Brain Bowl

Liberty Christian Prep had the honor of being invited to the Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (FACCS) Brain Bowl in Daytona, Florida. This club was open to LCP students in middle and high school. Mr. Scott Acker, LCP’s middle school math teacher, was the advisor of the Brain Bowl club. This was one of LCP’s first non-athletic clubs, and it was a success. Acker said, “Mr. Thomas announced that he needed sponsors for some new, non-athletic, after-school clubs such as E-sports, Brain Bowl, and others.” When asked why he wanted to begin the team Acker said, “I remembered being in the club when I was in high school . . . and it brought back some great memories, so I immediately volunteered.”  He was very passionate about his team and immediately got to work with student practices.

Brain Bowl is a trivia-style competition where competing schools create teams of 3 or 4 students to go head-to-head against other teams. The categories consisted of Math, English, Science, History,  Dance, and other general knowledge or pop culture questions. Each toss-up question was worth 10 points, while bonus questions were worth between 5 and 20 points. LCP had never participated in Brain Bowl before, so this was a new experience for many. “The first practice was all about learning the rules, and what to expect in the competition, and discovering our academic strengths and weaknesses. The others consisted of finding online websites that offered Brain Bowl-style questions and answers to drill on and sharpen our skills,” said Acker. The Brain Bowl team had to get a hang of the rules very quickly. 

Due to how late they joined the competition, the LCP team did not get a lot of practice time. This caused a bit of nervousness, and they did not know how well they would do in such little time. “Before the competition, I wasn't sure about how well we would do with only 5 practices under our belts [and] a middle school student . . . who has not taken advanced math or science classes. Realizing that our competitors might be putting a lot of pressure on themselves . . . I just told everyone to relax, have fun, and learn from the experience.” LCP stuck it through, and after a day of hard work, they made it to the finals round! “After we qualified for the finals of the competition . . . both the team and I were just thrilled at how well we had done; it was beyond our expectations.” Before one of their matches, a student from Inverness Christian Academy congratulated the team on their success in going into the finals round. He said, “Congrats to you guys, for getting this far. It actually took us five years before we could even get to finals so for you to do it in your first year is great.” This was not the first mention, however, it took quite a few teams more than a year to make it to the finals.

LCP placed in the top 10 for finalists and brought home a finalist trophy. Acker said, "We will certainly miss our seniors next year, but we will already be one step ahead with our returning starters. [We] will be able to recruit a new group of competitors, spread the word about how much fun it is, and then 'coach up' the new guys by sharing their experience. I am excited to see how next year's team develops." We can't wait to see how the LCP Brain Bowl team does next year. Good luck, Lions!