The Scholars Bowl team took second place at Eudora Wednesday, Nov. 15. This was the team’s third meet of the year, placing second at Olathe South and getting third in their pool at Lawrence.
Senior Georgia Hansen, the team’s captain at this tournament, prefers competing at meets because they are more intense than normal practices.
“At a [Scholars Bowl] meet, we are competing against other schools, doing multiple rounds,” Hansen said. “Sometimes a tournament will have nine rounds, ten, even twelve rounds I’ve seen, and they can go for several hours. In a way it’s a bit of an endurance test, and tournaments have higher stakes [than practices].”
Preparing for a meet isn’t just going to practice twice a week. Members, such as junior Carter Tollman, study for additional time in order to be ready for specific categories.
“[Preparing for meets] is mostly going to practice but also, there’s always a 16th question,” Tollman said. “Sometimes it’s preparing for that kind of special section at the end, but it also could just be reviewing things that are often in [meets]. Stuff about amendments and presidents are often things that you want to brush up on right before.”
For sophomore Ian Weatherman, applying what he learns in school is one of the best parts about being a member of Scholars Bowl.
“Whenever I get a math question [right], it’s always nice because I don’t usually get math questions. When I get world languages [questions], it’s always nice because it’s what I’m studying in Spanish right now,” Weatherman said.
According to Tollman, team practices are meant to prepare members for meets.
“At practices we normally run it similar to a meet where we’ll just do rounds against our own team,” Tollman said. “So it’ll be five against five normally, depending on how many people are at practice. Someone will read off a question and people buzz in as quickly as they can.”
Hansen recommends Scholars Bowl and the community it has created.
“I do think [Scholars Bowl is] for a lot of people if you have just really nice knowledge about some subjects, and you don’t have any chance to show it off,” Hansen said. “Maybe you really liked biology or maybe you really like a certain area of math or just know a lot about plays or history or wars or something, then Scholars Bowl is a really fun environment. You will find your place among people who are also kind of nerds.”
