RHS scholars bowl competes at state
Feb. 9 the varsity team won the district competition against Brooks, Florence, Lawrence and Muscle Shoals. These students will compete in the state contest April 13 at Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham. Team members are captain Cameron Vandiver, Jarrod Lasseter, Georgia Amick and Max Moussad.
“Essentially we won district based on a tie breaker,” DeArman said. The RHS team lost to Muscle Shoals in the first round then beat Florence, Brooks and Lawrence, which made their wins 3-1. Florence also ended up with a 3-1 score, so judges looked at the teams head-to-head. Since RHS beat Florence in their earlier match, RHS was declared the champion.
“It gets very competitive,” DeArman said. “After every match we were all rushing out to the boards to see who had won the other matches.”
Feb. 2 the junior varsity team won their district competition and qualified to go on to the state competition, which took place Feb. 24 at Hoover High School. The team finished in the top 12 teams in the state. Team members are captain Max Moussad, Kendrick Duncan, Yahir Servin, Zakery Colburn, Simon Colburn and Melvin Moreno.
Each match consists of two rounds with 10 toss-up questions. If a team gets a toss-up question correct, they get three bonus questions, but if they miss a bonus question, the opposing team gets the chance to answer the question and get the points. Each question is worth 10 points.
“There is some strategy involved. This is not just memorization; it helps them learn and retain information differently than other students,” DeArman said.
The high school team will be practicing hard, DeArman said, for the upcoming state competition by learning from material she gives them and by participating in practice drills every week.
