For the third consecutive year, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore will be represented at the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) National Championship Tournament.
HCASC is a game exclusively for students of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Each team, comprised of four students from participating schools, will go head-to-head in a battle of scholastic skills, quickly answering questions on a range of topics including history, science, math, pop culture, and more.
This year’s UMES varsity team includes captain and senior computer science major Jossie Gates of St. Louis, Mo.; junior agribusiness major Essence Coley of Bowie, Md.; junior biochemistry/pre-med major Jasmine McKinnie of Tampa, Fla.; and freshman aviation science major Jovahn Lewis Jr. of Sterling, Va. The UMES team will be one of 32 HBCUs vying for a $100,000 grand prize from the Honda Motor Company.
This year’s tournament will take place from April 11-14 in Torrance, Calif.
“The opportunity to return to nationals is one we’ve been looking forward to,” said Coley, who is in her second year on the team. “We have a new team dynamic that has helped us fill one of our biggest weaknesses. That makes us a more balanced team than we have been in the past.”
UMES earned its way into the tournament following a strong performance at Honda’s National Qualifying Tournament held at Virginia State University on Feb. 21. UMES is the only HBCU representing Maryland at this year’s national championship.
“Since we started working with this group in the fall, we saw the potential in this team and what they could be,” said Earl Holland Jr., one of the team’s coaches and UMES public relations director. “These students are competitive, selfless, and have shown that they can rise to the occasion when called upon.”
In addition to Holland, a former UMES HCASC player from 2001-2005, the team is also coached by volunteer assistant Mark DeMorra, who also represented UMES in HCASC from 2004-2007. DeMorra, who attended UMES from 2004-07 before completing his degree in physics in 2008, currently serves as a statewide STEM specialist at the University of Maryland.
Since it began competing in the event in the 1989-90 academic year, UMES has earned a cumulative $145,000 in grants, including $6,000 in each of the past two years. The University’s best single-season performance was during the 2003-04 school year, when it came home with $26,000 as national runner-up.
In order to prepare for the competition of sharp minds and quick reflexes, team members participate in thrice-weekly practices where they test and develop their trivia knowledge.
Gates, who has been captain for two years, said the regimen has been beneficial in her improvement as a player.
“I’ve grown more confident in playing categories that I would’ve been scared to tackle in the past,” she said. “From the time I first joined the team to today, I’ve really noticed how much I’ve changed. I feel more capable and surer of myself in what I can bring to the team.”
McKinnie, who was last year’s junior varsity captain, added that the chemistry between the team in and out of practice has also been a factor in this year’s success.
“What makes this team stand apart from other HCASC teams we’ve had is that we are genuinely very good friends,” she said. “We work very well together, and there’s this kind of understanding where it feels very much like a family.”
For more information about the UMES Honda Campus All-Star Challenge Program, go to wwwcp.umes.edu/hcasc.
For more information about the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge, visit www.hcasc.com.
