By Adam Homel ‘21

The Brother Rice Scholastic Bowl team traveled to Sandburg High School to participate in the IHSA Regional Championships. The team’s moderators are Mrs. England and Mrs. Pansino, with senior Chris Staszak helping them.

Scholastic Bowl is an activity at Brother Rice where the students compete against other Catholic schools in an academic competition similar to an “academic Jeopardy.”

The Scholastic Bowl Team made it to the regional championship but fell short to the Sandburg High School team.

Before they entered the regional championship they defeated Evergreen Park High School 290-260, and Crete Monee high school 400-180.

The Scholastic Bowl team represented Brother Rice in a very good way. After the championships, the members thought the team did well in their first appearance at Sandburg.

Chris Staszak ’21 said, “We really fought hard in the last round, and it was just a losing battle that wasn’t going to go our way. In that last match, Sandburg played very well, and the questions just did not go our way that game. Be that as it may, our team performed admirably throughout the entire night, we won two games out of three, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see our Scholastic Bowl Crusaders to take home a tournament win in a year or two.”

Matthew Perez ’23 said, “The team had to adapt to new rules of the Scholastic Bowl meet due to Covid-19; however, we managed to persevere and even challenge ourselves. We made it to the final round where we unfortunately lost, but we made sure to represent Brother Rice on our sleeves with pride.”

Moderator Mrs. England said, “This year’s Scholastic Bowl team featured several very strong players. If we had faced our regular opponents, I believe we would have won a top spot in our league. At regionals, our senior star, Chris Staczak, used his experience to include as many players as possible in the games that we played at Sandburg. With COVID, our team participants were down a little bit, but we have several very strong freshman players who may help us to win some regional championships next year. We have solid players, but we need more experience. Just like everyone else, I hope things open up so that we can have more opportunities to play next year.”

The team looks ready for next year and previous years. They’ll go to these tournaments and show Rice pride.