Friday the 13th was actually a lucky day for the Scholar’s Bowl team from Bob Jones High School.

The teenagers traveled to Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham for the Alabama Scholastic Competition Association state competition.

Scholar’s Bowl members are seniors Paul Barrett, Patrick Bradley and Chris Elegante; juniors James Wilson and Paul Yi; and sophomore Brendan Romanczuk.

The 24 teams had four players minimum and one teacher mentor. “Several teams brought their parents,” coach Jeremy Raper said. “Since I have been coaching Scholars’ Bowl at Bob Jones, this is only the third time we have qualified for state.”

Bob Jones took first place at the district competition and qualified by points scored in the regional meet to earn one of the eight wild-card slots for the state tournament. The Madison students left the tournament as a state finalist.

Hoover High School are state champions. Altamont High School took second place.

Scholars Bowl is like “team ‘Jeopardy,'” the television answer-question show, Raper said. Moderators ask a series of general questions.

When a student knows the answer, he or she buzzes in. “We had the most trouble with geography … having the wrong people in the game at the wrong time and buzzing in too late or early,” he said.

Scholar’s Bowl is one of the few competitive, academic teams. “This is one of those rare opportunities where students can compete smarts-to-smarts,” Raper said. “This is all about memory and quick recall.”

The experience gives students “an outlet for their knowledge and a group of like-minded peers to share it with,” he said. Some schools even offer scholarships for Scholars’ Bowl, like tournament hosts Snead State Community College and Jefferson State.

When filling a team, Raper wants students with a broad range of courses and two specialties per person. “You need one person that’s crazy fast in math or one person with a complete list of famous musical compositions/operas/concertos or books/poems/short stories,” he said.

For more information, visit dbtech.net/asca.