For the second year in a row, the McLean High School Scholastic Bowl team has won second place at the State tournament after winning both the Liberty District Conference and Northern Regional tournament earlier in the year.
This is in addition to the teams historic appearance on the show “It’s Academic” in a playoff match up where they won decisively by posting the second highest score in the show’s 57 year history.
Physics teacher Jeff Brocketti who leads the team as the coach echoed sentiments of pride on the team’s successful run,
“To place second in the state after years of not being able to field a team, is a tremendous accomplishment”, Brocketti said. “As a coach, seeing the progress of the team gives me a lot of pride because the kids put in a lot of work,” Brocketti said. “To see the commitment of the kids is really encouraging”.
Junior Grace Chung was believed their hard work was the key factor contributing to their success,
“Excelling at the state tournament has been an amazing experience because my team has worked hard this year to qualify for states. We had a lot of practices throughout the year, and it’s great that all of that work paid off in the end,” Chung said.
Scholastic Bowl is a VHSL competition that focuses on general knowledge trivia where teams and students compete in an academic quiz tournament. The questions encompass all sorts of questions ranging from literature, chemistry, history, music, sports and much more.
“I have taken away a lot from Scholastic Bowl,” senior and captain of the Scholastic Bowl team Carson Flickinger said. “The experience of being on this team has built up leadership skills along with a work ethic”.
“We meet once or twice a week and pore over packets increasing our general knowledge information,” Sophomore Justin Young said. “We practice or reflexes, buzzing and spend time at home doing research and learning new facts. Overall, we just work on toning our skills”.
The team will now set their sights on maintaining their high level of success at their next taping for the show “It’s Academic” on March 3rd. in addition to an upcoming national tournament later in the year in Atlanta.
