Academic Teams

Coach: Delanie Seman

The Overlake Chess team gives Upper School students an opportunity to participate in chess competitions and partake in chess matches against their peers to improve their logical thinking skills and build valuable connections based on a shared hobby. Recently, the team has been participating in various online tournaments hosted by local leagues, but plans to begin participating in over-the-board tournaments again.

The team meets weekly on Wednesdays from 3:00-4:00 pm. 

Coach: Dave Parsons

The Overlake DECA Club is more than 50 members strong. Upper School students meet once a week to prepare for competitions involving role play in areas of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.

DECA students prepare in individual and team events involving taking a test in a chosen area of business specialization as well as role playing conducted with volunteer judges from local companies.

Overlake is part of the Redmond, Bellevue, Sammamish and Snoqualmie area for DECA. At least 1400 students will take part in the area competitions each January. The top students then move on to state and perhaps national level.

In April 2022, eight students traveled to Atlanta for DECA ICDC (International Career Development Conference) where approximately 18,000 students from all states were involved in three days of tests and role plays in events connected to Business Management, Finance, Entrepreneurship and Marketing. Eight students from Overlake qualified from the Washington State competitions. James H. was awarded a medal for having one of the highest scores in the test in the Marketing Communications category.

The Overlake club is currently running a coffee cart during break and lunch times inside the lobby of the Whitten Math & Sciences Center so that students passing through the building can purchase hot drinks. This provides direct experience in how to set up and run a small-scale enterprise.

Parent help is essential for DECA activities. Parents can act as chaperones, help run a competition in January, and act as judges. Any parents with a background in entrepreneurship, finance or management are welcomed to join our volunteer pool.

Coach: Kelly Vikstrom-Hoyt

Quiz Bowl is a club offered to both Middle and Upper Schoolers at Overlake. 

Congratulations to the Upper School Quiz Bowl team as they participated in Overlake's first National competition. The team traveled to Illinois to compete in the National Academic Quiz Tournament's (NAQT) 2022 Small School National Championship Tournament. 

Overlake's team placed in 43rd overall winning against several other schools across the country.

Coaches: David Basham, Brian Husted

Overlake currently sponsors two robotics teams. The teams meet 4X a week during first semester, competing in three competitions each season governed by FIRST Tech Challenge.

Robotics is open to all Upper School students regardless of abilities. Current students engage in coding, design work, and engineering in a collaborative environment.

Coach: Robin Monteith

The Overlake Speech and Debate team gives students in the Upper School the opportunity to choose their level of commitment. There is no requirement to compete if a student joins the team. In addition, a student may join the team at any time during their Upper School career and does not need any previous experience.

Each year the team has the opportunity to compete in 10 regular season Washington State tournaments plus our district’s National Qualifiers. Tournaments are picked with the goal of maximizing the opportunities for national bids and maximizing everyone’s opportunity to qualify for the two Washington State tournaments.