CHS math team continues its winning ways; looks for new fundraising avenues

~ Will host Magic and More March 20 ~

By Kathy Anderson

They’re brilliant yet unassuming. Indomitable, yet humble. They have won more championship competitions than any other team at Canton High School. They are the CHS math team, and they are on their way to the Massachusetts State Finals meet April 9 at Shrewsbury High School after placing second in both the Greater Boston Math League meet on February 25 and the Massachusetts Math League playoffs on March 4. The New England Championships, which Canton has hosted for nearly two decades, will pit Canton against 50 teams from throughout New England on April 30.

Although the members of the CHS math team have actively and enthusiastically led member-run fundraisers for over 30 years — the most profitable of which has been running the concession stand at CHS football games — the Canton Athletic Boosters have been handed the torch for the football concessions, leaving longtime CHS math team coach Martin Badoian, along with math team parents, brainstorming creative ways to fund awards, competition fees and scholarships.

With that as its goal, on Saturday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m., the team will host a fundraiser called “Magic and More,” a 90-minute show full of magic, music and comedy suitable for the entire family. Presented by the Boston Area Society of Young Magicians (SYM) and led by professional magician David Oliver, the group’s traveling performers, ages 8 to 17, are students of the art of magic and many of its members have won national awards.

“The SYM is an organization dedicated to the promotion of youthful interest in the art of magic,” said Oliver. “Members learn about performing, teaching, creating and discovering the history of magic as a performing art.”

Oliver said members have been able to use their creative energy to raise funds for other charitable organizations in a full-scale illusion and magic show. “Cards, coins, ropes and perhaps a person or two will appear and disappear right before your eyes,” he said. “You will see award-winning presentations of classic sleight-of-hand, enjoy laugh-a-minute routines involving the audience and possibly even see someone being cut into three pieces. All live onstage and all performed by some amazing kids who are raising money for some other amazing kids. Kids helping kids — that’s the real magic.”

“My son Josh had been involved with the SYM for years and was part of numerous magic shows,” said parent Lori Cohen, who has been actively involved with the math team. “I am very familiar with the professionalism behind each show and the leadership of David Oliver, and I thought of that as an option [to raise money].”

Cohen said Badoian “jumped at the idea — and we learned that he also has a love of magic.”

The group received a positive response from parents and math team members, Cohen noted, adding that Superintendent John D’Auria and CHS Principal Doug Dias have also been supportive. “With the help of Maureen Dickie and Susan McGowan, Mr. Badoian’s Math Team Boosters have been organizing this fundraiser,” she said. “Mr. Badoian’s wife, Linda, has also been a great support and actively involved.”

“I am very excited about this event, and so are the kids,” Badoian said. “I think everyone will enjoy it.” Badoian noted that magic uses mathematical concepts like probability. “I love doing card tricks, because card tricks are done mathematically.”

Badoian started the CHS math team in 1966, and since that time he has shared his enthusiasm for mathematics with his students. Right from the beginning, Canton set the standard for successful math competition in the state and Badoian’s teams have been perennial champions throughout the past 25 years, although in recent years some of Canton’s local competitors, such as Lexington and Acton/Boxboro, have upgraded their efforts to emulate Canton’s standards.

“We started with an in-house math league to get prepared for competition,” Badoian said of that first year. “The kids in the honors program participated and they had a lot of fun — they were really excited and we became one of the top teams from the outset, winning our first state championship in 1968. We’ve probably been one of the most successful math teams in Massachusetts.”

The State and New England meets are by invitation only, and Canton has never missed either event. In fact, Canton is the only school in the state to have competed every year in the State Championship. They have won the National Championships twice, which this year takes place on June 5 at four separate venues: Penn State, the University of Georgia, the University of Iowa and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

“As a coach and a teacher of math, it’s so exciting for me to see students excited about doing mathematics as individuals and teams,” Badoian said. “The most important part of teaching math is to give them a base — a good start. Negativism to me is wrong. If you’re a C student, then you’ve mastered 75 percent, but what often happens is they dwell on the next 25 percent.”

Badoian tells his students to refrain from comparing themselves to the “best kid” in the class. “Work up in small doses and put time and work into improving,” he said. “My job is to move them and help them get where they want and have a willingness to learn. The learning process never ends. One quote I love to give to both students and teachers is, ‘Success is not a goal — it’s an ongoing process.’”

***

The members of the 2009-2010 CHS math team are: seniors Victoria Kuk, Patrick Mangan, Michael Notkin, Billy Rothkopf, Robert Sims, Chris Thomas, Joey Ward and Ethan Winchell; juniors Michelle Anand, Michael Bronstein, Chad Cohen, Kate D’Orazio, Miranda Leoni, Teagan McClintock, Joshua Sheehan, Peter Sidney and Helene Wong; and sophomores Sarah Bartlett, Zarina Brune, Logan Cerutti, Yuyang Dong, Alex Geyyer, Josh Klein, Menjamin Moy, Micaela Nannery, Eric Mewton, Calvin Winchell and Emily Seto.

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