On Saturday December 12, the RB Scholastic Bowl team got on a bus at seven in the morning and headed down to Wheaton Academy to play in the Metro Suburban Conference Tournament. Riverside Brookfield’s Team went into the tournament with a record of 7-1.

Scholastic Bowl is an academic competition where fast reflexes and minds are needed to win. The moderator reads a ten point tossup question to the two five player teams. The teams cannot confer within each other and each player has their own buzzer. The moderator gives clues much like in Jeopardy except the teams are encouraged to answer before the question is finished. If the team manages to answer a tossup the team is then able to score up to 30 or more points in a “bonus” round were the whole team can confer on a question. If the team answer incorrectly however the other team has a chance to steal.

The Metro Suburban Conference consists of five teams: Fenton, Wheaton Academy, Timothy Christian, and Chicago Christian. RB took an early lead going 2-0 beating both Wheaton and Chicago Christian. RB then lost to Fenton in a game that came down to the last question.

With a loss Riverside Brookfield needed a win. A big rally from Seniors Hugh Berglin and Amy Delbeck lead RB into victory against Timothy Christian which allowed RB to take conference.

Hugh Berglin led the team with 310 points in 4 games, and had over 510 points on the season. Hugh Berglin was named the top tier player on the all conference Scholastic Bowl team.

“We have a very strong team this year, and I’ve been really pleased with our play in all areas. This year we have been playing in an expanded conference, and that’s been both a nice change of pace,” said Coach Adam Gibbons. “We have an extremely well-balanced team this year, if a music question comes up, we have a good chance of being first on the buzzer for it, same with history, literature, entertainment, and science.”

RB’s JV team also had a strong showing at conference going 3-1. The team was captained by Kyle Perfect.

“We also have a competitive JV team this year,” commented Gibbons, “This is one the best Scholastic Bowl teams I’ve seen in my eleven years here.”