The 2022-2023 Camas High School (CHS) Knowledge Bowl season has officially started. The team consists of 55 students and two coaches, Sam Greene and Alan Bohac, both teachers at CHS, leading the teams through practices and helping them prepare for their competitions. 

“Knowledge Bowl is a team-based jeopardy, where you work with a team of about six people to try to answer questions in math, science, literature, geography, social studies, history-just everything under the sun,” said Greene.

A regular competition starts off with the written section. There are 60 questions in multiple choice question format and the team works together to answer as many questions as possible. Next are the two oral rounds. In each of these rounds, the team is asked 60 questions and has to work together to answer as many questions as possible. The winner of the competition is the team that has the most correct answers after adding up all the rounds. 

CHS has had a Knowledge Bowl team since Dale Croswell created it in the 1980s. Recently, Greene took over the activity in 2014 after Croswell retired.

“I started doing middle school Knowledge Bowl back in the early 2000s, and then when coach Dale Croswell retired in 2014, I took over for the team that year,” said Greene.

Following the Covid pandemic, Bohac has joined Greene in coaching the Knowledge Bowl team.

Students and coaches largely enjoy the community that Knowledge Bowl creates.

“It’s a really awesome activity that celebrates the knowledge that people have worked hard to learn in school,” said Greene. “I also like that the students who are involved in Knowledge Bowl are very passionate about it and it gives them a chance to experience a team-based competition.”

“Knowledge bowl is really fun because you get to meet a lot of new people who share your interests in information,” said freshman Henry Zhu.

Students also enjoy the challenge that Knowledge Bowl presents as they believe it is a great way to test their own knowledge.

“I want to see how far my knowledge takes me. I wanna test myself to see what the highest mountain I can climb is,” said junior Nhan Truong. 

Former varsity Knowledge Bowl student Steven Wu has always loved the topics Knowledge Bowl quizzes students on.

“I thought it was interesting. I like history, science, politics and all that,” Wu said. “It’s a fun way to participate in school activities.”

Previously, he had attended Knowledge Bowl districts, but this season he hopes the team will become state champions. 

Knowledge Bowl has its first meet on November 7th, and a home meet on December 7th. Students are looking forward to having a good Knowledge Bowl season and achieving dominance in the state tournament this year.