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THS scholars bowl ends successful year

By Grant Ebbert - | Feb 13, 2008

This year’s Tonganoxie High School scholars bowl team accomplished a goal that none of its predecessors at THS has achieved.

The Chieftains finished in the Top 16 in Quest, which is a knowledge bowl competition based out of Topeka. The team has competed in and qualified for the event in the past, but never has reached the round of 16.

“We were one of the 16 teams that qualified from 90-plus teams to be on Quest, and we placed first out of all of the 20 4A teams that competed,” said Ron Lewis, the scholars bowl team coach and a THS teacher.

The team even accomplished this feat while two seniors, Jon Lane and Ann Erickson, missed the event because of debate competition. The rest of the team is: seniors Donald Dyster, Lydia Thao, Kristen Titterington; juniors Austin Smith, Alicia Osborne, T.J. Dohle and Rob Brotherton, Doug Emerson, Chris Jordan and Michelle Bufford; and sophomores Nikki Pennington, Mary O’Brien, Austin Baragary, Cory Stacer and Maggie Derzinski.

With the majority of the team coming back, Lewis is optimistic about next year.

“I’m looking forward to the upcoming year and how good we are going to be,” he said.

In scholars bowl, teams usually compete in head-to-head competition, and four or five players participate for each team at a time. Teams also have one alternate player who can participate during the meet.

Questions are given in these topics: science, math, language arts, social sciences, foreign language and current events, or year in review.

Scholars bowl demands plenty of practice and hard work, according to Lewis. The team usually practices once a week and at times there would be three tournaments a week.

Tonganoxie’s scholars bowl team has been competing at various meets since October and just finished the season during the first week of February.

Although the season has ended, the team heads into next season with two quality accomplishments: qualifying for Quest and placing third at the Kaw Valley League meet.

The squad competed at a Class 4A regional scholars bowl tournament earlier this month, but failed to place and did not earn a state berth.

“It was a pretty intense year; we were pretty good,” said Lane.

Quest will air on KTWU, which is Sunflower Broadband channel 11. The THS squad may be seen at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 30, on KTWU.

Quest was taped at the KTWU studio in Topeka. KTWU is the local Public Broadcasting Service channel.

– Ebbert is a Tonganoxie High School senior who is serving as an intern this school year at The Mirror.