“In the Fall of 1986, Leigh Ann Sokoloff came to me and said, ‘I want to do a math contest.’”

So begins retired Momence Junior High Principal Ken Fox’s account of the Momence Math Invitational’s genesis. Thirty-seven years later, a request for a simple “math contest” alongside five area schools has snowballed into a yearly quantitative quest and fraction fray with participation from as many as twenty-two schools. Though Ken was in administration at the time of Leigh Ann’s ask, he was a former math teacher of seven years. He could not refuse the call to create a district arena for aspiring mathletes.

“You have kids that really have a block about math,” Ken says. “If you have an inferiority complex about things you don’t do very well or aren’t confident, you can’t go out on the basketball court or football field to play. You have to develop a little self-confidence to see some success.” In his view, performing well in mathematics requires the same level of confidence-building and discipline as any art or sport. “Many people grow up being told by their mother and father, ‘Geez, I was always terrible at math.’ The kid responds, ‘I’m going to be terrible,’ so it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

The counter-narrative to that self-fulfilling prophecy was on full display in the furious focus and quiet, calculative chaos of this year’s math competition on February 7. One of the most fantastic perks of the contest, Ken says, is that it provides an outlet for kids to become stars on their academic merits inside and outside the classroom. Even athletes who typically condition the body before the mind in order of priority partake in Momence’s trademark math melee. “It’s not a spectator sport, but they do get attention.”

The invitational isn’t a game in the traditional sense. Nonetheless, the influence of sports and their gargantuan participation numbers moved then math teacher and current regional instructional coach Leigh Ann Sokoloff to knock on Ken’s door to offer her now infamous suggestion. “Spelling team was always a small group, the scholastic bowl was a very small group; I wanted something the average kid could do,” Leigh Ann says. “This competition was built on the premise that anybody can participate.” The love of math has been a constant variable in her life. Despite stereotypes about the fun factor of the subject, she desperately wants other students to recognize the enjoyable applications of mathematical functions beyond “sitting at a desk doing a test.”

Leigh Ann’s adoration of calculation can be tracked, in part, back to a prolific junior high math teacher by the familiar name of Ken Fox. “He was my teacher in seventh grade,” she recalls.

“Sixth grade,” Ken confidently corrects the record. Leigh Ann shakes her head, “It was seventh grade.”

“It was sixth grade,” he repeats matter-of-factly. “I started out as a sixth-grade teacher.”

“I wasn’t in one of your first classes!”

Mr. Fox refuses to back down. “I know you weren’t, but I still taught sixth-grade year.” We offer a compromise in phrasing: sixth or seventh grade? “No, it’s not sixth or seventh; it’s sixth, and I have the gradebook to prove it.”

His stubbornly confident demeanor was present in the test questions Ken wrote for those early contests, a role he enjoyed years after his retirement. The structure of the questions was a trial-and-error effort that eventually resulted in the testing format the event is known for today. The spirit of the competition has never been an elimination game or an effort to “stump” students. “The material is so middle of the road,” Leigh Ann explains, “like the speed drill, your average student could do that.” Competitions she observed during the design phase of the Momence invitational sometimes followed a model that prescribed a higher difficulty, an unnecessary roadblock for broader involvement. By avoiding “knockout” complexity, the figuring face-off has carried Leigh Ann’s vision of an event open to an extensive variety of students.

Following this ethos of inclusivity has led to the establishment of a self-perpetuating machine that creates generations of Momence mathletes. There are current faculty members who competed in the event when they were in high school, in addition to coaches from other schools who have fond memories of the contest and passed on that love to students who are now on the Math Team themselves. Staples of coaching from all schools involved in the big match-up have consistently volunteered, with some veterans clocking in fifteen to twenty years of attendance.

“There’s no way it could be done without the teacher support,” Leigh Ann emphasizes. When notice for volunteers goes out to the elementary and high school buildings, Momence’s teachers step up to help in any way possible. High school students swarm the grading rooms, assisting the frenetic pace of scoring team results. These chambers are often filled with over twenty people double and triple-checking answers, all eager to put their time on the line for a friendly math exhibition with a whole lot of heart. The swell of helpful eyes and dedicated concession workers are the reasons Leigh Ann says she can’t take full credit for the momentous occasion the invitational has become.

“I was just a tool to start it,” she says. “Math was always fun for me. I want other kids to feel that it’s fun.” A certain beloved retired principal who greenlit the idea has a similar takeaway. “You obviously want students to be successful in the classroom,” Ken explains, “but this allows kids a further opportunity to start to feel good about themselves.” Without a doubt, what Ken and Leigh Ann sparked nearly forty years ago has accomplished these feats and more, celebrating analytical minds everywhere and showcasing the brilliance, dedication, and excellence of our students’ capabilities and future momentum.