On Thursday, December 5, 2024, the Aces of the Age defeated the Hippo Hunters to win the 11th annual PMHS History Bowl, made up of sophomores Thomas Spadafora, Andrew Koonce, Finnegan Mullen, and William Douglass. It was a close matchup in the finals, coming down to the wire, as the last two questions sealed the deal. The main question that helped the Aces win was the second-to-last question that described the first Latina woman to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award (EGOT), and the winner of an Academy Award for her work on “West Side Story.” The woman described here was Rita Moreno, and neither team was able to answer correctly. The final question in this matchup described the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, which the Aces answered correctly, but they had already secured the victory at this point and they won by 30 points. They also had two members on the team that were absent that day. The Hippo Hunters put up a strong effort, composed of seniors Christopher O’Meara, Malachy Pearlman, Charlie Johnson, Brewer Anderson, and Ben Sasson.
The Aces of the Age competed last year as freshmen and lost in the semifinals to the Patriots, a team of seniors who had won the History Bowl two times prior. This year, there were 16 teams and 95 participants in total. Classrooms 122, 124, 125, and 126 were used, and senior Rho Kappa members volunteered to make advertisements and posters, questions, and to proctor the matchups in each of the rooms, which included reading the questions and tallying all of the points earned by each team.. Each matchup consisted of three rounds: tossup questions, a category lightning round, and another round with tossup questions. The first round of tossup questions included 10-point buzzer questions where teams would have 15 seconds to give their answer after they ring their buzzers. If a team were to answer a question incorrectly before the moderator was finished, the moderator would continue to read the question. The second round consisted of eight-question categories. Each team would get to choose their category and would have 60 seconds to answer the questions in their category. If a team did not answer all of the questions in their category, the other team would get an opportunity to answer the unmissed question to get bonus points. Teams got 20-point bonuses for answering all of the questions in their category correctly. The third and final round of each matchup was comprised of more tossup buzzer questions. These questions were longer and were either worth 30, 20, or 10 points.
The PMHS History Bowl has been a consistent and important tradition for the school. It started in 2014 and has been organized every year, even during COVID-19, when it was conducted virtually. Although the Social Studies department has organized it every year, this event has been very student-driven, and it is always aimed to be a fun event with food and drinks where students can put their knowledge of all times of history to the test. Mr. Sirico, the advisor for Rho Kappa Honor Society, would like to thank his colleagues Suzanne Short, Ms. Rice, Ms. Cerreto, Ms. Rabuano, Mr. Ferreri, Mr. Marcotullio, Mr. Acocella, and Mr. Kelly, who all helped run the history bowl this year.
