This Team Persisted Through the Pandemic

Here's a guest post, shared by John Bennett, CVU educator and faculty coach for the Scholars Bowl team. They had an unusual and very successful season amidst the pandemic. 

C.V.U.'s Scholars Bowl team finished the longest season in team history on June 6. The team had advanced to the playoff round of the National Academic Championship, a long running national tournament that had moved to an online format this year. CVU went 4-3 against tough competition from all over the U.S.A. and ranked 20th overall. The team had qualified for the nationals by doing very well in an online tournament in Vermont, finishing second overall.

It was part of a lengthy, unpredictable and ultimately very successful season for C.V.U.'s team. We had finished as state runner ups in 2018-19, but lost four talented senior starters. In addition the tournament field here in Vermont was very strong and competitive this season- four other schools qualified for the nationals, a record total for our Vermont league . We had a young team with only one senior starting player, our excellent captain Sam Lawrence. We had some growing pains early in the season against some of the top teams in our league, but by the end of December the young team had jelled. We won 21 of our last 22 matches, culminating in a perfect 10-0 record to win the VT. NAQT Championship, the second most important event of the league season (which we have now won for 3 consecutive years). For good measure our JV team won the JV state championship for the 5th year in a row. We were seeded 3rd going to the VT league tournament finals and had a lot of momentum. Then, the Vermont final playoffs were postponed and eventually cancelled.

Undaunted, the team continued to practice during the remote period and were ready for the online tournament opportunities that were presented. Although the online format worked against our team's greatest strength- speed - we meshed well through the experience and will be ready for any kind of competitions next year.

We finished the year with a 45-12 record in a season that stretched from September to June. Besides Sam, our varsity players this year included 12th grader Jake Twarog, 11th graders Isaac Kremenstov, Patton Wager, and Ben Wilson, and 10th grader Evan McMahan, our high scorer this season. Along with our strong JV players, we will have a strong core next year to build on all of our success this year.

Thanks for your support!
John Bennett on behalf of CVU Scholars Bowl

photos taken earlier this school year, courtesy of John Bennett