Scholar+Bowl

Belleville West assembled a Scholar Bowl team for the first time in the 2006-2007 school year. The team was organized by Cyndi Oberle-Dahm and Brandon Hentze. Scholar Bowl is a team based competition that involves trivia from a wide field of subjects. Tryouts for the season start in November, and season goes into March. The team has had much success in its first four seasons in various matches and tourneys.
 * =**Belleville West Scholastic Bowl Team**=

=Overview=  Cyndi Oberle-Dahm and Brandon Hentze created West's first Scholar Bowl team in the 2006-2007 school year, making Scholar Bowl one of the newest activities at West. In the first two years, the team started modestly, fielding about 20 players. In the past two years, membership has expanded to make a roster of 40 players. Current coaches include Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, Molly Mernick, Lucas Spriggs, and Julie Spriggs.
 * History**

**Scholar Bowl Match Structure** Scholar Bowl matches are five on five competitions utilizing a buzzer system. Each five-person team has a captain and the teams sit across from each other. A moderator, scorekeeper, and timekeeper are also present. Coaches and additional players are also in the room. Matches consist of twenty toss-up questions with a break at the half waypoint. Toss-up questions are worth ten points apiece and can be from a variety of subjects: science, math, sports, music, pop culture, recent events, etc. Players can buzz in within the allotted amount of time and attempt to answer the question. Players who correctly answer a question earn their team the opportunity to answer bonus questions. The bonus questions also cover a variety of subjects and answering all bonus questions correctly earns a team twenty points. There may be three, four, or five bonus questions in a set. Unlike the toss-up questions, the team may confer and gather answers within the thirty-second period. Any unanswered bonus questions are available for the opposing team to rebound on. Overtime occurs if there is a tie after twenty questions are read.

Tryouts for Scholar Bowl are held in November. The roster generally consists of 20 to 40 students spread across all class levels. Once the roster has been created, practices are held several times a week throughout the course of the season. A pre-season tournament also occurs in late November. From these practices, the coaches divide the team into three levels: varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen. The freshmen team does not play every week; in many cases it is merged with junior varsity. Players will occasionally be demoted and promoted to another level based on performance. The coaches also select a captain for each level.
 * Season structure **

The West Scholar Bowl team plays in the sixteen-team Metro East Quad League. Matches begin in early December and continue towards the end of February. Matches are held on a weekly basis, the exception being a break of a couple weeks in late December. Four schools are at a meet, and each school will play a match against each of the other three schools. The matches generally begin around 4:00 and each match lasts 45 minutes to an hour.

=Other events=

The Masonic Bowl is a tournament held on a Saturday in late February. It is conducted in Swiss format with the top four teams immediately facing off in two matches after Swiss play ends. The winners of the two matches play in the championship round, and the losers play a consolation game for third and fourth. The Masons award money to the top four teams.
 * Masonic Bowl **

Regional playoffs are held in early March. The playoff matches are single elimination games. Six teams compete in the regionals, with the number one and two seeds having a first round bye. The winner of the regional tournament advances to sectionals. The state finals follow sectionals.
 * Playoffs**

Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering (WYSE) is not an official Scholar Bowl event, but the Belleville West team has taken over participation in the event the past four years. The regionals are held at Southwestern Illinois College in February. Both junior varsity and varsity participate in the regionals, but only varsity participants’ scores are counted. The top two teams in each division advance the sectionals in March. Belleville West and O’Fallon High School are the only two teams in the division at the regional level; advancement to sectionals is assured. Only varsity players participate in sectionals. At the sectional level, the top two teams in each division advance again to state. In the past, Belleville West and O’Fallon High School have been the only two teams in their division at sectionals, but in 2010, Edwardsville High School and Collinsville High School participated in the same sectional event.
 * WYSE**

=2009-2010 Season=

Head Coach: Cyndi Oberle-Dahm Assistant Coaches: Molly Mernick, Lucas Spriggs, Julie Spriggs, Gary Huang Varsity Record: 15-9 (5th in Metro East Quad League) Varsity Captain: Katie Neighbors Junior Varsity Record: 22-2 (1st in Metro East Quad League) Junior Varsity Captain: E.J. Pisarski Masonic Bowl: 4-3, Finished 4th Regional Finals: 0-1 Team MVP: Katie Neighbors =** Coaches **=

Cyndi Oberle-Dahm (2006-) Brandon Hentze (2006-2007) Nick Johnson (2006-2008) Molly Mernick (2007-) Lucas Spriggs (2007-) Julie Spriggs (2007-) =** Traditions/Miscellaneous **=

The Wu-Tang hand gesture is the official hand gesture of the Belleville West Scholar Bowl team. Lambie is the official mascot of the Belleville West Scholar Bowl team. Team member Sara Corn invented the mascot in 2010. Football games are played during the free time at WYSE competitions, regardless of weather. All male team members are expected to play in the games. A banquet is held at the end of every Scholar Bowl season. The banquet always has a theme to it, the most recent being a Hawaiian theme. All team members are expected to bring a dish. The Belleville West team is generally indifferent towards most teams, but the team has become friendlier towards a few teams and more deceitful of others. Team members are friendly towards Althoff and East St. Louis players, but the West team dislikes Carbondale, Triad and O’Fallon. ||
 * Wu-Tang **
 * Lambie**
 * Football**
 * End of Year Banquet**
 * Opposing Schools**







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