Bob Jones Math Team takes first place in geometry at Vestavia Hills

Members of the Bob Jones Math Team are all smiles after winning trophies at Vestavia Hill High School. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – The math team at Bob Jones High School was the first-place winner in geometry at the Vestavia Hills High School Math Tournament on Dec. 14.

“These kids are so incredibly smart, funny and hard working,” math coach and teacher Kimberly Cox said.

Held since the 1980s, the Vestavia tournament was open to students in grades 6-12. “This year, they offered a calculus division for the first time,” Cox said. More than 1,000 students entered from 63 schools.

For high school, 521 students competed in divisions for geometry, pre-calculus and calculus. Bob Jones had 25 students participate.

In geometry, Joey Li placed first individually. Winston Van earned third place, and Anthony Zhu placed seventh. Kevin Duan placed fourth overall in the tourney.

Bob Jones placed third as a team in the pre-calculus division. “We also won third place in an inter-school test,” Cox said.

When Cox starting teaching at Bob Jones in 2005, a math team already had been organized. A few years earlier, she had coached a math team at Huntsville High School. “I enjoy working with students who enjoy math and applying different techniques and approaches to challenging problems,” Cox said.

“I am very proud of Bob Jones Math Team’s accomplishments, especially for our freshman/geometry team. Vestavia is probably the hardest tournament that we will attend, and they still brought home first place,” Cox said.

However, she does expect more challenges for spring semester 2014. “The current geometry team will have exactly six days of class before facing their first tournament as an algebra II team in January,” Cox said. “We will have to work hard to be ready that quickly.”

David Mack taught the math team’s pre-advanced placement geometry class this semester.

For spring semester 2014, Cox will teach pre-AP pre-calculus and pre-AP algebra II/trigonometry for the math team, along with for pre-AP calculus.