After months of preparation, the South Academic Bowl Team is seeing its hard work pay off at their competitions, Carrie Fraher, Math Teacher and Academic Bowl sponsor, said.
With two primarily student-led practices per week, the Academic Bowl Team has had an exceptional season, which spans the length of the entire school year, with a Varsity record of 8-3 and a Junior Varsity record of 11-0, competing in the Central Suburban League (CSL) with 3rd Place and 1st Place rankings in their divisions respectively, Fraher said.
“We are having a great season and we have a lot of talent,” Fraher said. “[Students] who’ve been with us for four years have had amazing experiences this season and we’ve also had [students] who just joined us this season who made an amazing impact too.”
The team is a collective group of students with interests spanning a variety of topics, sophomore Ethan Webb, and JV team member said. Because the questions posed during competitions range across several different topics, having diversely educated team members can be a key part to success, Webb said.
“Everyone on our team has their own strong suit,” Webb said. “So, it’s nice that we all have strengths, and we can play to those [strengths] and count on each other when it’s needed.”
At a typical competition, two opposing teams of five will be read a “toss-up” by a moderator, which is a long paragraph that describes a certain concept, person, or event, and becomes more specific as it goes on, senior Anna Gartner, and Varsity team member explained. Once a person believes they know the answer, they buzz in, and if that answer is correct, they receive a series of these bonus questions in one specific category. If an answer is incorrect, the question goes to the other team, Gartner explained.
“This year at the regional that we won we were tied with Barrington on the very last question,” Gartner said. “And the last question, I buzzed in. I got it right, and we ended up winning.” Although competition between schools can be fierce, the atmosphere is ultimately a productive, friendly environment, Fraher said.
“It can be tense because we do want to win,” Fraher said. “If one of our students gets a question within five or six words, sometimes the competitors will congratulate them. So I think there’s this really altruistic idea that you’re chasing your pursuit of knowledge and you’re trying to get it quickly.”
Fraher attributed the team’s success to their work ethic in and outside of practices. However, no matter how much the
team practices, an element of chance is involved, Fraher said.
“You find out at the matches [if] you’re prepared,” Fraher said. “You can be so prepared in science and you can play against a really good science player that can always get it two words closer [or] faster than you.”
