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Teams and individuals from all seven high schools in the Shelby County School district competed in the junior varsity and varsity Scholars Bowl on Thursday, Feb. 7. (Reporter Photos/Keith McCoy)

Helena High JV team, 3rd place

Chelsea High School JV team, 2nd place

Oak Mountain JV 1st place.

Helena High School 3rd Place

By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

ALABASTER – On Thursday, Feb. 7, dozens of students across seven high schools in the Shelby County School system were putting their minds to the test and competing in various rounds at the district wide Scholars Bowl held at the recently renovated Shelby County Instructional Services building.

The day featured several rounds of competition as students on the junior varsity and varsity scholars bowl teams from Calera High School, Chelsea High School, Helena High School, Montevallo High School, Oak Mountain High School, Shelby County High School and Vincent Middle High School all competed for individual and team honors.

Program Area Specialist for Shelby County High Schools Lauren Yancey said the district wide event features a wide range of questions as every school competes against one another throughout the day.

“We have seven high schools in our district so we play seven different rounds with the first game starting at 8:30 a.m.,” Yancey said. “They all play each other throughout the day and it takes about 30 minutes to play each round. There are three periods in a round. The first is 10 toss up questions, followed by two-part bonus and the second round is a worksheet round and then the third round is 10 more toss up questions followed by two part bonuses just like the first round.”

The subjects in each round can vary between math, social studies, English, fine arts questions, random miscellaneous questions, current events, pop culture, sports, government and civic questions and more.

For the junior varsity tournament, Helena High School finished in third place, followed by Chelsea High School in second place and Oak Mountain High School was the winner.

The following were the individual results of the junior varsity competition:

–Third place high score: Patrick Decker

–Second place high score: Joel Young

–First place high score: Lewis Fuller

The top scorers for each school in the junior varsity tournament were Sam Davidson of Calera, Young of Chelsea, Andy Hayes of Helena, Katie Ozley of Montevallo, Fuller of Oak Mountain, Decker of Shelby County and Seth Graben of Vincent.

For the varsity tournament, Helena High School finished in third place, followed by Oak Mountain High School and Shelby County High School as the top two finalists.

The following were the individual results of the varsity competition:

–Third place high score: Elizabeth Camp

–Second place high score: William Landers

–First place high score: Billy Fryer

The top scorers for each school in the varsity tournament were Mary Hannah McPhail of Calera, Sara Blevins of Chelsea, Jack Dickerson of Helena, Landers of Montevallo, Camp of Oak Mountain, Fryer of Shelby County and Joe Worthy of Vincent.

Since Oak Mountain and Shelby County finished as the top two finalists in the varsity scholars bowl tournament, they will now compete on Thursday, Feb. 21 prior to the Shelby County Board of Education meeting to determine the district champion.

The district champion will be awarded the Dr. Lusia Macpherson Scholars Bowl Champion trophy.

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