History Bowl kicks off season with tournament

The History Bowl team, composed of 13 students from all grades, is scheduled to host a tournament at Saratoga High on Dec. 2 in various classrooms that have yet to be determined. 

“We anticipate about 15 schools to come, but we are not sure,” senior Spencer Goldman said.

All schools in the area are welcome to come, and they have until the week before the tournament to sign up.  So far no schools confirmed that they will be attending.

History Bowl, in which students participate in a fast-paced history trivia competition similar to the TV show “Jeopardy,” has only existed for two years nationally and one year at Saratoga.  The

History Bowl team had a stellar first year, going all the way to nationals where they placed in the top 50 of 100 schools.  World History and European History teacher Jerry Sheehy serves as the History Bowl adviser.

In the tournament, teams are placed into brackets, where they play a round robin. The scores from the round robins then seed a playoff bracket which determines the winner.

The tournament will take place from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 2, and the team members hope their peers stop by to watch.

“We highly encourage people to come watch and support the teams,” Goldman said.

World History and Government teacher Kirk Abe recently attended this season’s tryouts.

“It’s fun to watch because they get so into it,” Abe said. “They’re competitive, but they’re positive about it, too.”

For competitions, the team splits into three sub teams, two varsity and one JV, each with four to six players.  The teams for the tournament have not yet been decided, but History Bowl members anticipate that team chemistry will play a role in finalizing the teams.

“We do specialize in certain areas, but most of that happens naturally with people's likes and dislikes within history,” Goldman said.

For this year’s History Bowl season, senior Maggy Liu anticipates a spot of one of the varsity teams. She enjoys watching documentaries and reading Wikipedia in her free time.

“I was interested to participate because I like history a lot and I played an informal version of it [at a summer camp] over the summer, and it was a lot of fun,” Liu said.