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Better and Better and Better: RE’s academic teams have won five major national events in the last five year
Quick-thinking students, dedicated coaches and a love of trivia have propelled Ransom Everglades’ academic teams to consistent success for more than two decades. The program’s achievements are too numerous to list: Ransom Everglades’ upper and middle school teams have won dozens of state and individual titles since 2004. Two academic team alumni, Lucas Miner ’20 and Matt Hoffer-Hawlik ’09, went on to test their trivia skills on the television show Jeopardy!.
Yet even against the backdrop of this impressive history, recent performances by RE’s academic teams have reached unprecedented heights. In the past five years, Raiders have claimed five national titles – and two silver medals internationally – in major history or quiz competitions.
“It’s only gotten better and better and better,” said Miner, who was on the academic team all seven years at Ransom Everglades and appeared on Jeopardy! in 2019 and 2023. “The accumulation of knowledge is higher and higher and higher. Each generation is better at the competition – and smarter at the competition – than the generation before. It’s incredible.”
The program’s first national title came in Chicago in 2019 when Daniel Figueroa ’24 won the National History Bee for seventh graders. That was followed by back-to-back grade-level national titles by Parker Jelke ’27 in Arlington, Va., in 2021 (sixth grade) and Orlando in 2022 (seventh). That year, Javier Kumar ’22 also won the upper school U.S. History Bee in Arlington.
And last summer, RE’s middle school academic team – Jelke, Zach Corbin-Cheah ’27, Lucas Gonzalez ’27 and Jaz Puri ’28 – won the National History Bowl in Washington, D.C., and the team finished second in the 5th International History Olympiad Championship in Rome. (Jelke earned second place in the individual competitions at both events.) “To win the national championship, everything has to go right,” coach Joe Mauro said. “They had worked so hard. The whole team, the parents, everyone was jumping up and down and hugging each other. They were so happy.”
Meanwhile, the upper school varsity team – Leo Fein ’23, Figueroa, Jelke, Jonathan Pollak ’23, Isabel Chong ’24 and Mikey Zoi ’24 – finished third in the nation in 2023 in the National History Bowl in Arlington for the second straight year.
Even by RE’s high standards, the recent run of excellence has been remarkable.
“It’s really helped us foster a sense of legacy,” Figueroa said. “It helps inspire us.”
Team members say the success starts with Mauro, the history and social sciences teacher who has coached the middle school team for 21 years. Mauro’s History Club attracts history lovers, trivia enthusiasts and curious students, many of whom discover their passion and find their co-curricular niche. Mauro said he started the club – out of which grew a competitive team – in the early 2000s in response to the success of the upper school academic team under former coach Steve Frappier. (The upper schoolers are now coached by Branly Fontaine and Abby Berler.) Frappier and Mauro envisioned the middle school club as a feeder into the upper school team.
“Mr. Mauro was a really good mentor and coach for us,” Figueroa said. “He taught us how to prepare for the competitions, the study resources to use.
Mr. Mauro is where it all starts, and he is the best.”
Mauro, in turn, credits the students who sign up for his club and dive headlong into the competitions, which require that participants hit a buzzer to indicate their readiness to answer a question related to history, geography or other subjects. Competitors are seated at a table, five on each side. Each match includes 90 questions.
“They are really exceptional kids,” Mauro said. “They’re interested and curious and want to learn. A lot of them would carry history books, and read history books. They’re just super-interested in it, and they develop a bond with each other … Now, it’s taken off and has a life of its own.”
From the outset, RE middle schoolers excelled. In Mauro’s second year, Jesse Weinberg ’09 won the state geography bee and finished third in the nation. Mauro’s patient leadership and the results that followed created a winning culture that has helped the club expand – the current middle school history team has 25 members and last year sent a record number (17) of students to the national championship. That talent graduates to the upper school, and the success continues.
“I remember being in high school, in 10th or 11th grade, and seeing the younger guys, the new talent coming,” Miner said. “I thought I was good, and then these new guys come up, and they push you to do better.”
RE’s academic team tradition has been, in many cases, a family affair. Hoffer-Hawlik’s younger brother Kevin Hoffer-Hawlik ’15 contributed to the school’s academic teams. Daniel Lopez ’13, Adriana Lopez ’15 and Justin Lopez ’19 each made an impact on the program. And Jelke, the middle school star, is following in the footsteps of his cousin David Jelke ’15, who stands as the most prolific RE student ever in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments. And rising through the middle school ranks is Parker Jelke’s younger brother, Julian Jelke ’29, along with a host of other young standouts.
RE academic team members have so much fun, they help extend the tradition by coming back, reconnecting with former classmates and passing on knowledge. Former team members Daniel Lopez and Fein have served as “readers” at competitions while also mentoring young competitors. Fein is trying to start a quiz bowl team at the University of Miami.
“There’s really a passion for history and a lot of pride in the school,” Fein said. “This is my extracurricular activity; this is all that I do. Last year was my final hurrah, my final gambit, and we ended up getting third at nationals – and we won on the last question. I got it right!”
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.