The Homewood-Flossmoor High School varsity and the freshmen-sophomore Scholastic Bowl teams both walked away with first place honors at the Southwest Suburban Conference (SWSC).
And, the freshmen-sophomore team not only won its first conference championship, but also completed the first undefeated season in freshmen-sophomore SWSC Scholastic Bowl history. The victory also marked the end of the team’s season.
Both teams were named champions in their divisions by winning all three matches at the SWSC Conference Tournament on Feb. 22 at Thornridge High School.
According to math teacher Michael Sacks, who serves as team sponsor, the varsity team won its third consecutive conference title with a final-question victory over Sandburg High School. The final score was 320 to 290.
The varsity team will compete at the Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl in Bloomington on March 4, and at the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Regionals, set for March 6 at H-F.
Varsity team members are:
- Seniors – Nathaniel Bouchie, Lily Hamer, Matt Scholefield, Thomas Simon and Callie Wojcikowski
- Juniors – Ethan Bosch, Declan Cawley, Michael Colton, Terrance Crocker and Luca Strohmeier.
Freshmen-sophomore team members are:
- Sophomores – Phillip Cole, Jimmy Humphrey, Jack Layden Mott, Ken Nakamura, Matt Piotrowski and Myles Walker
- Freshmen – Mia Anderson, Kevin Berner, Kemi Kasali, Luke Lesimple, Nathan Martinez, Emily Pearce, Eric Piros, Janellie Roach, Alex Szczender and David Winicky.
The Scholastic Bowl is an IHSA interscholastic competitive activity, where two schools compete to answer questions involving factual knowledge, quick recall, intuitive guessing and many other types of questions. The format is two teams of five individuals who compete both to see what individual can answer a question the quickest, as well as, conferring with all teammates on multi-part questions. This fast-paced competition has students buzz in to give their answers on a Jeopardy-style electronic system.
H-F team members practice once a week to compete in SWSC competitions spanning from August to March. In March the varsity team competes in the IHSA Sectionals and, if the team qualifies, they advance to the IHSA State Competition.