Keller High School Teacher To Be "Jeopardy!" Contestant

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KELLER (CBSDFW.COM) - A history teacher from Keller High School is about to make a little history of his own. He will make an appearance on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" this week. The school planned a big watch party for David Clemmons as he spoke about what it takes to play.

For starters, Clemmons explained, the game goes much faster than it does when you are at home. "You almost don't have time to think about it," he said. "You almost have to have a game player like for a sport, and get your game face on and say, all right, game on, let's go."

Clemmons is an 11th grade history teacher. He started this journey just wanting to be a contestant. About 30,000 people tried out online in order to appear on the show, he said. From there, the field was narrowed down to about 400 people. Then, it was on to face-to-face interviews.

After that, some of the top candidates who were teachers were placed in consideration for the show's 'Teachers Tournament.' Shortly after that, Clemmons found out that he had been selected to be on the show. "There was a lot of yelling and screaming and running down the hallway and jumping for joy," Clemmons recalled. But for more reasons than you might think.

For Clemmons, this opportunity came at a time when he needed something good to happen. His phone rang just days after his mother passed away. "About 10 days after my mom's funeral, I got the call," he said. "In the midst of tragedy, I got this joyous opportunity."

The entire Keller Independent School District has embraced this moment with Clemmons. Some teachers helped pick out his clothes for the show and, of course, they are the Keller High School colors. Teachers have helped in other ways as well. "Many of them helped me practice with some buzzer games, and practiced at Keller High School," he said.

It was not just the teachers that have been helping. "My students have been very positive and encouraging," Clemmons said.

He did not want to let everybody down. "I thought, I had a lot out there on the table. And so, I thought, if I screw up and mess up on this, then I'm going to have a lot of people giving me a hard time, especially my AP students," Clemmons said, thinking back to his nerves before the show.

So, how did Clemmons do?

Well, he cannot talk about it until after the show airs. But he did say this. "I didn't embarrass myself. I was pleased with how it went and it's a good reflection of who I was," Clemmons said. It sounds like that makes him a winner already. But you can find out for yourself when "Jeopardy!" airs Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. on TXA 21.