It’s Monday afternoon and in room 3130 two rows of desks are set up to face one another. Connecting the rows of desks sits Scholastic Bowl sponsor, Matthew Wiemer with a packet of trivia questions, his co-sponsor Joseph Edwards stands behind him at the whiteboard with an expo marker in hand, ready to keep score between the two teams. Members share jokes and giggles while scratch pieces of paper are passed to each player.

As Wiemer begins reading the first question, the two groups settle into a concentrated silence.

“My favorite part of Scholastic Bowl is seeing the vast knowledge our students have about all sorts of topics and subjects. They are such a terrific group of students. I also like running a club with my BFFL [Best Friend For Life], Mr. Edwards,” Wiemer said.

According to the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association, Scholastic Bowl is “a test of knowledge played out between two teams using buzzers.”

When teams are given a toss-up, the first person to press their buzzer answers. After that is the bonus questions, and the team of the person who answers gets the first try. There are 3 bonus questions per toss-up and can be from any category.

Categories include:

• Literature
• Science
• Math
• Social Sciences 
• History
• Fine arts
• Miscellaneous 

Members of Scholastic Bowl study questions on Quizlet and utilize questions asked at past competitions or from the previous year. It is hard to anticipate what questions will be asked at tournaments, so members study a wide variety of topics to cover as much ground as possible.

Quick-thinking and incredibly articulate, members of Scholastic Bowl are students who achieve high academic honors and are among some of the most intelligent people at West. While one may think this may make Scholastic Bowl meetings full of dry and intellectual conversation, the impression of the room is different than some might expect.

When members get an especially hard question or are very close to the right answer, some members are likely to yell out words a little harsher than the usual “darn”. The member most likely to yell or even scream an obscenity is senior Simon Solano.

“I joined because Mr. Wiemer was my APUSH [AP U.S. History] teacher and he told us about Scholastic Bowl. I stayed in Scholastic Bowl because I love the competitive environment as well as the environment that pushes us to learn. You learn to guess a lot,” Solano said. “Mr. Wiemer leads Scholastic Bowl with his ever-present wit.”

“My favorite memory from Scholastic Bowl would probably be when we spent about fifteen very rushed minutes in the van on the way to a meet reviewing random questions from a Quizlet and then happened to get one of those questions during our match. It was a really fun moment because it’s super unlikely you’ll encounter the same question more than once, let alone right before in a rapid-fire study session,” senior Eva Schultz said.

Overall, van rides are seen as an opportunity by members to bond with one another and their sponsors.”I love the difficulty of Schobowl [Scholastic Bowl] questions, but I think one of my favorite parts of the club is our van rides to and from conferences. It provides me a chance to bond with sponsors and students alike in a way that I would not otherwise have, and whether celebrating a win or reflecting on a loss, that camaraderie is irreplaceable,” senior Henry Fleck said.

While sponsors, Wiemer and Edwards value the students they get to know through Scholastic Bowl, they also cherish the time they get to spend together as an iconic social studies teacher duo. Their bond is so strong that NWN has already covered their special relationship.

“It’s always fun hanging out with Mr. Wiemer. We have the same sense of humor and laugh at each other’s dumb jokes. It’s one of the main reasons why I applied to be a coach when there was an opening,” Edwards said.

As Wiemer asks his final trivia question, the answer is given and members quickly begin to pack up their things. Backpacks are grabbed and students rush off to their next after-school activity. Many students in Scholastic Bowl are both highly intelligent students and are involved members in many after-school activities.

“The students are great. They are just a really nice group of kids and I’m always amazed at how much they all know,” Edwards said.

Anyone interested can go to Room 3130 after school on Mondays.