Everybody has heard of scholastic bowl. You’ve heard it in the announcements: “Anybody who wants to join Scholastic Bowl see Mr. Crump” or “Congratulations to Michael Cornwall for single-handedly leading the Scholastic Bowl team to State Finals for the first time in EPG history as a Sophomore.” Well, maybe not the last one, but you get the gist. It’s just another school club. More than that, a club for nerds. Other than that, almost nothing else is known. Well, I’d like to tell you that Scholastic Bowl is awesome (ok, I am biased, but hear me out).
A Scholastic Bowl team is made up of 5 people: 4 regulars and a captain. A scholastic bowl match starts with both teams testing their buzzers and introducing themselves. Usually in the introduction, the captain asks a question to go along with the introduction. For example, when I captained at the Woodford County Tournament, one of my introduction questions was “My team will introduce themselves from left to right, stating their least favorite race” (my least favorite race was the 3200-meter run).
After the introduction, the moderator reads off a toss-up question worth 10 points in a particular category. The seven categories are History, Social Science, Science, Math, Literature, Fine Arts, and Miscellaneous (which is usually pop culture or sports). A typical scholastic bowl match has 20 questions. Each question starts with obscure hints that almost nobody knows, until it gradually narrows down to something almost anybody can get. The better you are at trivia, the sooner you will “buzz in” or click the buzzer and answer. However, if you get the answer wrong, the other team gets a free chance at the question without having to worry about their opponents beating them.
After each toss-up, the moderator reads 3 bonus questions, each worth 10 points. The team that got the toss-up gets 10 seconds to discuss the bonus questions first and come up with an answer. If they answer wrong, the other team gets to respond.
The EPG Scholastic Bowl team historically has not had much success. However, that began to change three years ago when the team won the conference and regional championships, already becoming the best team in EPG history. The following year, the team went all the way to state. Currently, there is only one person on the team who competed in the conference and regional victory of 3 years ago, as well as the regional and sectional victory of two years ago. When I asked him about what he thought of the team’s chances this year, he was very optimistic. “We’ve got a very solid team. It wasn’t as good last year when we lost Reed Newcomb, but I think this year we’re better than the State qualifying team 2 years ago.” When asked about how far the team will go this year, he replied with “State Championship Victory.”
This upcoming season will be Mr. Crump’s fourth season coaching Scholastic Bowl. “Our team is very similar this year, compared to last. Our team graduated one person, our second-highest scorer, and so it hurts us a little, but our team also got smarter [especially Michael] since last year.” In his opinion, history is our strongest category, while he thinks we could definitely improve on math. He believes our team will at least make it to sectionals and has a chance to go further.
Not many people have ever been to a Scholastic Bowl Match, which is why most people have no idea what Scholastic Bowl is. Scholastic Bowl State Finals are at Heartland, so you won’t have to travel far to watch the EPG Scholastic Bowl team win State. Their next home meet is Thursday, February 5th. Check them out and see what all of the “buzz” is about.
