Knowledge Bowl teams group up in the gymnasium between rounds during the Hermiston Knowledge Bowl Tournament at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023.

HERMISTON — More than 20 teams descended Nov. 15 on Hermiston for the Hermiston Knowledge Bowl Tournament.

The event, held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, drew teams from as close as Echo to those as far away as Walla Walla, Washington. Hermiston had four teams of its own in the competition with its top team taking sixth place overall. The three other teams each placed 12th, 14th, and 21st.

“I think we did a great job,” Hermiston Knowledge Bowl adviser John Lauck said. “We have some very strong teams coming in. Walla Walla is a very strong team that took third in state last year and could win the state tournament this year. DeSales is another school that has a very quality top team, and the Hermiston team was just right behind them. They are more experienced, a lot quicker to the buzzer. But I was very proud of all of our teams for the way they competed today.”

When asked about his hopes for the future of the season, Lauck said he hopes the Hermiston Knowledge Bowl experience sparks an interest in the students to go out and compete with other teams.

“My hopes are that we still have the interest of kids wanting to go to the meets to compete to the best of our ability to learn more knowledge as we go through to have fun,” he said.

This year, Lauck also made shirts for the team to wear to competitions to instill a sense of team identity and pride.

“It gives us a little bit of team unity and a sense of belonging. Just like a football team has a jersey they wear on Friday nights, we have team T-shirts that say Hermiston Knowledge Bowl to show that we are academic athletes that compete together as a team to do well,” he said.

In knowledge bowls, teams accumulate points in both a written round and three oral rounds against teams from other schools. Not only is it a competition, but it’s a time for students to meet students from other schools and compete against them, Lauck said. Academic athletes work together to answer questions on a variety of different topics, from math and science to literature and music to current events and medicine.

This was Hermiston’s second meet of the season, with the first taking place in Walla Walla last October. There are only two meets remaining in the season, not including the state competition that will happen later in the school year.

To get involved with Knowledge Bowl at the Hermiston High School, the only requirement is to be an enrolled student.

“I do ask that students come to at least one practice to see how things work before they come to their first meet,” Lauck said. “We know that incoming freshmen and sophomores are not going to be as strong in certain areas like math and science and maybe even literature because they haven’t had those classes yet. But we still try to do our best to encourage students to stay with it, to improve each time they have a meet, and to learn more in practice because practice makes perfect.”