The Scholars Bowl team successfully claimed their title as League Champions for the third consecutive year on Nov. 30. Six players from the varsity team travelled to Ottawa to compete in this year’s league tournament.  

The team competed against Spring Hill, Louisburg, Eudora, Baldwin, Paola and Ottawa.

“We beat them pretty well,” said Scholars Bowl head coach Phillip Hamilton.  “Our Louisburg match was 70 to 60 [points] and that was our closest match.”  

Hamilton said that the team performed extremely well against the rest of the schools as well, saying that the team was “beating them by a number of questions each time.”   

“We averaged about 76 [points] per round, which is a pretty good, high average,” Hamilton said.  “If you get 80 or more, you automatically win, so 76 is a really good average to be at.”  

Senior captain Trevor Whitlow agrees that the team is doing exceptionally well this year.  

“Last year at this time we actually had a lower average score,” Whitlow said.  

According to Hamilton, last year the team didn’t earn an average score of more than 70 points per round until January. With the team being where it’s at this early in the season, Hamilton is optimistic about the team’s future this season.  

“We moved up to 5A, so that’s going to be a whole new bracket for us to play against, but I think that the team is in a really good place,” Hamilton said.   

Hamilton also appreciates that everyone on the team is able to contribute this year.  All six players on the league team scored, compared to being “reliant on one single player” like the team was last year.  

“Statistically, we are just as good as we have always been since Hamilton has been coach,” Whitlow said.  

Whitlow thinks that the new players are “just as solid” as the returners from last year’s State team.  

Both Hamilton and Whitlow think that their biggest competition is Mill Valley, the defending 5A State Champions.

“[Winning League] was a good feeling, but it lasted for that evening only,” Whitlow said.  “We were not challenged there, and we have bigger goals.”