On Feb. 15, a WHS Scholar Bowl team competed at Washington University and placed fourth out of 36 teams. The teams were split into six groups of six, and WHS was placed to compete against Parkway West B, South Callaway, Glendale White, John Burroughs and Mexico A. The four students on the WHS team were senior Audrey Bush, and sophomores Samantha Doepker, Kyle Meyer and Silas Clements. 

“The yearly tournament is a huge one, and many teams come from all over the state to participate,” said Bush. “We defeated all the teams in our preliminary bracket.”

After being undefeated in the preliminary bracket, the four moved on to compete in the playoff bracket.

“We went 3-3 in playoffs, playing arguably two of the best teams in the state (Ladue A and Saint Joseph Central A) to finish fourth overall,” Doepker said. 

Despite the harder competition of the day, the team wouldn’t have gotten as far as they did if it weren’t for their incredible coach.

“Mr. Dennis is our coach,” Clements said. “He runs practices on Thursdays and reads national-level and college-level questions to us on a regular basis.”

These four students all agree their coach, who is also the middle school choir teacher, has not only pushed them to succeed, but made sure his team was having fun while doing it. 

“Like any good coach should, he cares about you and knows when you aren’t feeling it and makes an effort to make sure that you’re having fun, which is the number one priority,” Meyer said. 

Along with Dennis, the students worked together to make themselves successful in this competition.

“Having teammates allows us to specialize in certain areas and share the load,” Doepker said, “It also helps to have someone else to talk to on bonuses, as an idea from one person can jog an answer loose from someone else.”

Although these students have a thorough knowledge of topics related to the questions asked, success didn’t come so easily for the Scholar Bowl team. It took a lot of hard work and practice to prepare for this huge tournament. 

“[I prepare by] going over some of the weakest parts of my subject field, trying to strengthen those hopefully a week in advance just to keep it fresh in my mind,” Meyer said, “I’m always looking into a particular area of my field of knowledge and trying to find what I could learn more about in order to get more toss-ups of course.”

Aside from memorization, some team members practice in more visual ways. 

“[I prepare by] writing down what comes up and then looking those topics up at home,” Doepker said. “Team members also use flash cards, Quizlet or mind maps.” 

Like many things in life, you get better the longer you are in it. So if you think Scholar Bowl isn’t an option for you, take a risk and try it out. 

“We’re always accepting new members, and the club is made up of the nicest people you have ever met,” Meyer said. “Stop in on a Thursday afternoon. You might surprise yourself with how much you know.”