PVAMU Team wins Honda Campus All Star National Championship

After months of studying and three days of rigorous competition, the PVAMU Honda All Star Challenge Team is the National Champion at the 21 Anniversary games in Orlando, Florida. The field of 48 HBCU's, including Florida A&M, Howard, Hampton, Morehouse, Southern and Tuskegee, was narrowed to 16 and then to 8 and the final four.

PVAMU then went head to head with Mississippi Valley State University in the finals. When the final buzzer sounded the PVAMU team emerged victorious defeating MVSU 265-195 after answering the following question correctly:

"The title of a 1908 play was coined to refer to the concept that a number of ethnic groups, cultures, and religions in a society will fuse together to produce new cultural and social forms. For 10 points -- what is this term that also names a chain of fondue restaurants?" Final Answer: The Melting Pot

The Honda Campus All-Star Challenge is one of Honda’s largest and longest running philanthropic initiatives here in the United States. The game is an academic competition among the best and brightest students from the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Team members and coach are: Edward Hackett, Jonathon Gholston, Cedrick Wilson (Captain), Isaac Hoyt, Cedra Wilson and Gabrielle Washington, with Mr. Herbert Thomas (Coach).

For its victory, the team gets $50,000 for the university general educational/scholarship fund. Cedric Wilson was also named to the All-Star Team

PVAMU, a charter team, has been competing since 1990 when the team made it to the Final Four by defeating Howard University. This is the first time the team has one the National Championship. Commenting on the team’s success, Frederick V. Roberts, the team’s first coach stated, “I’ve waited for this moment for 20 years since coaching the first team. My sincere congratulations to the team on this victory. These students are among some of the most dedicated and committed I’ve seen over the years. I commend Mr. Thomas for the great work that he has done with the tournament.”

Along with Prairie View A&M University and Mississippi Valley State University, teams from North Carolina Central University and Fayetteville State University also demonstrated their academic prowess by making it to the final four.

The spirits are high on the campus and folks are wondering if the team will get a trip to the White House, since academics seems to be a top priority for President Barack Obama. Additionally, will this team see the likes of appearances on the daily shows i.e. ABC Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, NBC Today Show, CNN with Soledad O'Brien, Oprah, BET with Monique or even Fox, who is ‘fair and balanced!'

Next up for the team is another championship!