Central scholar bowl continues winning tradition
By Jacob Meikel
For the last decade, Central’s scholar bowl team has made a habit of winning, bringing home hardware year after year.
The Indians have locked up their 10th-straight trip to state after securing yet another district championship last week and will also mark the ninth consecutive trip to the state final four.
“We’ve had so many years of doing well, and going to state and getting trophies at state,” senior Patrick Rivas-Giorgi said. “I’m just proud to be a part of that.”
The group of five will compete for its first state title since 2022 when they take to Rolla, Missouri, this weekend. The seniors on the team, including Rivas-Giorgi and Walker DuFrain, are relishing the opportunity to continue the success of the program heading into this weekend.
“To me, to be able to go out,and be able to win at all these different tournaments and be able to go to state to represent our school in the first place means a lot to me,” DuFrain said. “I bet it does mean a lot to all of our parents, anyone that we’re friends with, anyone that goes to this school.”
In scholar bowl competition, the team is faced with questions on topics ranging from science, literature, history, math, geography, fine arts and even pop culture. The team spends plenty of hours during the week at practice gearing up for competition by going through questions and spending time around one another, but the real chemistry lies with each member of the varsity team having their own area of expertise.
“Say, they start asking a question and it’s about history, one of us is usually better at history than everyone else. So all of us kind of know who might answer the question,” DuFrain said.
Central scholar bowl head coach Jeff Carter has been the constant to the success. Being the head coach of the program for 16 years and throughout this decade-long run, he says all the credit goes to the kids.
“They’ve built expectations, they hold each other accountable, and they really enjoy competing. and we’ve been fortunate to have some really talented kids,” Carter said.
