Scholars’ Bowl prepares for first tournament of year with largest team yet

Bearden’s Scholars’ Bowl team prepares itself for the new school year with its first competition on Monday. Scholars’ Bowl has grown in popularity this year, giving the team a wider rage of students to provide the best, most experienced team yet. “The team this year has a lot of seniors, and they’re more experienced,” sponsor Mrs. Sara Mueller said. “They’ve been going to competitions for three or four years, so they’re more familiar with the format and have more background knowledge because of the classes they’ve taken.” The team consists of four starters, four alternates, and a handful of others who attend the meetings but do not compete. This year’s starters include Seniors Rebecca Mueller (President), Cole Graham, and Aidan Sears, along with Sophomore Eric Ault. The starters and alternates are chosen through series of internal competitions held during the meetings on Mondays and early release Thursdays. The students who excel during the internal competitions are chosen as the team’s starters. After the starters and alternates are chosen, the team begins practicing for competitions, the first of which is the PBS Tournament which begins on Monday. Competitions are designed tournament-style in which two teams compete. In each round, a toss-up question is asked and the team with the correct answer has the option to answer a bonus question. The winner of each round moves on to the next. Rebecca Mueller hopes to do well in this year’s PBS Tournament. “My goal is to at least get through two rounds,” Mueller said. “If we don’t do that, I’ll be really disappointed. “This is the best team out of my four years doing this, aside from my freshman year, but we might even be better than them, so I expect to do very well.” The questions asked during competitions cover a variety of topics, including science, math, current events, and literature. Students enjoy putting their random knowledge to use, and each student tends excel at a certain subject. “My best subject would have to be geography,” Ault said. Ault is enjoying his experience in Scholars Bowl so far, and he enjoys the opportunity to meet people, and there are certainly a lot of them. “A lot more people are coming out this year than in my past years,” Mueller said. “It seems like interest has really gone up.” Including the starters and alternates, the team includes about 15 people who attend the meetings on a regular basis, making for the largest team thus far. Aside from the PBS Tournament, Scholars Bowl is looking forward to some out-of-state competitions, although nothing has been scheduled yet. “Students in the past have gone to out-of state competitions and really enjoyed them, so I’ll definitely be looking into that,” Mrs. Mueller said. Until then, the team will stay busy with training and the PBS Tournaments, where they will hopefully surpass Mueller’s goal of two rounds and obtain a victory for Bearden High School. Mackenzie Lee is a staff writer for The Bark. Follow The Bark onTwitter @BeardenBARK and like The Bark (Bearden High School) on Facebook.