, and actually did them. The rest is history. It was a great two year ride.