RHS team wins History Bowl

By Staff
Melissa Dozier-Cason, FCT staff writer
Russellville High School's History bowl team won the top prize for the team competition portion of the Tennessee Valley Historic Society's History Bowl hosted by the History Department at the University of North Alabama (UNA) Nov. 4.
Each student was given a test, and the top three scorers were awarded a scholarship to be used at UNA. A senior at Muscle Shoals High School was awarded a $1,000 scholarship for earning the top grade on the exam, Kim Burney, history bowl coach at RHS, said.
"Only seniors can win the scholarships so I am hopeful that more seniors will participate in the bowl next year and will hopefully get one of those scholarships," Burney added.
A team competition followed the testing portion. Each team went head-to-head to answer questions in American history. Teams were eliminated in a spelling bee fashion. The last team standing won the competition.
"Some of the questions were really tough but our kids pulled it through," Burney said.
The questions covered a wide variety of things from our nation's history – like naming the Father of our Constitution and the author of Catcher and the Rye.
Approximately 15 schools from Northwest Alabama participated in the History Bowl. This is Russellville's third time to participate in the event and the second time they won first place in the competition, Burney said.
"When we started going to the history bowl, I had two students to participate," Burney said. "And the number of students has grown each year after finding out that a history bowl can be fun."