By Rhys Baker
The Clay Center Community High School (CCCHS) Scholars Bowl Team has wrapped up its first semester of competition for the 2024-2025 school year. Scholar Bowl is a team competition in which CCCHS students compete against teams from other schools, typically in a tournament-style format. The questions are chosen from various categories: World Language, Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Science, Fine Arts, and the Year in Review, a category that can include questions about Government, Science, Technology & Health, Business & Finance, Entertainment & Sports, and General News.
CCCHS Scholars Bowl Coach Jenni Davidson says practices are more than just answering trivia questions, “while we do use old questions, so they understand what type types of questions will be asked, we talk about strategy quite a bit, like, when is it worth interrupting? Because if you’re wrong, it’s minus 5 points, but you also have the chance to cut off the other team and keep them from having a chance if you’re right. That kind of thing comes into play, and we must also consider all the rules.”
Most questions have a 10-second time limit, although math or other subjects requiring computation can have more extended time limits. When a student buzzes in first and answers correctly, the team earns 10 points. The other team can answer if a student buzzes in first and answers incorrectly. If a student interrupts by buzzing in before the moderator completes the question and is incorrect, the team is docked 5 points.
Coach Davidson says the knowledge needed to answer correctly is not always learned in the classroom. “One thing I really like about Scholars Bowl Competitions is that a student can have a deep knowledge in one random area and really contribute to the team. But we’ll have kids who are good in all subjects, and then we’ll just have a kid who knows the most random thing, and they can contribute as well. Everybody can do something.”
Meets usually involve pool play, where teams compete against others in their pool. Then, the top two teams out of each pool compete in a semi-final and a final. Davidson says that in the last couple of years when there were 8 to 10 teams, they all played against each other so that students could gain experience. There are 20 students at CCCHS competing this year. Each student can play in eight meets plus one if the school hosts a league match, but this does not include regional or state competitions at the end of the season.