The Scholastic Bowl team competed last weekend in the Region 6A North Championship at Robinson Secondary School. Langley got off to a fast start, but lost on the final question against W.T. Woodson to place second in the region as runner-up winners. Even though they didn’t place first, it’s not over yet for Langley. The team will still advance to the state tournament having a chance to become 3-time defending state champions.

Every year, the Scholastic Bowl offers teams of 4 students from Virginia high schools the opportunity to test their knowledge against students from across the state. The students are asked pyramidal style questions; several sentence long questions describing the answer. The students then use a buzzer to buzz in, and whoever buzzes in first answers the question for their team.

History teachers Mr. Matt Kissling and Mr. Kevin Healy are both coaches for the team. According to Coach Kissling, the competition is very “similar to trivia or jeopardy games, but most of the answers are things you might learn in English, Science, History, or Math classes.” Langley’s team consists of 30 student members, only 4 of which are sent to competitions.

Students on the team rejoice over the pleasure of being apart of something special. “I love to compete,” said Junior Annie Wang, a member of the club. “It’s great to see how Langley stacks up against other schools.” When asked if participating helps with studying or learning information, Wang said, “Although I have learned new things through Scholastic Bowl, I would say that any new studying skills I gained through it is how to efficiently read Wikipedia articles and cram right before a competition.”

Following the regional competition last week, Langley now prepares for the statewide tournament on February 27. “The good news is that we will play [W.T. Woodson] again next week at states,” said Coach Kissling.

Even with all the stress of competition, the team enjoys working together. “Though it might not be a lot of people’s idea of fun, I enjoy it a lot,” said sophomore Surya Ambardar, another member of the club. “My favorite thing about it is the club environment. Everyone there is so friendly, and you don’t have to be an amazing player to go to meetings.”