Tennent Kicks Off Black and White Night with Academic Round

It's not every day you see a crowded auditorium filled with teenagers cheer ferociously over a game of chess. When the player for the Black Jedi scored a checkmate in the speed chess round, his teammates erupted as if he had just swished the game-winning shot. Every point counts during the three-day Black and White Night competition at , and victories like these will help the Black Team .

"That's the great thing about the academic part of ," said Brian Bassler, an English teacher at Tennent. "Students who aren't on an athletic team get to hear their names chanted. It's a great feeling to experience."

Before the students flex their muscles on Pool Night and Gym Night, they had to exercise their brains Wednesday morning for the academic portion of the annual Black and White Night. 

The Black Jedi and White Avengers divided the high school's auditorium as Bassler and his fellow emcee, biology teacher Steve Beal, kept the contestants on their toes with some tough challenges. It's hard to avoid the game show comparisons with events that mimicked familiar favorites such as Family Feud, Jeopardy and Let's Make a Deal.

Bassler and Beal have shared the stage each year for the past seven years and have created an effortless banter that entertains and engages a potentially tough crowd.

"The questions and intros are the only scripted parts," said Beal. "Everything else, we just run with whatever is happening on stage."

The two-and-half hour performance will probably be the most work the two teachers have to put in for what is traditionally a student-driven event. The faculty members that volunteer their time to participate in the planning, preparation and execution of Black and White Night act mostly as advisors and moderators. The only exceptions are Tim Walker and Jennifer Hoban, who assist with the technical and logistical aspects of Black and White Night.

"The responsibility of making this a success has always lied with the students," said Beal. "They get so many life lessons by taking the lead. The team generals have to manage the schedules and personalities of 500 students per team. That's a big job for people who aren't normally put into that position."

The academic portion of Black and White Night also gave school officials the perfect opportunity to take its newly installed for a ride. Student-created videos were shown between trivia games, and the morning closed with members of each team performing choreographed song-and-dance routines.

A William Tennent alumnus from 1995, Bassler was quite impressed with the improvement in the production quality.

"Back when I competed," he said, "all the questions were written on transparencies and shown by an overhead projected. So, yeah, we've come a long way since then."

The action continues on Thursday with Pool Night, then concludes with Gym Night on Friday. Doors open for both events at 5:15 p.m., with competition getting underway at 6:15 p.m.