Jackson Free Press

If the ingenious club organizer Max Fischer from Wes Anderson's 1998 film "Rushmore" was reincarnated as an actual high school student, he'd be Avery Jordan.

The 17-year-old rising junior at Madison Central High School is one of three students from the school's Academic Competition team to earn the title of 2013 Academic Competition National Champion in the JV Division.

Academic Competition is just one facet of Jordan's life, though. A founding member of many of Madison Central's clubs, Jordan was a key starter in the school's badminton and music clubs.

"I love playing badminton. It's a family hobby," Jordan said. "We play as a whole family at reunions. I really liked it and thought that I might find others who'd be interested in it."

Madison Central's principal recommended Jordan for a spot on the computer science club, which is developing an app for the school. As if all of this didn't keep him busy enough, Jordan is also an Eagle Scout, and leader of a scout patrol. He is equally dedicated to all of his extracurricular activities, he says.

In all of this, Jordan finds time to make Academic Competition a priority. Jordan and his teammates, Mark Sandefur and David Nowicki, spend countless hours poring over questions in test books and memorizing list upon list. One of the requirements is to learn all of the world countries and capitals, as well as lists of major literary works and their authors. All of this is practiced once a week after school and during Academic Competition's dedicated class time. This constant studying throughout the school year is what makes the team function so well--that and the variety of students that Madison Central lends to the team.

"We have a big base to draw from," Jordan said. "Madison Central has many different types of students with different strengths."

So how does Jordan fine-tune his strengths before competitions?

"You just focus yourself and do the same thing that you do every other day. You don't want to psych yourself out. I'm not a coffee drinker, so I wouldn't drink a giant cup of coffee," Jordan said.

Jordan has competed in countless competitions, but the National Championship was his biggest one, yet. The team was thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to Chicago to take on its competitors.

"It's a good feeling. It also can be a feeling of relief. ...You don't know whether you're ahead or not, sometimes, because the points are so high," Jordan said. "Coming to the tournament, I knew we had a very strong team, but I didn't know about the competition. Our team ended up being good enough."