If you’ve ever watched Jeopardy, you know the fun challenge that trivia presents for the competitors. Well, at WAHS, the sport Scholastic Bowl gives team members the same thrill.
Scholastic Bowl is a trivia sport with multiple categories of questions to answer from. According to William Lewis, a team member at WAHS, the categories include “a lot of science, math, [and] literature, but there are also some pop culture elements.”
The structure of Scholastic Bowl is simple and easy to pick up. Lewis explained that there are “two teams of four. There’s a buzzer system, and your goal is to buzz in and get the questions right. If you get it right, you get ten points for your team. If you get it wrong, you lose 5 points and your team is frozen out.” Whichever team has the most points after 3 rounds is declared the winner.
In different rounds, different types of questions are asked. There are two different kinds of questions: questions pointed towards one team, which they will discuss before answering, and toss-up questions, which anyone playing can answer. Each match consists of 2 rounds of 15 toss-up questions, split by a round of 10 direct questions to each team.
The WAHS Scholastic Bowl team is led by Eric Strzepek, a teacher at Henley Middle School. Strzepek was interested in leading the Scholastic Bowl team because “[he] played it in high school and enjoyed it.”
The team, under Strzepeks leadership, has been very successful in years past. The team has won Districts nine times, Regionals 8 times, and states twice. Also notably, Strzepek says, in past seasons They have “ placed 4th in the NAQT National Championship and 2nd in the PACE National Championship.”
To be this successful, the team starts to practice in the fall to prepare for the Winter season. The team practices once a week by playing Scholastic Bowl. Lewis stated that “[they] meet after school to go through some questions and see what [they] can answer.”
Although the team didn’t win States this year, they did well at regionals and beat Albemarle High School, their local rival. Stzepek seemed proud of the team’s efforts, especially considering their team is mostly underclassmen, saying “After losing so many seniors, I felt like they had a strong season.”
Looking into the future, Strzepek and the team have greater ambitions for next year. Strzepek said, “Our goal is to win our District, Region, and make it back to the VHSL State Championship.”
All in all, the new season of Scholastic Bowl will be bright as ever for WAHS due to a new young team that has the experience and ambition to win.
