Could you answer a question about Renaissance art on the spot?  How about a wordy math problem in five to ten seconds?  RB’s Scholastic Bowl can, and they do.

Scholastic Bowl is an RB club that tests students’ knowledge of academic trivia.  Though there are no requirements to join the club, the club does have both a JV and a varsity team.  The club meets once or twice a week from October to May, with practices consisting mostly of role-playing question and answer sessions as if the team was attending a match.  Vigorous questioning ensures that the team is ready for the real deal. 

What do Scholsatic Bowl members put on their playlists?  Click here to find out.

“The questions we use during practice are really helpful for tournaments. They help us practice quick thinking and overall trivial knowledge. Practicing with difficult questions can be hard at times, but it always helps us out in the end,” team member Marly Santora said.

The vigor has paid off.  This year, the team has been shining in tournaments and conference matches.  The varsity team placed second in conference which qualified them to attend the NAQT National Tournament, held in Chicago between May 29 to 31.

Still, the team is not treating nationals any differently than conference.

Coach Adam Gibbons said, “We are not doing anything differently than we usually do at practices in order to prepare for Nationals.  We will probably go over ‘frequency’ lists, however, as that competition approaches, and will do lots more NAQT question practice.  Frequency lists have tossup responses that come up most often in tournaments similar to Nationals.”

So what makes this year’s team stand out from the ones in the past?

“We have a lot of really strong members this year. Everybody has their specialty. Some people are strong in math, and usually they are the ones that answer the math questions. Other people are strong in other areas such as sciences or history. We all just mesh together very nicely,” Santora said. 

The Scholastic Bowl team is bringing lots of positive attention to RB. Being and academic based activity and doing so well in most games attended, more people are starting to take notice. Most of the members in the Scholastic Bowl are not just a part of Scholastic Bowl.

“Nearly all of our members are active volunteers and student leaders,” Gibbons said.

With most of the members being so active in and outside of school, one thing you’ll always see is good sportsmanship.

“We let others know that having knowledge in academic areas is a good thing, and we also promote good sportsmanship in all our matches.  Students shake hands with our opponents and smile after every game, no matter if we won or lost.  We always try to have fun, and do our best,” Gibbons said.

The next step for the team before Nationals will be going to a state competition next month.