Tournament-style 24 Challenge® events—featuring the same 24® game Single- and Double-Digit editions that are incorporated into First In Math Skill Sets—take place in schools and districts all around the country. Enjoy the latest feature in our continuing series about former champions.
BETHLEHEM, PA—Former 24 Challenge® Regional Champion Alex Knoll is now an educator at Palmerton Senior High School where he teaches Honors Calculus, Honors Algebra II, and Geometry.
Former 24 Challenge® Regional Champ Alex Knoll says the importance of consistent practice in golf—and math—cannot be discounted. (Photo: Express-Times File Photo | BILL ADAMS | June 2014)
While attending Nitschmann Junior High, Knoll was the Lehigh Valley Regional Champion, making his first trip to the Pennsylvania state finals as a sixth-grader. Continuing his winning ways, he made it to the final round of the state event the next two years in a row, placing second both times.
“When I didn’t win in sixth or seventh grade it made me practice that much more for my last attempt as an eighth-grader,” recalls Knoll. “I practiced every night because I knew other kids were doing the same. It was tough to finish second again, but it was a good experience I’ll never forget.”
“My father helped me fall in love with mathematics,” says Knoll, who explains that he and his dad would practice the 24® game together. Knoll’s father, Bruce, works with computer systems. When the math-loving sixth-grader was interviewed for an article that appeared in the June 12, 1997 edition of The Morning Call newspaper, Knoll remembers his answer when asked to describe his practice system: “I play my dad, who I usually kill.”
Now 29, Knoll is a graduate of Liberty High School and Davidson College. In addition to his academic teaching position, Knoll is the top Assistant PGA Golf Professional at the Bethlehem Golf Club, and especially treasures helping junior golfers develop their potential.
He is the 2005 Pennsylvania State Amateur Champion, and the 2005/2006 Lehigh Valley Golfer of the Year. In 2014, he placed second in the Doylestown Open and was 47th at the PGA Professional National Championship at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club and Grande Dunes Resort Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He recently placed 14th in the Lehigh Valley Open at Northampton Country Club.
According to Knoll, who began golfing at age eight, the importance of consistent practice in golf—and math—cannot be discounted. “The way you think about math problems is step-by-step and golf is the same, because you go step-by-step to be sure you have positioned yourself in the best possible way.”
“I feel certain that I developed important skills and the discipline to practice when I was in middle school working with the 24 game,” says Knoll. “Those early experiences helped me then, and will continue helping me throughout my life.”
Click here for more information on the 24 Challenge® at 24game.com