Johnston City High School’s Scholar Bowl team is busy preparing for the Illinois High School Association’s (IHSA) State Tournament which is just days away. On March 22nd, the team will be in Normal, Illinois, going head-to-head against at least three teams.
During the season, you’ll find our team members in the classroom before and after school practicing for each match. This week, they’re putting in additional time to get ready for this prestigious tournament reviewing topics like math, science, history, literature, and fine arts.
One of those students is Team Captain Chase McReynolds, who joined Scholar Bowl in middle school and continued throughout high school.
“We have practiced every single day after school for two hours,” says the 18-year-old. “It does take a lot of time, but in the end, it’s worth it.”
With the title of Captain and senior status, there’s some added pressure to lead the team to a strong finish.
“You want to make it something you’ll remember,” McReynolds explains. “I’m just hoping to go up there and play confident.”
Altogether, our Scholar Bowl team has 13 members:
Elijah Abbott (Freshman)
Jack Carnine (Freshman)
Kate Carnine (Freshman)
Faith Husky (Freshman)
Ariyanna White (Sophomore)
Erica Hinkle (Junior)
Cooper James (Junior)
Max Saavedra (Junior)
Logan Smith (Junior)
Braden Stanley (Junior)
Sophie Walker (Junior)
Olivia Giron (Senior)
Chase McReynolds (Senior)
Multi-branch Mathematics Teacher Trevor Stanley is the Scholar Bowl Coach. He points to the level of commitment and dedication all members put forth to get to this point. Practice starts in early October with up to 70 matches over the season. Those matches are played at tournaments on Saturdays.
“I’m proud of them because I know how hard they work,” Stanley says. “At least with sports, you’re doing something completely different whenever you go out on the field or court. It’s a break from school. These kids voluntarily spend hours and hours doing more school after school.”
Our team this year has added to the power-player reputation that the JCHS Scholar Bowl team has made for itself. The team earned its 4th straight Black Diamond Conference title, 5th straight regional title, and 3rd straight sectional title.
“I think the success that we’ve been fortunate to have has just become exponential,” the coach proudly quips. “They want to be as successful as last year’s seniors, who were just awesome. Last year’s seniors want to be as good as the seniors before them, so it just kind of cycled.”
On Saturday, the JCHS Scholar Bowl team will have to bring their A-game. They’ll compete in a round-robin against three private schools – St. Teresa (Decatur), Northridge Prep (Niles), and Metro-East Lutheran (Edwardsville). If the team takes first or second place within their pool, they’ll go on to compete for runner-up or the championship title.
JCHS Scholar Bowl member Max Saavedra hopes for some questions involving world history, which is his favorite subject.
“We’re not just nerds who are just answering questions,” the 17-year-old explains. “We put a lot of time and effort into this. We don’t just know facts, we know in-depth.”
For Saavedra, this will be his 3rd time competing at the IHSA state tournament, and he’s going into the tournament with a strategy.
“I think the best way to go about it is reserved confidence,” he says. “If you get too nervous, you don’t buzz in. If you get too confident, you buzz in and get it wrong.”
The team will pack their bags and leave Friday, so they can be ready to play early the next morning. McReynolds is hoping to end his JCHS Scholar Bowl career on a high note. At the very least, he’ll be closing this chapter doing what he loves most.
McReynolds is excited about this opportunity and, “Getting to compete and getting to show that we can compete with the schools that are private and charge tuition, even though we’re rural.”