JV wins academic bowl regional

    Stephens County High School's junior varsity Academic Bowl team recently won the regional title qualifying to move on to compete in the national academic bowl.
    The competitions pits school teams against one another answering questions on a variety of topics.
    "I couldn't be more proud of this team," said SCHS coach Maribel Montgomery-Anderson.
    Montgomery-Anderson said the team has been competing every Wednesday since February.
    "We compete against multiple teams from the surrounding areas such as Habersham, Banks, Franklin, Towns, White…," she said.
    Montgomery-Anderson said the SCHS team started training for the competition in October by studying random facts and using questions from previous years to practice.
    "They have worked so hard to get here," she said. "We couldn't be happier with the outcome of the season."
    Impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the season competitions were held virtually instead of traveling to other schools to compete in person, Montgomery-Anderson said.
    "Even with the new requirements and restrictions, both high school teams were very successful this year, with the JV team winning overall," she said.
    Junior varsity team  members include Ethan Cross, Joseph Dodgins, Paige Paulino, Luke Roesch, Tori Broska and A.J. Russell.
    Varsity team members are Jaden Dooley, Hari Panchal, Vincent Birnley and Amber Jewell.
    Montgomery-Anderson said she's been coaching the academic bowl teams for more than five years with coach Lauren Coplan joining in 2020, and Renee Herron added this year.
    "We have had a blast with the "Nerd  Team" as we call it," said Montgomery-Anderson.
    Montgomery-Anderson said national preliminaries will be held May 22-23 with finals taking place June 11-12.