Four members of the FHN varsity quiz bowl team listen carefully to the moderator as he reads questions to determine the intellectual strength of the group. The moderator at the practices is Chris Witthaus. Every Tuesday members of the quiz bowl team meet to practice answering various questions from subjects from all around. This year the captain of the team, Senior Caleb Black, will be leading the team full of experienced students to victory.

“In Scholar Bowl there are two ways to look at it,” Witthaus said. “The teams are either set up to where there is one really strong player where the other three are just kind of there, or our team where there are four people who are just really strong in certain areas which I think actually makes a better team than just having one player who gets everything right.”

According to Witthaus, the team has each of the strongest players more knowledgeable in their own subjects. Black has been on the team for four years and has used this strengthen the team as a whole. Senior Pratyush Sontha is one of the strongest players in the area of Mathematics, so Witthaus expects him to perform very well in this category. Senior Mensur Koso is also a huge contributor because of his talents in political science and history. New to the team this year are Junior Mitchell Johnson, Senior Zach Mills and Senior Andrew Schmidt. Witthaus has high hopes for the newcomers and expects them to make an impact on the team as a whole.

“I think we are going to do much better than last year because we have such good players this year,” Sontha said.

While the team only placed eighth out of 12 in the previous year, the combined efforts of all members may lead to a rise in placement. Witthaus’ goal is to try to place around fifth or sixth. The first tournament of the season is Dec. 5 at Washington Middle School. The tournament they will be competing in is the Washington Invitational tournament which is officially the biggest tournament in the state of Missouri.  The team has high hopes on how they will do because of the experience of every currently involved.

“I know there are some strong teams there,” Witthaus said. “If we can avoid drawing into those pools, we could have a very high finish. I would expect our two teams to be middle of the table.”

For those who do wish to join scholar bowl, Witthaus highly encourages anyone interested to come to his room on tuesdays for the practices. While the season officially starts Dec. 5, he is open to anyone with the interest to sign up year round.

“[To] anybody who is interested and just wants to come out and play, Tuesdays, room 184. We will find a spot for you,” Witthaus said.