Scholastic Bowl dreams of Nationals next year

McKenna Powers and Hannah Pecis

McKenna Powers, Staff Reporter

Scholastic Bowl is practicing and ready to win.  Social Studies teacher Adam Gibbons, who has been coaching for fifteen years, has a goal for the Scholastic Bowl season, which is to “learn something while having fun.”

 The twenty four members of Scholastic Bowl are ready to do exactly that in their upcoming tournaments, which included a Frosh Soph Tournament in Wheaton, a Masonic Tournament in mid- February, and  will continue with Sectionals in March.

Marly Santora, class of 2016, is the captain of the Junior Varsity Team, and has been on the team since her freshman year. Her goals differ a little from Coach  Gibbons.

“It’s definitely to make it to Nationals on the Varsity team next season,” she said.

Santora doesn’t believe J.V will make it this year, but  hopes next season Varsity will make it. She plans on being on Varsity next year too.

“My favorite part is to do bonus with the team. I like realizing who knows the different parts of the questions,”Santora said.  If a player on the team gets a toss-up question right, the entire team can partner up to answer a multi-part bonus question.

She enjoys working with the team in such a way.

Overall, Santora believes the hardest part of being on Scholastic Bowl is not knowing answers to the questions, which means having to take a random guess and hope for the best.

Pay to Participate has affected Scholastic Bowl just like it has with plenty of other different activities. The fee was a hundred dollars.

“Yes, we’ve been negatively impacted by Pay to Play,” Gibbons said.  “I know of several students who have declined to participate this year because of the fee.”

Still, Gibbons hopes the competitive aspect of the team will continue to appeal to students.

“We let students know that learning is enjoyable, and knowing random facts can be useful,” Gibbons said.