Montpelier Elementary got its own taste of March Madness, even if it came a little early.

The Montpelier Elementary Science Bowl team beat perennial power University Park Elementary, 240-185, on March 10 for its first-ever championship, after defeating Hollywood Elementary in the semi-finals filmed earlier that day.

"This is so very exciting," said Principal Carla Furlow. "I don't even know what to say."

Montpelier's team came from behind to beat University Park, which has won more science bowls than any other school.

Team parents, Furlow and the team's sponsor, Bella Clamage, celebrated loudly as they called the school to make the announcement.

"I'm so proud," said one parent. "This is unbelievable."

The Montpelier Bulldogs were behind, 115-95, after the first round. But after trading a few questions early in the second round, the team took the lead at 165-160 on a question about reproductive cycles in animal herds.

After that, the rout was on and the team answered three more 25-point questions to cruise to the 240-185 win.

Following the win, Furlow joked that "we just have to win every year now," but the school might be on that path.

In the four years since Furlow took over at Montpelier, the school has progressively started off with better seeding every year, thanks to the tournament awarding seeds based on the prior year's performance.

"More and more kids want to do this every year," Furlow said. "Even the little kids walk around the school wearing the team T-shirts, saying they want to join."

Though the school had never won Science Bowl before, Montpelier has no shortage of history with the competition. Before overseeing the team at Montpelier, Clamage was a Science Bowl judge for 10 years, and Furlow was a judge for seven years before becoming principal at Montpelier.

But Clamage knew that experience did not necessarily mean wins would come easy.

Now, with ever-increasing interest in the team, Clamage actually holds a test based on previously used Science Bowl questions to determine team members, inviting those with the six best scores to join the team.

"We practice once a week, sometimes twice, by watching previous tapings of the show and having (team members) answer each question as we go along," she said. "We have them quiz each other, we have them play against each other. It's fun."

Despite the practice, Furlow said they had some luck on their side, with the help of stuffed mascots Monty I and Monty II sitting on the team's desk during the show, as well as team T-shirts that have had the same logo for the last four years.

"We're a very superstitious bunch," Furlow smiled.

As excited as Furlow and Clamage were, the students were even more enthusiastic.

Onyinye Okudoh, an alternate for the semi-finals and finals, said he was nervous watching the match.

"It was really intense," he said. "I got scared, but then we came back and it was great."

Caroline Campbell was also an alternate for the last two rounds, but celebrated that she helped the team in victory during the first two rounds.

"We all took part, we all answered at least one question," she said. "It was fun playing as a team."

Josh Carter, the team's captain in the finals, agreed. "It's quite an exciting experience making history for the school."

Only Ashley Woodall, who also played the last two rounds, will be back next year while her four teammates graduate to middle school. While she's enjoying the victory and looking forward to a chance at winning again next year, she's more excited about something else.

"It's really awesome that I don't have to take the test again to join the team," she said.

---

user comments (0)