Business and management guru Peter Drucker once professed, "Today, knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.”
The Oak Lawn Scholastic Bowl team displayed strong knowledge, had the opportunities to advance, and finished third in the SSC Red Division on February 14th at Evergreen Park High School.
Oak Lawn Head Coach Patrick DiFilippo said of the event, “The conference seemed to have a lot of parity this year, and we knew we would have an opportunity to be in the mix. We had thrilling wins over Reavis and Richards but came up short against Shepard.”
The first game of the night for Oak Lawn was a nailbiter against Reavis. The two teams battled back and forth over tossups. Tossups are when either team has a chance to answer the questions verbally. Then, the team that answers correctly receives the first opportunity to answer three bonus questions, with the opponent able to steal the points with a correct answer. Oak Lawn team snatched a one-question victory by stealing a bonus question when Senior Malik Adi answered on CLT (central limit theorem) to win the match.
The second game against Shepard started well, with Oak Lawn taking an early lead. Unfortunately for Oak Lawn, Shepard went on a tossup run and answered several bonus questions to seal their trip to the championship round. The best Oak Lawn could then hope for was a third-place finish in the Conference.
The third-place game was another cliffhanger. Oak Lawn battled Richards tossup to tossup. Varsity All-Conference member Junior Shawn Perry led the team to victory.
Overall, the team had several outstanding individual performances that resulted in team success. Shawn Perry was the high scorer on the night with eight correct tossup questions. Malik Adi notched four tossups. Junior Allie Gabriel recorded three tossups, and Senior Yumn Elameer answered two tossup questions. Sophomore and JV All-Conference member Joseph O’Leary debuted on the Varsity team.
The Oak Lawn Scholastic bowl team will turn their attention towards the Regionals, hoping to catch the next opportunity for advancement.
When asked about the year, Shawn Perry commented, “Our team is very cohesive, and we are all striving for victory. I’m happy with the work we’ve done so far this season and our placement at the conference. I am excited and confident about our chances at Pulaski Day regionals.” commented Shawn Perry.