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For the second straight year – and for the sixth out of the last seven years – the Scarsdale Mathcounts team was the top in the region, and will compete against the state’s best for a shot at nationals.
Led by middle school math teachers Steve Weiss – who coached the New York representatives in last year’s final – and Heidi Kaplan, the Mathcounts team has become one of the district’s most popular programs after it was started more than a decade ago.
“When I started it 12 years ago, it was just a few kids participating, but once the success started, they just kept coming in waves,” Weiss said. “It’s a very select group of kids. They work very hard on their own. It’s the equivalent of having an all-year athlete.”
At the regional competition, seventh-grader Eric Wei, who was one of the four students chosen for the New York “super team” that competed at nationals last year, again finished first, with teammate Jonathan Lin taking the silver medal. Zachary Wang, Max Zhao and Deyuan Li each finished in the top 12 to complete Scarsdale’s impressive showing.
“We were first place in the state last year, so we’re defending our title,” Weiss added. “One of the kids who went to nationals is still on our team, so we definitely have our eyes set on that again.”
Weiss said that the innovative nature and culture of the Scarsdale School District has turned the mathletes into a team that others students look up to and admire.
“Scarsdale has such a wonderful culture of intellectualism where kids can excel on the math team, and they are praised by their schoolmates,” he said. “Kids can grow up in Scarsdale, even in elementary school, (where) being really smart in math is a good thing. These kids want to work hard at this, it’s not a chore to them, they really just love math.”
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