Three members of the scholastic bowl team competed on “It’s Academic” on Oct. 12 in Shirlington, Va., which will be aired on Dec. 27 on PBS and WETA. “It’s Academic” is a TV show where high school scholastic bowl teams compete live to answer questions. Madison used to compete on the show regularly, but this is the first time they’ve participated in almost 20 years.
“It was a very successful day, they played really, really well,” Marc Lebendig, one of the team coaches, said.
Even though contestants don’t need to study since the questions are general knowledge, the scholastic bowl team had weekly meetings to prepare for the show. They watched footage from previous successful teams to learn their strategy and practiced quick reactions to hit the answer button during practice scrimmages.
“It’s all buzzer races, just practicing hitting the button very, very fast,” Kennedy Gamel (’27), the team captain, said. “We have a lot of people on our team who are very good at that.”
The three contestants–Gamel, Vera Symons-Campbell (’27) and Alex Johns (’26)–have their own areas of expertise, but they had to work together to answer the questions as quickly as possible to get the most points.
“A lot of the preparation that we would have done is very similar to the kind of work we already do for our VHSL play,” Lebendig said.
The team competed against teams from Gonzaga High School and Wootton High School. Gonzaga performed well in past seasons of the show, so they were expected to be tough competition for this episode. This episode doesn’t air until December so the members can’t say much about the actual episode. They did say it was a very fun and special experience overall, especially since one of their coaches dressed as the Warhawk to support the team. They had the opportunity to interact with the other contestants in the green room before the taping started and had to figure out how to manage their nerves when introducing themselves in front of the rolling cameras and live studio audience.
“When we went on, I was a little bit nervous, but I looked around and saw this really silly sign that a teammate’s sister had made and saw the Warhawk,” Gamel said.
After the taping, the team went out to lunch to celebrate, laughing over the silly mistakes that they made and enjoying each other’s company. The team enjoyed this experience and hope to be invited back next year.
“I loved collaborating with my teammates on this great experience,” Johns said.
Interested in joining the scholastic bowl team? Stop by room 159 for more information!
