Scholastic Bowl 2025-2026
Written by Hanna Claiborne, Jazzlyn Depauw, and Isabella Simmering
According to head coach Brody Anderson, “Scholastic bowl is the ultimate showcase of our students’ knowledge. Scholastic bowl gives the opportunity for our students to show off their academic strengths through questions over topics they should study during their time here at Princeton High School; such as history, literature, science, math, fine arts, social sciences, and popular culture. Students answer these questions in competition against players from other schools on both tossups and teamwork bonuses.” Scholastic bowl is the student’s Jeopardy!. The interest meeting will happen on the 18th of September in the auditorium. The team will play over 20 matches this year; here is the schedule.
The Coaches
Coach Anderson’s goal for varsity this year is to win the regional. Junior varsity coach, Coach Frederickson (AKA Mama Freds) has a goal to win the JV Butterfield Memorial Tournament in Moline. There are many enjoyable elements in Scholastic Bowl. We asked Mama Freds about some of her favorites. She expressed that her favorite subject was likely fine arts, and her favorite activities were the rides to and from matches. She enjoys seeing the students relaxed and getting to see their personalities. Her favorite moments in Scholastic Bowl were watching Gone With the Wind and teaching students during practice.
The Team
Coach Anderson said that the varsity team will be a well rounded squad and will be a strong competitor in the conference this year. The varsity starters will include captain Trevyn Munson who is strong in history, music, and literature; Hanna Claiborne who specializes in literature and fine arts; Isabella Simmering who is concentrated on social sciences and science; Aiden Robinson who fixates on history and music; and Rockne Berlinski who is strong in geography and math. Coach Anderson is also excited to bring back the rest of the varsity roster: Rebekah Pearson, Aishwarya Gheewala, and Victor Dhuy. Coach Anderson is excited to see the junior varsity team compete this year. He is excited to have returning players Reuel Pattar who specializes in science and math; Om Pattel with science and music; and Chloe Kull who fixates on mythology and literature. He is also excited to welcome any new players and incoming freshmen, some being Telly Sanders and Matthew Yepsen.
The Competition
Coach Anderson is excited to watch varsity compete this year with difficult teams. Anderson said that he is excited to see what the junior varsity team will bring to the table this year. He thinks they will have many chances to do extremely well. Both teams will have to defend their conference titles from last year, with varsity ending with third place and junior varsity winning first. The conference will be full of good teams this year, including Riverdale, Princeton’s top competitor. Traditionally, Riverdale has been a powerhouse in the conference for over a decade; however, two years ago Princeton pulled an upset and defeated Riverdale, winning the conference championship for the first time in PHS TRAC history. Coach Anderson says that he is excited for a good competition with Riverdale, and that he looks forward to playing them this season.
The Tournaments
There are several important tournaments to look out for. The first is Stateline Quiz Bowl, which is a great opportunity for players to showcase their abilities to the world. These matches are aired on both Youtube and WTVO Channel 17. The next tournament is NAQT State, which is a difficult tournament to get into due to strict requirements, but the team has qualified for it for the past two years. It is a full day tournament held in Champaign. The Masonic Sectional is a very important event in the scholastic bowl world. PHS has hosted this for the past two years and is expected to host it again this year. Lastly, the Tiger cup is a PHS hosted event. This event was engineered by Coach Anderson who has made it to be one of the most important tournaments in the Northern Illinois circuit due to the high competitiveness and structure. Twenty four teams will be coming from all over.
For more information on scholastic bowl you can visit the Princeton Home Page.