The Scholars’ Bowl team completed its season, spanning two tournaments over the season at LAMP High School and Hoover High School. Scholars’ Bowl is a competition where teams answer high-level trivia on a wide variety of topics, including literature, sciences, geography, history, and pop culture.

Scholars’ Bowl meets every Tuesday afternoon to practice for tournaments. The informal gatherings often involve the group scrimmaging with question sets from previous years, or using online question banks to test reflexes and efficiency.

Junior Engil Shanks has been a part of Scholars’ Bowl since his freshman year. His expertise lies in geography, mythology and current events. Shanks explains what drew him to Scholars’ Bowl.

“There’s a lot of service based clubs which are great for your college applications,” Shanks said. “I don’t personally find as much enjoyment in them as I do in Scholars’ Bowl.”

Scholars’ Bowl is an inherently high-pressure competition, where players must exercise quick decision-making skills for the good of the team. Shanks explains that this skill, and its learning curve, is valuable in the long run.

“You have to be willing to be wrong sometimes,” Shanks said. “It’s important that you’re not always worried about being right because part of Scholars’ Bowl is speed. You have to be able to buzz in when you are fairly confident.”

At any competition, teams across the state vary.  At some schools, like Hoover, Scholars’ Bowl is a class where students practice daily. At schools like Homewood, it is an extracurricular where students practice weekly or at home.

While the team has many strengths, such as U.S. History or math, the team struggles with questions on extracurricular topics. Shanks gave his perspective on what the team needs to improve.

“Currently, literature is our weakest topic along with classical music,” Shanks said. “There are some classical music questions that we are kind of shooting in the dark with.”

Scholars’ Bowl works together to help reach their goal in tournaments. Shanks describes the team’s overall cooperative nature. 

“There’s definitely people who make up for where I lack in places like chemistry and literature,” Shanks said.

Douglas Welle, Scholars’ Bowl sponsor and Latin teacher, believes the team’s drive is the backbone of the program.

“Our team was really energetic and focused,” Welle said. “One thing about Scholars’ Bowl is every question is unrelated to anything that’s come before it, so every question is a completely new opportunity.”

Scholars’ Bowl promotes academic excellence from its participants because of the broad topics that students are expected to know. Welle explains the importance of Scholars’ Bowl at HHS.

“There is an understanding that if we’re going to run an academically oriented high school, we need to be participating in Scholars’ Bowl,” Welle said.

The team competed for the first time in a few years in January. Welle explains what the road to competition looked like for the novice team.

“I think there was some trepidation on our students’ part a little bit,” Welle said. “When you’re not competing a lot, it’s going to seem like foreign experience when you don’t.”

Scholars’ Bowl participants are expected to be knowledgeable on many subjects. Welle explains the person that would be drawn to Scholars’ Bowl.

“The ideal Scholars’ Bowl person is someone who is pretty well read, who has studied hard in their classes,” Welle said. “As we broaden our curriculum, that directly helps our Scholars’ Bowl players.”

Starting in the fall of 2026, Homewood Middle School will start their own Scholars’ Bowl team. Welle already looks ahead to enhancing the future of Homewood’s program.

“I’m very excited for next year because Scholars’ Bowl has started at the middle school for next year,” Welle said. “There is a teacher there named Mr. Robison…and he and I are planning on creating a longitudinal program for Scholars’ Bowl that starts in middle school.”

The development of the new team will help cultivate the students who join, allowing them to create a stronger high school team. Shanks highlights what the new extension will look like for the experienced high schoolers.

“Scholars’ Bowl is expanding with the middle school getting involved,” Shanks said. “We’re starting to get more refined and more put together.”

For more information on the team, contact [email protected].