Justin Shoemaker is ready for redemption.
The Scholars Bowl captain is looking forward to attending the state competition after missing the cut last year.
The team is heading to the tournament in McPherson next weekend after placing third at regionals Thursday night behind Bishop Miege and Louisburg.
“We’re third out of 18 in our region. That’s pretty solid,” Shoemaker said.
Georgia Martin felt relieved after hearing they made it to state.
“I’m just excited to see how far we can make it with this team, and I’m really looking forward to competing,” she said.
The regional team had six members. Seniors Max Mitchell, Martin and Shoemaker, juniors Nate VanFoeken and sophomore Eugene White. Junior Addy Barnard attended as an alternate.
During bowl play, team members answer 16 questions each round taken from seven categories: world language, language arts, fine arts, math, science, social studies and year in review. The team member who buzzes in first gets to answer the question.
This is Shoemaker’s third year on the Scholars Bowl team. He said it’s enjoyable getting to be around other students who are interested in academics and learning new things.
“It’s one of the few places where you get to kind of test out your trivia knowledge and see how much you learn,” Shoemaker said.
Coach Jim Barnard said the team only competed together twice before regionals due to weather cancellations. To make up for this, the team spent a couple of afternoons leading up to regionals participating in mock competitions with Eudora staff members.
“These practices against the staff are pretty important because it’s another chance for them to be competitive and work together,” Barnard said.
Shoemaker said each team member has a topic they are better at answering than anyone else.
“If there’s a music question, I know Eugene will get it. If there’s an engineering or history question, it’s probably Max,” Shoemaker said. “It’s kind of cool how what people spend their time doing kind of translates into it naturally.”
Mitchell agreed and said it all comes down to what you enjoy learning about.
“In your free time, if you like to watch history videos or learn about math, it can help you out,” he said.
Barnard said it’s important to have a well-rounded team where not one individual has to know everything. He believes Scholars Bowl has something for every student.
“If your interest is math or language arts or fine arts, there’s a niche for you on Scholars Bowl,” he said. “I definitely always try to encourage kids to do it.”
The state tournament will take place next Saturday.
Reach reporter Ryn Drummond at [email protected].
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