Armuchee High School’s Math Team is a group of students who go to practices during school days and then compete at competitions at KSU on Oct. 29th, at AMC on Nov. 5th and 13th, and UNG on Jan. 23rd for trophies and advancements into higher ranked competitions. The Armuchee math team has not won any rewards in the past few years, but they are constantly trying. The team lost many members throughout the off season but still kept experienced upperclassmen Bo Bennet, Joseph Waford, and Krish Patel as returning varsity starters for the team. Although the math team lost many people, they gained many new freshmen, which include Rylan Burk, Ryker Sarratt, Chase Kennedy, Jack Pethal, Emerson Bruce, and Emery Jones. Most of these new freshmen competed on the middle school math team last year, with the exception of Ryker Sarratt. Chase Kennedy made it all the way to the state competition his 8th grade year. His teammates claim he performed outstandingly against the competition he had to face. 

With all the wins and losses of last year’s season, the math team lost a substantial quantity of its members and teammates from the previous year, but they gained many new members. When the math team was questioned, they asked the new freshmen recruits what they thought about the team, and they had many different opinions. “The Math team was very calm and collected, we competed, and they were more like friendly competitions. We did not compete very competitively,” Emery said. Ryker, conflicting with her statement, said “There were some absolutely stupendous geniuses that [smoked] me in every competition.” There were two clear, differing viewpoints from two teammates on the math team with one being less competitive and the other being ready to go and get a win. Emerson and Harper explained what they thought about the quiz practice and if it helped them with their average math, and Emerson said, “The quizzes we took this year were more complex than the normal tests we usually take for 9th grade honors. For example, there is complex logic that pushes us past our normal curriculum we have learned.”  The math the students do for the math team is way more complex than what they’re used to doing. Harper, adding onto Emerson, said “It helped me be able to understand more complex equations and problems.” Both of them confirmed that by being on the math team and going to practices, they were able to gain knowledge and strive for excellence in their original course classes. They thought that this could even travel beyond their high school and even college years helping to promote critical thinking and perseverance though tough situations in life.

With Ryker Sarratt’s “pretty good year,” we wanted to look at previous seasons compared to this current year. Before we look at math competitions, we need to look at the competitiveness inside the team itself. Unlike the years before, there was a huge influx of freshman talent coming into the team “which led to more competition,” said Joseph Wofford. Also, this is coming from returning seniors that have been with this program for multiple years. With this new competitive fire, Krish Patel said, “This year’s record is similar to last year, but it has been more competitive since the implementation of new members.” Even with this new approach with almost an entire new team, they still could not get the team moving forward. Although, a statement from Bo Bennett informs us that the teams they are competing against have been better in past years, but they are not as good this year. “This year has been way easier so far. It’s not as competitive, which gives us an advantage at winning,” Bennett said. With all this said the results of the year have not shown up to what was expected at the beginning of the season, but they are still giving their all into the team till the end of the season.

With the 2025-2026 season coming to a close, all of the math team agreed that the season was  “pretty good and we competed well,”  said Jack Pethal. Chase said, “We went to Berry College and toured a lab, and then we went and hung around the mall.” Even while they were trying hard competing in competitions, they still made room to have a little fun throughout the season. This transformed them from a team into a “bonding family,” as Rylan Burk exclaimed. And every member of the team got more experience and practice while answering harder developed questions, leading them to be more successful in their math classes, in college, and in life.