Famous sports players, classic novels, and 90s pop culture are just some questions Scholastic Bowl students may find themselves questioned about.

Participators of after-school activity play in IHSA regulated academic-based trivia competitions, which cover topics typically taught in the school curriculum, as well as current events, pop culture, sports and other miscellaneous questions.

According to Nicole Robilotta, the English teacher and Scholastic Bowl advisor, some recent questions have referenced Spongebob Squarepants, “Covfefe” and “Miley, what’s good?”
“When you first start it’s overwhelming and hard to identify what the actual question is,” Ryan O’Malley, a senior and co-captain of the team said.

That is why every Tuesday, students gather in Robilotta’s room to exercise their trivia skills to practice for conferences. Competitors play a variety of practice games, as well as study topics commonly covered in the competitions.

O’Malley said that he even has a list of the top 100 novels that are ‘must-knows’ to help prepare for any questions regarding them.

“It’s a pretty relaxed club, you just have to come down to Ms. Robilotta’s room and have fun,” O’Malley said. Although it can be competitive around conference season, there are no tryouts and students may join at any time during the school year.

At competitions, students compete in quad meets, which are consists of playing three thirty minute rounds with three different teams. Each team has five players and students can earn points through toss-ups questions by buzzing in and bonus questions, which are offered if they team that buzzes in answers correctly. If the team answers the question incorrectly, the opposing team has the opportunity to ‘steal’ the points.

Members of this year’s team practice with the goal of exceeding the bar of success set during last year.

Last year, South’s scholastic bowl team excelled at conference.

“Both JV and Varsity did quite well, with several players earning medals for the all-conference team,” Robilotta said.

“Our team has quite strong so far this season, so we are optimistic,” Robilotta said.