Arcadia High School’s (AHS) History Bowl team competed in the regional History Bowl competition on Feb. 8 at Mt. San Jacinto Community College in Menifee, California. The team arrived on Saturday morning and went through six rounds of competition before reaching the final round, allowing them to qualify for the National History Bowl competition.

Each round included four quarters with slightly different numbers of questions about history. Depending on how fast teams answered the questions, rounds lasted from 30 minutes to an hour.

For this tournament, History Bowl’s competing team was divided into three teams: Team A and B were Varsity teams and won as semi-finalists and finalists respectively; Team C was JV. Due to their combined effort, they were able to complete Regionals.

AHS competed against various other schools, such as Adolfo Camarillo High School, Beaumont Middle College High School, Corona Del Mar High School, Liberty High School, Murrieta Mesa High School, and Venice High School.

For many on the team, this was a special achievement.

“Being the first team to go to Nationals in over 8 years is an accomplishment not to be understated, something which we should all be very proud of. We’ve swept so far, and will continue to succeed as we prepare for the national competition,” said senior Kai Wetterau, Co-captain of History Bowl.

In preparation for this competition, many members of the team cited ProtoBowl, a site for multiplayer quiz bowl practice, as a tool that they used to simulate the buzzer-based conditions.

“Studying previous nationals [and] set packets of competition problems also enabled me to feel more accustomed to the format, which was especially important to me as a first-year member,” said senior Max Ma.

Several History Bowl members shared memorable experiences while competing and qualifying for Nationals.

“Our first round matchup was memorable since we were bracketed with Arcadia’s own JV team,” added Ma. “Since it was a Varsity-JV crossover round, it was a great warmup opportunity for both teams, and playing my own teammates was certainly not something that I had anticipated.”

“I think it was a huge shock when we qualified for Nationals. It was a really close match and we gained a lot of ground [in] the last quarter,” said freshman Darren Lei.

Others mentioned the closer relationships and bonds that they formed through competing as a team.

“I loved the casual conversations with everyone that I had throughout the day. I got much closer with all the team members but especially the students competing with me,” said senior Annette Lin, Co-captain of History Bowl. “I also enjoyed meeting students from other local schools—though we were competitors, everyone I talked to was incredibly kind and supportive. It’s really heartwarming to experience this kind of productive, healthy competition from peers that I respect so much.”

“It was the bonding experience that was especially memorable to me,” Lei added. “The victory was nothing if not for the team.”

History Bowl will be attending Nationals in Arlington, Virginia around Apr. 24.

Photo Courtesy of HISTORY BOWL CLUB