Hoover Bucs win 4th straight state Scholars Bowl championship
The Hoover High School Scholars Bowl team captured its fourth straight state championship this spring and sixth state championship in the past 10 years that championship tournaments were held.
There was no Scholars Bowl state championship in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hoover’s championship team this year won every match in the state tournament, including five preliminary matches and four playoff matches, said Anthony Hamley, who coaches the team along with Tim Caine.
The Bucs defeated Baker High School 440-230 and 460-240 in the best two out of three rounds in the finals, Hamley said. “They were the closest to us all day,” Hamley said.
No other team came within 210 points of the Bucs, he said.
There were a total of about 18 teams that qualified for the state tournament for large schools in Alabama, which was held April 8 at Jefferson State Community College’s Shelby-Hoover campus, Hamley said.
The top four teams, in order of points generated, were Hoover, Baker, Sparkman and Alabama Cybertech. Spain Park, Indian Springs School, Bob Jones and Hewitt-Trussville tied for fifth, while Grissom was ninth, and Huntsville came in 10th.
Hoover’s winning team included Kapil Nathan, who was the third highest individual scorer among all participants in the state tournament, as well as Christopher Cheng, Midhun Sadanand, Sarah Xin, Aiden Dombrosky and Kenneth Curlings.
Hoover High’s Scholars Bowl program has 25 to 30 students in it, and 12 to 14 main players who compete in the tournaments on a rotating basis, Hamley said.
All six members of the state championship team and two additional students are scheduled to participate in two national championship tournaments in late May and mid-June.
The High School National Championship Tournament put on by National Academic Quiz Tournaments is scheduled for May 27-29 in Atlanta, while the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence is having its national championship event in Rosemont, Illinois, June 11-12.
The NAQT championship emphasizes quickness in answering questions, while the PACE championship event has deeper questions, Hamley said. Hoover placed 19th in the NAQT national championship tournament last year and 24th in the PACE national championship, he said.
The Scholars Bowl competitions have questions similar to those in the “Jeopardy” TV game show. Topics cover everything from math and science to history, literature, fine arts, sports, pop culture, religion, mythology and philosophy, Hamley said.
Hoover’s team competed in about 10 tournaments leading up to the state championship tournament, including one that was on Alabama Public Television and an invitational tournament that featured 25 of the best teams in the United States and 25 of the best teams from China, Hamley said.
The tournament with the Chinese teams was conducted online, but most of the tournaments this school year were conducted in person again, he said.
This is the third year for Hamley and Cain to coach the Hoover High team. Before that, Joshua Rutsky was the coach and had teams that shined. “We’ve had a great run of success here,” Hamley said.
But Hoover High is not the only school in the district to do well in Scholars Bowl. Spain Park High School has won the state championship twice in the past 10 years that championships were held, giving the Hoover district a winner eight out of the past 10 times, Rutsky said.