With Kansas weather as it is, the OHS Invitational Scholars Bowl at Osborne was eventful. Thursday morning, January 9, the day of the Osborne High Invitational, four schools emailed saying that the weather forecast was such that they would not be attending the OHS Scholas Bowl. This, of course, caused a change in the schedule of rounds for this competition. After 3:30, the Scholars Bowl was to begin at 4:00, two schools who had made the trip to Osborne decided it best to leave before the Scholars Bowl was engaged. Thus another change in the competition schedule and this reduced the number of rooms needed to six as opposed to the eight originally planned since the Scholars Bowl went from 18 teams to twelve in just a few hours. Despite these challenges and some other hiccups, the volunteers who were willing to be judges, moderators, and buzzer operators made this contest go well. A number of fifth graders and several of Jeanne Man's grandsons kept score on the white boards in the rooms and ran score sheets to the auditorium where the official scoreboard was set up. Once this competition got underway the OHS Varsity team comprised of Seniors Clay Guttery, Grace William, and Wyatt Wilson, Juniors Mary Carlin, and Jayla OLeary (in the last Scholars Bowl report it was incorrectly stated that Jayla was a Sophomore) and Sophomore Porter Choate outscored all five of the rivals in their pool. In the final rounds of this Scholars Bowl, the Osborne team bested the other three finalists. Thus the Osborne Bulldogs took the gold medal home going undefeated. Way to go Dogs. The summary for the other finalists was Pike Valley won 2nd place, Tipton 3rd and Phillipsburg earned the 4th place medal.
Thanks again to all the volunteers. This event would not have been possible without the willingness of staff and community members to donate over three hours of their time to bring about such an event.
Monday, January 13, 2025, Clay Guttery, Kate Kendig Wyatt Wilson, Jayla O'Leary, and Porter Choate competed in Lakeside's Varsity Scholars Bowl. It has been quite a while since Lakeside hosted a Scholars Bowl. The Bulldogs followed up their success at the Osborne Varsity Scholars Bowl by going undefeated again at Lakeside. This competition was an eight-team round robin so there were no final rounds. At the end of seven rounds, the Osborne team had bested all their opponents. Well Done Dogs.
Following the Monday competition at Lakeside, Clay Guttery, Kate Kendig, Grace William, and Wyatt Wilson, traveled to St. John's, Beloit to participate in the largest Scholars Bowl in this area, 28 teams in fact. It was quite a chilly day on Saturday, January 18, 2025. This competition was both a Varsity and Junior Varsity meet. With conflicts of other events and issues, OHS was only able to be represented by seven of its Scholars. For each round at this Scholars Bow,l the Varsity team would compete, in the case of Osborne the senior team, and then the Junior Varsity team would compete in the same room. Jayla O'Leary, Porter Choate, and Camrun Taylor competed against the other Junior Varsity teams. The teams were divided up into four pools with each pool containing seven varsity teams and seven JV teams. However, the Osborne Varsity team competed in just five regular rounds since they did not have a competitor in their second round. Of these five rounds, the Varsity team were able to outscore two of their adversaries which wasn't enough to make it into the final rounds. The Junior Varsity team was able to compete against six other teams but alas they only bested two of their competitors as well. So both Bulldog teams headed home after the regular rounds to get ready for Swan Song which occurred that evening.
It is also worth mentioning that the Bulldog teams were encouraged and happy to see Mr. Orsak, their superintendent, come and support the Bulldogs at this competition. He said he is a fan of the Scholars' Bowl. Thanks Mr. Orsak.
The OHS Scholars Bowl now has a week with no competitions. Their final competitions will be at Phillipsburg on Monday, January 27 and then they will travel to Scandia on Wednesday, January 29 for the NPL Varsity Scholars Bowl hosted by Pike Valley. For the KSHSAA Regional, which will occur on Thursday, February 6, the OHS team will travel to Ellis who is hosting, As to whether the KSHSAA Regional will be the end of the season February 6 will tell us. This year's Seniors may not be satisfied, though, with ending the season at Ellis. They are quite competitive so they might make the KSHSAA State Scholars Bowl their final high school Scholars Bowl competition. We will see. Go Dogs!!!
Submitted by G. Rush, OHS Scholars Bowl sponsor.