History Bowl’s success story continues on to nationals

The newly formed History Bowl team’s Cinderella story of a season came to an end at the national competition in late April. In its first year of existence, the team managed to make it all the way to the national competition in Washington, D.C.

Members of the team included juniors Spencer Goldman, Kabir Chandrasekher, Nikki Bedekar and Maggy Liu, along with seniors Myron Zhang and Kellie Chiou.

The original adviser for the team was history teacher Matt Torrens; however, Jeff Scott (another member of the history department) chaperoned the team’s trip to D.C.

The team placed fourth in the regional competition, clinching them a spot at nationals. However, Chiou and Bedekar did not compete in the national competition. Bedekar had the state history day competition that fell on the same day, while Chiou decided not to for personal reasons.   

In the national competition, the team made it out of the first round, but couldn’t get themselves any further due to lack of preparation. According to Chandrasekher, there were 198 teams total and Saratoga placed in the top 99.

The contest resembles science bowl, in which the team is asked a question and must buzz before their opposing team to get an attempt at answering it.

Although the team may have not been as successful as they wanted, Chandrasekher felt the atmosphere and the experience were great.

“It was actually a really good atmosphere. Everyone there was really into history and what we were doing,” said Chandrasekher. “The competitions were all done in sport. There was no foul play or anything like that.”   

Chandrasekher says that the team did well in spite of the fact that it was its first year. He also believes that they would have done better with different preparation.

“Considering it was our first year, we were pretty prepared. We definitely know how to go about it next year. This year, we tried to prepare, but our preparation wasn’t really suited for the competition,” Chandrasekher said.

    Chandrasekher explained that they tried splitting the studying to different countries and learning about each one of them. However, this came back to bite them, as most of the questions from the competition were focused on Western European history.

    Along with the competition, the team also took a tour of D.C. According to Liu, the team toured several different memorials and monuments around D.C the day they got off the plane. Liu said that even though the tour was very tiring, it was very fun.

    Next year the team will be losing seniors Myron Zhang and Kellie Chiou. However, Goldman believes they still have a shot at being successful.

    “To do well it will be a lot of work, but I think we can do it,” he said.