EHS finishes second, third in ESCC competition

Enterprise State Community College has hosted some form of a Scholar’s Bowl tournament for more than two decades.

However, when English professor Dr. Zac Showers took over the team, he changed the format.

This has led to more schools participating and the tournament being nationally recognized.

On Dec. 6, ESCC Cerebral Weevils’ Scholars’ Bowl team hosted the Cerebral Weevil High School Tournament for the second year in a row.

This year’s competition saw 24 teams from 13 different high schools in Alabama and Florida, which are the most teams the school has ever hosted for a competition.

Enterprise High School’s A and B team attended the competition and finished second and third, respectively.

Tate High School, of Cantonment, Fla., took home first place.

“We like the opportunity to complete so close to home,  and Dr. Showers does a great job,” said EHS Scholars’ Bowl coach Kay Ciuzio. “It’s nice because some universities do host tournaments throughout the year, but not many. We like when the universities do it because students get to see the campus.”

Scores in practice decide each high school’s A and B teams, and Ciuzio said she was proud of both of the EHS squads.

“Our A and B teams actually played each other in the qualifying round,” Ciuzio said. “The A team beat the B team and went on to face Tate in the finals.”

Ciuzio said her teams, which are losing nine seniors in May, would look to fill those slots as soon as possible.

“I’m already recruiting now,” she said. “I’ve been in contact with the ninth-grade teachers trying to find talented students moving up next year.”

As for the Weevils of ESCC, Showers said they were indispensible during the facilitation of the competition. 

“They did everything,” he said. “They were moderators, scorekeepers, they cleaned the buildings and set up the buzzers.”

Showers offers two full scholarships for the highest scoring seniors at the competition each year.

This year those scholarships were offered to John Walker of Tate High School and Jessica Belser of Holmes County High School.

Showers also gave away a set of buzzers to the highest scoring school that didn’t already have a set.

Buzzers are used to signal that a team member knows an answer, similar to Jeopardy.

This year Dothan High School won a new set of buzzers for their team.

“It was hectic but it went off without a hitch,” Showers said. “It was fun to see all of the nerds having fun and getting to see their hard work come to fruition. I’m hoping to get a lot of them addicted to the sport so they’ll keep coming back.”

Enterprise High Schools’ Scholars’ Bowl teams are list below.  

A Team: Devon Bowman, Chris Stroud, Trista Head, Ryan Wagner and Hailey Spencer.

B Team: Ben Jimenez, Josh Cox, Trent Mitchell and Nick Anderson.