The McIntosh Academic Bowl team recently won the regional competitions, with varsity getting first place in their category and JV getting second in their category, and have gotten to go to the state level competitions.

Academic Bowl is a trivia competition where someone reads out a trivia question, and the opposing team has to buzz in as soon as possible and answer the question. Questions can be tough and span many subjects, including history, fine arts, science and politics.

“It’s pretty chaotic, because a lot of us know the same things,” Senior Laira Cruz said, who has been on the Academic Team since tenth grade. “It can be challenging sometimes for team captains to know who they should put on for tournaments, because a lot of people are on the bench because we have so many people this year.”

The whole team has been working to prepare for competitions, coming in every Tuesday and Thursday to train and learn from each other, and studying online through sites like Protobowl.

“Most of us have specific subjects that we like. I like politics and history, so oftentimes what we’ll do is just go down Wikipedia rabbit holes, because a lot of us already tend to do that,” Cruz said.

Along with winning the regional competitions, the team got ninth out of 355 high school teams in a timed test issued by the Quiz Bowl National Championships, their best ranking in the last three years.

“I’m very proud to be a coach of a student-led team,” head coach of Academic Bowl Felicia Gunn said. “They do everything, they come with their questions, they set up their practice time, so it’s really good to see a group of students who are so passionate about winning.”

Now the team is moving on to the state level, and the team is keeping the same pace they’ve had since regionals.

“[Being] surrounded by a group of students who are filled with so much knowledge in various areas is absolutely inspiring,” Gunn said.