Rockville Teen Will Be On Jeopardy. What’s The Best News We’ve Heard All Week?
Jan 28, 2011 15:35 - 2 Comments
Raynell Cooper With Alex Trebeck. Photo courtesy of Jeopardy Productions, Inc.
“I am beyond elated! It’s a dream come true,” said Raynell Cooper, a senior at Richard Montgomery High School who is one of the 15 players selected to compete in this year’s “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament. The tournament will broadcast nationally beginning Thursday, Feb. 17 through Tuesday, March 2, 2011.
I first met Raynell when he was involved with the last Rockville City elections and the campaign of Waleed Ovase, a fellow high school student.
I’ve always been impressed with Raynell’s participation in our local civic life. He serves on Rockville’s Department of Recreation and Parks Advisory Board. Kate Savage, Chair of the Board describes his contributions:
Raynell is a great asset to the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board. He participates on every level from budget discussions to helping clean our “adopted” stream. It has been a tradition of our board for years to include a student member. Rec & Parks serves citizens of every age and having the younger perspective on our decisions is a benefit.
Readers may also recognize his name because of his frequent comments on Rockville Central. You won’t find many students as involved in our community as Raynell.
Before flying out to Culver City, California to compete on the show on December 6th & 7th, Raynell went through the application process. Here’s how he described his journey:
There is an online test which I took in March, and then high scorers are selected to go to an audition (my audition was in Philadelphia) and the contestant coordinators select 15 teenagers for the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament. I’ve watched Jeopardy! for years, and I love all forms of trivia competition, so I knew that I had to try out and I was very fortunate to make it on to the show.
When I asked him if he did anything special to prepare, he explained that in addition to talking to people about buzzer strategy, he studied up on certain subjects:
As for preparation, I felt pretty confident in my knowledge in academic areas, as I have been involved with Richard Montgomery’s It’s Academic team since freshman year, so I decided to study up on video games, popular music, young adult literature, and things I don’t usually pay as much attention to. I also pored over old questions from previous tournaments to get a better idea of the subject matter.
As we all know, he can’t reveal the results of the show until all the episodes of the tournament have aired. The grand prize is $75,000 with a minimum of $50,000 for second place and a minimum of $25,000 for third place. Semifinalists receive $10,000. Even if a contestant is eliminated in the first round, he or she still receives $5,000. Raynell would like to attend George Washington University and study geography, political science or urban planning. These are all fine prizes which will certainly help with his upcoming college expenses.
Since 1984 “Jeopardy!” has won 28 Emmy awards and been inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most awards won by a TV Game Show. Produced by Sony Pictures Television, the series is the #1-rated quiz show in syndication with nearly 9 million daily viewers. This is exciting!
The show broadcasts at 7:30 weeknights on WJLA-TV. Be sure to watch and root for our hometown favorite!
Raynell being a finalist in Jeopardy!” is fantastic news. He lives in Twinbrook and is very community minded. We are proud of his academic achievement. I love being his friend on Facebook. He has a sense of humor above my head sometimes and he looks super in a suit. From the Twinbrook community I congratulate Raynell and wish him the best of luck on his Team Tournament on Jeopardy. Go “Rocket!”
I know Ray from Toledo, Oregon. He would come into the store with his Mom and/or Dad. We’d quiz him on the US Presidents. He had them all memorized and, try as I may, I could never stump him. He’s a nice kid/young man and it was our loss when he and his family moved to Maryland. I wish him the greatest of joy and success in his life. I will be watching Jeopardy to see how he finished. His parents must be proud.