This school year’s Junior Leadership Academic Bowl (JLAB) team has a new coach, Senior Abigail Smith Lezama, who has high hope for this year’s competition on June 27th.

Smith has been on the team for two years, which means she is knowledgeable in JLAB’s background and practices. The JLAB team started practicing on September 12th, and her team will practice 1 day of the week for 1 hour.

They will face challenging teams from schools such as Lane Tech, Walter Payton, Whitney Young and Westinghouse, so studying and practicing is essential for winning. The JLAB team will start taking practice tests and conducting research on topics.

“We have been practicing slowly, but throughout the school year and starting in October, we will increase our training,” said Smith.

The JLAB team needs two freshmen for their competition, but  they do not have any yet.  Freshmen will be a little harder to coach since they are new to the game and may not have any background in JLAB. It will take more time but it is accomplishable through hard work.

“We don’t have any freshmen in mind right now, however, we need two. Me and my partner will recruit two freshmen who will be suitable,” said Smith.

With her hard work and dedication to her group, Smith plans on beginning the season by October this year. If she enters finals, she will start increasing her team’s training to take home the bread and butter.