Du Quoin Scholar Bowl team finishes on top for second straight year

The Du Quoin High School Scholar Bowl team has gone undefeated for the second year in a row.

And yet, they have no state title to show for it. Blame it on the pandemic, which last year caused the IHSA to cancel all competition after the regionals, and this year to call it quits after the sectionals.

But when you look at how the Scholar Bowl Indians thundered through the regionals and sectional, it gives you a pretty good idea how well they would have fared in the Class 1A state championship.

Regional scores: Du Quoin 620, Eldorado 30; and Du Quoin 520, Norris City 50. In the sectionals: DQ 430, Althoff Catholic 380; DQ 470, Johnston City, 100; and in the final match, Du Quoin 520, Gibault Catholic, 220.

Althoff Catholic of Belleville was clearly the cream of Du Quoin's competition. For a while, the Indians were even behind in the match.

"We were down by 110 points, but we came back to win that one," said Zach Jones, who, with Ryan Summers coaches the team.

The Scholar Bowl season itself was topsy turvy, and there were no actual competitions prior to the regionals. Instead, to keep everybody sharp the schools in the conference quizzed their own teams and then reported their scores.

So when the assignments were made for the McLeansboro regional, Jones feared the team might be a little rusty. He told Summers he was hoping they wouldn't get a bye in the first round.

The Indians got the bye, of course. And proceeded to run the table.

"We're undefeated for two seasons. It's kind of weird not to be state champs," Jones said.

The Scholar Bowl season is over, although many of the same students are part of the Du Quoin High School ACES team, which is headed to the state finals April 5-10 at Eastern Illinois University. ACES (Academic Challenge in Engineering and Science) is an independent organization, not part of the IHSA. Leah Winter is the ACES sponsor.

Jones said Du Quoin will graduate its entire varsity Scholar Bowl team this spring, and so will start all over again in the fall. Still, he said the juniors on the team have been building their skills.

"They've seen what this team can do," he said. "If we can keep this level of interest up and prove that with hard work we can succeed," the future is bright.