The Wrangell team brought home the national championship trophy from The Salvation Army Bible Bowl competition earlier this month in Pasadena, California — the first time ever for the town.
The five Wrangell teens have been on a winning streak the past couple of years. They won the state title this year for the second time in a row and placed third at last year’s nationals in California.
The Salvation Army’s website describes the question-and-answer contest as “an academic game where teens match knowledge about a designated portion of scripture in a competitive arena.” The competition takes many hours of study and memorization, a good attitude and the ability to work as a team.
It was the first time since 2011 that an Alaska team has won the national tournament. Washington state placed second, while Hawaii came in third this year.
“It was pretty cool to see,” said Capt. Chase Green of The Salvation Army’s Wrangell district.
At the national level in Pasadena, 10 teams competed in a round-robin tournament. In the final round, Wrangell went up against four other teams from Washington state, Hawaii, Southern California and Colorado.
Green pointed out that the most challenging factor in the competition was speed, as the quicker the players answer the questions, the more points they got, with at least five or six seconds per question. At the end of each round, the team average is tallied. “They all had to be that fast to have that high average,” he said. “It was quite something.”
The five team members range in age from 13 to 16, consisting of Clara and Everett Edens, Kaiya and Amura Brevick, and Arabella Nore. They studied and practiced two hours a day every day for the two weeks leading up to the event. “They deserve all the credit,” Green said. “They put in a lot of commitment and discipline.”
Green also commended Damon Roher for his work as coach. Roher coached last year’s team and had been a Bible Bowl competitor over a decade earlier.
The nationwide Bible Bowl has been around for years, with Wrangell making several appearances at regional competitions in the 2000s.
Green noted that the team had been so dominant and won its matches by such a wide margin at the state meet in Juneau in March that Anchorage forfeited rather than compete against Wrangell.
Whether the same team will compete next year, Green said, “It’s hard to see the future, but assuming they all want to, that would be the idea.”
He added there’s even room to add to the roster — the team can have as many as six members.
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