On Saturday, the Dolores school district’s knowledge bowl team will compete virtually in the national competition.
The Dolores Bears team placed first in the regional championships in Durango, and placed third or higher the entire season.
Knowledge bowl is a trivia-style competition that was started in 1976. In the competition, students are presented with facts and knowledge on topics such as sports, current events, history, pop culture, math and science.
Nielson noted that nearly anything is fair game.
The competitions usually start with a written round of 50 questions, followed by three or four rounds of oral rounds, and the number of oral rounds depends on whether the competition is at the state level or is a season competition.
After the questions have been submitted, responses are tallied. The school with the most correct responses wins the competition.
To prepare for meets, Nielson said the team practices with questions from past meets, and with questions shared by other schools. Team members also may take home a study guide.
“A lot of it comes from what they’ve learned in class,” Nielson said.
The team has 13 members, but only the A team may compete at state and national meets.
Nielson said he hopes that knowledge bowl helps students do something outside school and their comfort zone.
“I just want to help kids do something outside of school, maybe they can’t do sports because of a health reason or they’re not comfortable in big crowds or things like that,” Nielson said. “I just hope that they have fun and they learn something they didn’t know before.”
Team captain Darwin Cooper, a Dolores High School senior, said he enjoys the camaraderie.
“Knowledge bowl is so great because it provides such a great family for kids,” Cooper said. “I think it can be hard in some of the other sports to find the camaraderie that we have in knowledge bowl. We’re always cheering for each other and always learning new things together.”
Cooper also mentioned his goals for his final competition.
“My goal personally is to do my best and support my teammates,” Cooper said. “I think my goal overall is to have fun with it and make sure it’s a really fun time.”
Nielson encouraged students to try knowledge bowl.
“You don’t have to be the superbrain,” Nielson said. “If you’re just good at one particular subject, try it out. This is our third trip to nationals, and it was our third year at state since I started coaching. I’m pretty pumped and proud of these guys. I’m proud of the program.”
