The 2021-2022 Knowledge Bowl team at Salida High School has found themselves very successful this season, making it to higher competitions and pushing themselves to their limits. The Knowledge Bowl team is a group of students who travel and compete against other high school teams. It’s an interdisciplinary academic contest that requires an incredible skill of knowledge recall. 

Sophomore Knowledge Bowl member Scarlett Campbell commented on the team’s accomplishments, including qualifying for state virtually. The team has worked really hard to get to this point and will continue to have meets prior to competing at state.

Campbell stated, “I’m super excited for varsity to go to state, I think we’ve really killed it this year. I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished and I’m excited for the rest of the semester and the coming year.”

The team competes year round and practices every Wednesday at lunch to prepare themselves for the monthly competition. The sponsors of the team are Abigail Cooksey, Chelsea Carpenter, and Tres Jones. 

During meets, the group travels to Alamosa and competes against other teams in the valley. With a little over an hour bus ride, the students get to the campus ready to show off their skills.

“We don’t go out of state unless we make it to Nationals. All of our meets are usually at Adams State University. Even though we have regionals, we always meet with the same team, […] almost all the schools in the valley,” said Campbell. “Even at meets we’re very comfortable at the other schools, everybody’s laughing when we’re supposed to be quiet. We kind of help each other out a bit.”

Sophomore Stella Veazy, another participant in Knowledge Bowl stated,“It’s been really fun for me and it’s super laid back. […] It’s much more of like a social thing than it is a competition.” 

The group is split up into junior varsity and varsity. The students alternate between the two teams and help support each other. 

“I was having a really bad day one day, in October, and Mrs. Cooksey said to me ‘you should come to Knowledge Bowl today’, and I went, and I fell in love with it,” said Campbell.

Knowledge Bowl sponsor Chelsea Carpenter stated, “They have state coming up soon and a goal is to podium and do well. They’ve definitely progressed, we’ve practiced twice a week so they’ve gotten better at answering questions and communicating with each other.” 

The club offers great chances to overcome thefear of public speaking and try something new. Students have been amazed to see how invested and successful they have all been this season.