Radford High Scholastic Bowl team takes 15th trip to state

Front row, left to right, Shelby Brooks, Andrew Vaccaro, Daniel Hawke, Walker Mogen
Back row, left to right, Ben Baker, Cypress Beach, Jeff Feng, Aaron Smith, Eli Smith, Matt Turk, Neha Desai. Photo courtesy of Elaine Argabrite.

While history will be one of the subjects competitors will be tested on during the Virginia High School League Scholastic Bowl this weekend at the College of William & Mary, the history of Radford High School in such events is a topic worthy of attention.

Saturday’s Group A competition will mark the Bobcats’ 15th appearance in 16 years, according to Elaine Argabrite, who has coached the team since 1998.

Agrabrite said that during that time the school has earned 16 district titles and 15 regional titles, while finishing runner-up at the state level once and winning five state titles.

The VHSL Scholastic Bowl state competition is a double-elimination tournament including the top-two teams from each region.

Teams square off in head-to-head competitions that test their knowledge of English, math, science, social studies and miscellaneous areas such as current events and pop culture.

With such a successful past, the 2013 team has been hard at work preparing and knows how much it would mean to bring back the school’s first state trophy since 2008.

“It would validate all the hard work and dedication we’ve put into it,” team captain Daniel Hawke said.

In preparation, the group has official hour-long meetings twice a week in which they are quizzed by Argabrite on a variety of subjects.

Many members also meet twice a week to study with their separate Mountain Academic Competition Conference teams.

Of course, the members are also basically preparing during each of their seven-hour school days, team member Cole Schaffer said.

Many of the team members are also balancing their academic-competition practice time with their athletic-competition practice, but Schaffer made it clear which took top priority with the finals on the horizon.

“Sports are on the back burner this week,” he said.

Like many competitions, the groups’ practice is the foundation for their success, but a few team members said they believe their traditional Friday night dinner at Sal’s Italian Restaurant in Williamsburg also helps fuel their performance.

“You got to carbo load before a competition,” Shelby Brooks said.

Regardless of the exact reason, Agrabrite said she believes her current team will make their forerunners proud andhave a good shot at bringing state title No. 6 back to Radford.

“We will be quite competitive,” Argabrite said.

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