Clarke Central High School’s Academic Bowl season will culminate as their varsity The Academic Bowl team competes in their final state level competition of the year at Flowery Branch High School. The team placed first at region and hopes to win again. “I feel glad that we’re going to state. I’m not nervous. We’re all thrilled, we’re excited and we plan to take a title,” varsity team member and junior Jared Warner said.
By CHRISTINA KURIAN – Staff Writer
On Feb. 7, the top four Academic Bowl teams from each region of the state will compete in a statewide competition at Flowery Branch High School. Clarke Central High School’s varsity Academic Bowl team will take part in this competition.
The varsity Academic Bowl team holds an undefeated record this school year; however, they will be faced with numerous barriers with state upcoming next week. Though the varsity team did not make it to state during the past two competition seasons, the JV team has. Some of the players who previously competed as members of the JV team are currently on the varsity team, benefiting the team extensively.
“The team this year is 9-0, so I’d say we have improved,” varsity team member and junior Jared Warner said. “Last year, we made it to the state competition as a JV team and placed fifth. So, being able to be happy and going to state is definitely an improvement.”
The team has not held their Monday morning practices regularly due to scheduling problems, but they have tried to meet up as often as possible in preparation for the state competition.
“We come in on Monday mornings, practice, ask questions, talk about why they’re right or wrong and overall, just have a good time,” Warner said. “ It’s a great thing. It gets me up on Monday mornings sometimes.”
Since the competition is so far out within the season, students have moved on to other extracurricular activities. The varsity Academic Bowl coach, Advanced Placement U.S. government and economics teacher Drew Wheeler still expects most of the team.
“We’re usually not at the height of our season like we are at the very end of the season, (where) we’re playing our best. We’ve kind of moved away and people have moved on to other things, so sometimes it’s hard to get that competitive edge back for that one day, so we’ll see,” Wheeler said. “But I think this team is really good, we definitely have a good shot.”
The team placed first at region, but with high expectations, there comes uncertainty.
“The problem getting ready for state is (that) the format is sometimes different to what we’re used to at the regular matches, and it’s hard to predict what it’s going to be until we’re there,” Wheeler said.
Another major problem that might affect the outcome of the team’s results are the concurring events the same day as the competition.
“A lot of the times we run into problems, we’ll probably be missing people,” Wheeler said. “There’s Georgia Scholastic Press Association honors interview that day, it’s descon, it’s an Scholastic Aptitude Test day I think. There’s a bunch of stuff that always happens on that day.”
Overall, with all the problems aside, the team says they’re thrilled and expects to hold the title.
“We have no idea about any of the other teams outside of the ones we play. The ones we play in our division, we did very well against them, so I expect we can beat them again,” Wheeler said.
