On March 7, the Sterling Scholastic Bowl team went to regionals at Rochelle High School. Scholastic bowl coach and math teacher Alex Rappé reported this to be the closest set of matches the team has had yet.

  The Golden Warriors first faced Rochelle. Sterling won this match with a score of 290-220. 

  The second match was against Marengo, who was ranked third out of 32 scholastic bowl teams. The Golden Warriors lost this match 330-290 and then had to rush home to get our band members to their concert. 

  Freshman Jubraan Alkahalaf was team captain the whole night, having answered seven tossups in total. He has been in scholastic bowl since middle school and does not specialize in any specific topic. “Regionals was fun and we made it very far. Next year we might have a chance to even win it looking at how close we got to beating Marengo,” Alkahalaf said. 

  Sophomore Lelaina Block came in second with the most tossups, answering four throughout the matches. This is only Block’s first year on the team but she is definitely one of the most valuable members. 

  Rappé said, “First match we dominated, and the second match was close. Very proud of how tonight went as we were so close. We have a bright future for next year. I will schedule more games, we will study more and win a regional championship next year. [The team was] awesome tonight!”

  Sadly, I was not able to attend regionals this year but just hearing about it makes me excited for how well we could do as a team next year. 

  Scholastic bowl has really impacted my year, and even though I say I hate it sometimes, I have met some really great people and made some great memories.