Polk County Public Schools
A team of Polk County high school students finished in third place during the 24th Annual Commissioner’s Academic Challenge held in Lake Buena Vista. Polk finished in third place in its division among 16 school districts with an enrollment of more than 40,000 students.
This was Polk’s second third place finish in five years. Polk was also third in 2005. Polk won the state high school championship in 2007 and was state runner-up in 2008.
Brevard County won the 2009 championship and Seminole County was the runner-up ahead of Polk.
Polk’s 2009 third-place team consisted of Tyler Campbell, Alejandro Garcia, James Karson, T.J. Konkol-Bennett, Jessica Moore and Kathryn Phillips. Campbell, Garcia and Phillips are seniors at Lakeland’s Harrison School for the Arts. Karson is a junior in the International Baccalaureate program at Bartow High. Konkol-Bennett is a senior at Bartow High and Moore is a senior at Eagle Lake’s Lake Region High. This academic all-star team was chosen to represent Polk at the state tourney by virtue of their individual performances at the county academic tourney held in February. The team’s coach at the state tourney was Geoffrey Freebern, a school district psychologist assigned to Harrison School for the Arts.
County teams at the state tourney tested their knowledge in mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, foreign languages, technology, fine arts and humanities.
Polk’s Alejandro Garcia and T.J. Konkol Bennett were named to the All-Florida team during the state competition and will be part of the Florida team that competes against other states during the National Tournament of Excellence. The National Tournament of Excellence, the equivalent of the national academic championship, will be held June 13 to 16 in Lake Buena Vista.
