Governor's Cup was founded in 1986 as a way to promote, reward and recognize outstanding academic achievement. Since then, Governor's Cup has become the state's premier academic event, involving over 20,000 students, and nearly 1100 schools. Governor's Cup consists of eight events:

• Five Written Assessment Exams-in Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and Arts/Humanities
• Composition-On-Demand Writing
• Quick Recall(QR)-also known as "quiz bowl"
• Future Problem Solving (FPS)—a creative thinking competition

In Quick Recall, a team of four students listens to questions read by a moderator and tries to beat the clock, and the opposing team, with a correct response. Clear Creek competes against Southside, Heritage, Painted Stone, Simpsonville, and Wright in scrimmage games during the months of January-February.   All team members will get some playing time during the scrimmages with the other schools.   Team members who answer the most questions during practice and scrimmages will be chosen to compete in the Governor’s Cup competition. 1st and 2nd place Quick Recall teams go on to Regional competition March 22.

In addition to the Quick Recall team explained above, there are also students who take written exams in the subject areas of science, math, language arts, social studies, arts and humanities, and composition. If a student is not suited to the fast tempo of quick recall, he/she may still do quite well on the written exams and earn points for the team that way. Students who come in 1st –5th place in Written Assessment in the Governor’s Cup will advance to the Regionals. Students interested in competing in composition should be good writers.

There is one other component of Governor’s Cup competition called Future Problem Solving. A team of 4 students is given a futuristic problem for which they have to come up with solutions, using a very structured format. Students on this team should be creative thinkers who can "think outside of the box."  The competition is in February and takes 90 minutes. 1st and 2nd place teams go on to Regionals in March.

Quick Recall practices begin in late October. Parent volunteers serve as scorekeepers and moderators (person who reads the questions aloud to the teams) during matches, so if you can attend a match, you might be asked to work in one of these roles! It’s really helpful to have a moderator at practices also, so that you can have some practice before an actual match.  It takes a little bit of practice to be a good moderator. If you are able to serve as a moderator at practices, let me know. We also need at least one person who is willing to be trained as an official for the Governor’s Cup competition. This person must attend a training session and be willing to serve as either a judge or moderator during Governor’s Cup Competition. Our team must supply an official in order for us to participate

Academic Team members are expected to attend all practices unless they have a valid excuse. Parents are responsible for transportation home after practices at 3:30, as well as to and from matches.  We hope to provide buses to scrimmages. If not, you must provide transportation for your child to all scrimmages. Your child may ride to a match with another parent with your permission, if you arrange it ahead of time.

The Academic Team is not for everyone, but can be very rewarding for the motivated student.  Students get out of Academic Team what they put into it.  If your child is motivated to learn above and beyond what is being taught in the classroom, this may be a great outlet for him/her.

For more information, visit: Kentucky Association for Academic Competition: