Young scholars compete in battles of wits
Staff writer
How many years did Grendel cause grief before Beowulf killed him?
What type of speech is delivered with some preparation but not written out or memorized?
What is the chemical formula for calcium chloride?
If you answered 12, impromptu, and CaCl2 respectively, congratulations. You might be good enough to make Marion High School’s scholars bowl team.
Scholars bowl is essentially bar trivia turned high school sport, with the caveat that questions have to do with school curricula. Sadly, there are no questions about the Kansas City Chiefs or Taylor Swift.
Scholars bowl became an officially sanctioned school sport in Kansas in 1986. Its history predates that by a number of years.
The Kansas program includes 333 member schools and seven state championships, one for each class of school.
The sport attracts a variety of students. Some are specialists, eager to show off their knowledge of, say, 19th century American history. Some are general-knowledge whiz kids, likely off to a university in a few years’ time. Some simply enjoy a good game of trivia.
Marion’s high school team practices on Tuesday and Friday mornings. It also has a meet-up just before lunch Thursdays.
The team is coached by Topher Rome, an English teacher referred to as “Romey” by team members.
During last Thursday’s practice, Rome sat and skimmed a PDF of questions as around 20 students loudly filed into a classroom.
Most are on the varsity or JV team, although a few were unaffiliated with scholars bowl.
This was Rome’s “seminar” period, the unaffiliated students explained, during which students do homework. It turns into practice on Thursdays.
Is it annoying to have the scholars in the room?
“Sometimes, when they’re really loud,” Madisyn Hulett said.
“Honestly, this is the first time this entire year it’s been like this. This many people don’t usually show up.” Sofia Dye said.
Rome swiftly divided the scholars into two teams.
It was essentially boys against girls, and one student silently scrawled team names on the board: “Male Hippies” and “Female Hippies.” It was unclear where the names came from.
Rome then began peppering his scholars with questions from various academic disciplines:
What are the two purine bases found in a DNA molecule? (Adenine and guanine.)
Which Ralph Ellison novel features an unnamed protagonist grappling with black identity? (“Invisible Man.”)
The questions were tough. Students got about 60% right. Regardless of the serious content, there was raucous joy, typical of happy high-schoolers.
Students slapped their desks to “buzz in” an answer, mimicking equipment used in real competition.
“Interruption!” Rome cried whenever a student buzzed in before the question had finished. Part of the strategy of scholars bowl is knowing when to interrupt. The best teams do it often, but answering incorrectly after interrupting loses your team a point.
The hippies squabbled over answers and celebrated successes.
Even those who had set up to do homework were now calling out answers.
“You guys are nerds!” one girl cried after the boys’ team won a point. “Stop being smart!”
Rome asked a question about an emperor no one had heard of.
“Typically, you only start thinking about the Roman Empire in your 40s,” he said after giving the answer. “Either that or World War II.”
Another question followed: What is the name of the first disease conquered by vaccination?
“Chlamydia?”
As with sports like football and volleyball, scholars bowl practice comes early and often.
“In middle school, the season is only about a month or two,” junior Maria Carlson, who has participated in scholars bowl since seventh grade, said. “But in high school, we start practicing at the beginning of the school year.”
Meets commence 2½ months later, at the end of October.
Competitions feature teams of five, plus one alternate player. Rome often selects teams simply from who’s available.
“Kids have jobs,” he said. “If they can’t miss work, obviously they’re not going to go. If they’ve got a basketball game on the same night, they’ll probably end up picking basketball over scholars bowl.”
For their chaotic energy and other commitments, Marion’s team is usually quite strong.
“We punch way above our weight class,” Rome said.
He has overseen many impressive seasons during his coaching tenure.
In 2019, Marion’s scholars made state before falling just before the final round on a tie-breaker.
In 2022, the team barely missed out on state, finishing fourth in regionals.
During the season, the Warriors frequently travel to meets at schools like Moundridge and Bennington.
Marion hosted its own meet Nov. 11, though no more are planned this year. It can be difficult, Rome said, for small school to find volunteer judges and organizers.
Scholars bowl is organized in a complex manner.
Marion is part of a 12-team league in Class 2A. The Warriors compete in a league tournament before joining a 16-team regional tournament Feb. 6.
Should they place in the top three spots at regionals, they will progress to a 12-team state tournament Feb. 15.
Marion has never earned the ultimate prize of winning the state championship. Its league is extremely competitive. Eight or nine teams, according to Rome, are good enough to make state.
He highlighted Sacred Heart and Independent, both private schools, as heavyweights.
“It might be the hardest competition in our league of any event,” he said. “We take it weirdly seriously.”
Rome is confident about Marion’s chances this school year.
“We’ve got really good juniors, like Maria, who’ve been in it since freshman year,” he said. “Last year, as a JV team, they made the playoffs at every tournament they went to.”
With 12 years as coach under his belt, Rome understands which students excel at scholars bowl.
“Usually, you get kids who like school,” he said. “They absorb more knowledge.”
Carlson agreed.
“Generally, it’s people who are going to take education seriously,” she said.
Rome trains the team in the second half of the season, figuring out who’s good at what subject before assigning more specific learning material.
The best teams tend to have experts in frequently featured subjects, such as math, science, and literature.
Marion athletes in more traditional sports are recognized with brightly colored posters hung in the hallways and outside the school. Their names grace programs; the cheer squad exalts them in song.
There is no such recognition for the scholars bowl team. The students, though, don’t seem to mind. Instead, they embrace a low-key, slightly nerdy identity.
“I don’t know if it really matters if we have recognition so long as there’s respect,” Carlson said. “I don’t know if people would want a poster hanging up. They don’t really care.”
Carlson said she has sometimes heard unkind comments regarding scholars bowl.
“People do say that,” she said. “But generally, they understand that if they’re not doing it, they can’t look down on you.”
Rome enjoys the offbeat, often collaborative nature of the activity.
“There are perks to it not being a really well-known or really well-attended sport, because the kids don’t feel pressure, and they can enjoy themselves,” he said. “There’s not the ugliness you’ll get in sports where it’s, ‘I’ve got to beat them,’ or ‘We hate them.’ Coaches work together.”
Is there a stigma to being a scholar?
“There is, a little bit,” Rome said. “But once people do it and they see it, they tend to respect it more. It’s not glamorous. It’s not being on the football team or the volleyball team or whatever. But the kids have fun.”
It certainly seemed like it Thursday. As the bell rang and students scrambled off to lunch, they continued to laugh and argue about topics befitting of scholars, such as constitutional law.
Debate about who had won the practice also was prevalent. According to Rome, the Female Hippies edged out a victory.