The School of Athens had Socrates. The Packers had Vince Lombardi. The AAST Math Team, however, has both of these legendary icons wrapped into one figure, Mr. Joe Holbrook. In innumerable ways, he is behind every single one of our team s successes, and truly merits recognition for his efforts.
First of all, Mr. Holbrook is a great leader and motivator. AAST math team meets every Saturday and Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM, and like all renowned leaders, Mr. Holbrook is always the first to arrive, and the last to depart. He walks through the door to his command center, a door covered with the apt label "Math Team Headquarters" seven days a week, almost 52 weeks a year. This sets an amazing example of perseverance and effort for our team members. During the practices, Mr. Holbrook always keeps the team informed of upcoming competitions or events, so that we are fully prepared to succeed in all of our activities. For example, the four weeks before the first AMC administration, our whole team practiced previous year's exams every weekend. Additionally, he regularly directs the captains of the team to go over certain topics covered on the contest or strategies to maximize the students' scores on the exam. Due in no small part to his effort, our math team has had almost 100 AIME qualifiers annually the past couple of years, a group that constitutes the majority of our team. Mr. Holbrook also plays a significant role in motivating students to do math. Not only does he provide Dunkin Donuts and soda free of charge for everyone during our practices, but he also invites any and all mildly interested students to our team. Words of encouragement are always first on his lips for any hard workers, as well as anyone who needs a jump start to fuel their mathematics interest. The results are a great testament to his ability to motivate many of the team members, in spite of a culture that portrays working on math in an adverse light.
Of course, Mr. Holbrook is also a great educator. His priority is not to have a dozens of perfect scores every year, but to generate interest in mathematics and science within the scores of students on the team. Many students carry this interest with them into college and beyond, achieving amazing results on the Putnam, and making advances in the field of mathematics. Furthermore, he has assembled one of the largest libraries of international mathematics books in the nation, of which any student may peruse at his or her convenience. To prevent team members from getting overwhelmed by this sea of books, Mr. Holbrook perpetually gives us pointers and guidance as to which books to work out of or which books to read from cover to cover. In this way, the many mathematical fanatics on our team can explore deeper into topics such as number theory, geometry, algebra, and combinatorics.
Among this vast library the three most visited shelves' an exhaustive array of competitions that follow the American track to the zenith of high school mathematics: the International Mathematics Olympiad. One shelf has about a dozen copies of all the past AMC and AHSME exams, the second shelf has a score of every single AIME test, and the third shelf has the majority of past USAMO and IMO problems. Therefore, anyone who wants to practice one or many of the exams is never hindered by unavailability. Mr. Holbrook always encourages younger students on the team to start off solving problems from the AMC 10, while simultaneously studying topics from the two Art of Problem Solving books. In this way, many students can improve their skills in weaker areas, leading to the aforementioned success.