Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993                   TAG: 9307090137
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

EDUCATOR CLIMBS QUIZ LADDER, FROM COACH TO COMMISSIONER

Sam Level of Blacksburg, coordinator of gifted education for the Giles County school system, has been the MACC head coach at Narrows High School for seven years.

Eighteen high schools have fielded teams in past MACC seasons.

Participants are Auburn, Blacksburg, Bland, Carroll County, Christiansburg, Craig County, Fort Chiswell, Floyd County, Galax, George Wythe, Giles, Grayson County, Narrows, Pulaski County, Radford, Rocky Gap, Rural Retreat and Shawsville High Schools.

The teams, each made up of four students, compete in answering questions in English, mathematics, science and social studies as well as an all-around category that includes questions from all the other categories.

The 1992-93 tournament was called off because Wayne Booth, who had been hired to generate questions for it, had resigned. Level said he has computer facilities at his home and can create, store and publish MACC questions, and he hopes to write many of them himself rather than farming them out for others.

He has written more than 1,000 science-related questions for MACC students at Narrows to use for practice. He also has written many for the school's WSLS-TV "Quiz Bowl" teams in the past two years.

Level said he would step down as head MACC coach at Narrows, because his new appointment covers the entire MACC region. He also will have someone else provide questions in any science area he teaches at Narrows.

"I truly would like to see MACC not only survive but grow and improve during the 1993-94 season and beyond," he said when he applied for the commissioner's post.