Cedar Creek HS Wins AC Consumer Bowl

HAMMONTON - In a very close competition, Cedar Creek High School beat its sister school Absegami High School to win the Atlantic County Consumer Bowl Tuesday at St. Joseph High School.

Cedar Creek, also last year’s winner, beat Absegami by just one question in the daylong competition among six local high schools that tested student knowledge of state consumer laws.

“Your level of confidence is important, especially in the lightning round,” said Samantha Brandt, a member of the Cedar Creek team, which also included captain Michael Lyons, Cassidy Hayes, Nicholas Klapatch, and Alyson Schlee.

Brandt said she thought Lemon Law questions were the hardest because the questions were very specific and involved knowing a lot of data.

“The law is different for new cars and older cars,” she said.

Hayes said the questions on amusement games, bingo and raffles were the easiest because the information was easy to remember, and they have some experience with the topic.

Teacher John Gazo, who advises the team, said as many as 50 students will apply to be on the team. He gives them a test using sample questions and picks the team from the test results. They meet weekly to practice.

“Some of the topics, like mortgages, are hard for them because they don’t have a lot of experience with them,” Gazo said. “I remember the year after Hurricane Sandy there were a lot of questions about flood insurance.”

For Absegami, which has also won in several previous years, the loss was bittersweet.

“It was tough to lose by just one question, but we did our best,” said Sainsarg Mehta.

Absegami team captain Prashit Parikh said the lightning round was the most difficult because they had to not just know the answer, but beat another team to the buzzer.

Absegami won the lightning round, but still came in second on total points scored.

Absegami team members come from the school’s Future Business Leaders of America club. Teacher and advisor Dawn Kosco said she looks for students who are curious and ask a lot of questions.

Other Absegami team members were Aarsh Patel and Priya Parikh. Other participating schools were Buena Regional, Egg Harbor Township, Oakcrest and St. Joe’s.

The annual competition is sponsored by the State Division of Consumer Affairs. This year 77 high schools are participating in the event. The county winners go on to the regional competition in April with the finals held May 16 in Trenton. Last year’s state winner was Moorestown Friends High School in Burlington County.

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