The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 22

THE
GIST!

RAYSAC's
War on
Drugs
Roanoke Area Youth
Substance Abuse
Council is doing all
they can to bring the
community together in
the fight against drugs.

Brain Games
at Cave
Spring High
The Knights' Scholastic
Bowl team won its third
straight state title this past
spring and is gearing up for
a "quadrapeat" next year.

C

AVE SPRING HIGH School
in Roanoke County has become
so dominant in Scholastic Bowl
competition that it is having to invent a new
word to describe its success. Next year, the
Knights will follow their "threepeat" with a
shot at a "quadrapeat," a fourth straight title.
This year's third consecutive Class 3 state
championship was accomplished without a
senior on the 12-player squad.
Four in a row would be a singular
achievement in the classification, but
with the entire team-including the five
reserves-coming back, it is a reasonable
anticipation. Cave Spring and Western
Albemarle each won three straight in the
past six years.
This year's champs were led by captain
and all-state player Billy Luqiu, a 16-yearold junior, who attends Roanoke's elite
Governor's School for Science and
Technology for half a day. The other captain
is Lexie Agee, a 17-year-old junior. The
22

MAY/JUNE 2018

remainder of the starting team is Miles
Vance, 16, sophomore; Travis Schuck, 16,
junior; Katie Ball, 16, junior; Maya Sowh,
15, sophomore; and Bennett Snyder, 14,
freshman.
The coaches are math teachers at CSHS
(leading to jokes every time a math question
is missed): Bob Powers, who has been with
the program for a number of years, and
Tamara Carson.
The questions in the eight-team, double
elimination tournament, says Lexie Agee,
"can be as challenging or as easy" as the
team chooses and range widely by topic.
Preparation: "Read Wikipedia, watch a lot
of TV," laughs Billy Luqiu.
The format is described by the VHSL
thusly: "Matches consist of a round of 15
tossups, 10 directed questions for each team
which bounce back and a concluding phase
of 15 more tossups. Tossups are scored in the
normal quiz bowl way. Directed questions
are worth 10 points each and function
similarly to a single-part bonus, but their
reading is not correlated to answering
tossups." Got that?
For those who don't know about
Scholastic Bowl, it was organized in 1998 by
the Virginia High School League and is the
league's newest and most popular activity.
The Knight team members prefer to call it a
"sport," though their coaches quickly correct
them. Most of the students on the team are
involved in other activities, ranging from
track to band, debate and chess. I
-DAN SMITH

TheRoanoker.com

DAN SMITH

R

OANOKE AREA YOUTH
Substance Abuse Council
( R AY S A C ) p r o v i d e s
education and awareness as well as
advocacy for prevention and treatment
services to prevent substance use by
youth. For 30 years, this valleywide coalition covering the cities of
Roanoke and Salem and Botetourt and
Craig Counties has brought together
collaborative partners including law
enforcement, the Western Virginia
Water Authority, schools, parents
and the medical community to create
initiatives to reduce substance abuse
in youth and young adults.
Prescription take-back days are
held twice per year, typically the last
Saturdays in April and October. Since
2010, over 14 tons of drugs have been
collected and disposed of safely.
"Between take-back days, you can
check urgentlove.com to find all area
drop boxes," says Tracey Coltrain,
Director of RAYSAC. "One of our
goals is establishing more drop box
locations to keep drugs away from
potential abusers as well as out of
waterways and the environment." She
also urges people to use lock boxes at
home.
RAYSAC promotes Red Ribbon
Week in schools each October and
since 1996 has sponsored After
Prom Grand Finale. Last year, 4,833
students from 36 Southwest Virginia
high schools stayed the entire night.
This year, First Team Auto Mall will
be giving away a car to one of the
attendees who stays until the end.
Originally, RAYSAC formed to
bring community members together
to address tobacco and alcohol abuse
in youth. While they still coordinate
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