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Just how smart are they?

World literature. Mathematics. Science. History.

Those are the most likely go-to categories of questioning that high school students face in Scholastic Bowl competition.

"But really, they can ask you anything," says Zach Jones, a science teacher at Du Quoin High School and one of two coaches of the Indians' Scholastic Bowl team. "And they do."

The Du Quoin team is 6-0 in competition this season. Their latest victory was at the Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl at Fairfield High School on Saturday, where they bested Fairfield, Hamilton County, Salem, Johnston City, Carterville and Massac County for the title.

Last year, Du Quoin won the regional and one match in the sectional. This year, Jones and Coach Ryan Summers would really like to see the kids take the sectional title.

With this team, they might go further. The starting five are seniors Maddie Cornett and A.J. Rice; and juniors Guy Indorante, Katie Indorante and Emily Boyett. Senior Caitlin Stanley is the sub called on most frequently, and she replaced Rice on Saturday when he had a conflict with the IHSA speech sectionals.

Having a deep bench certainly helps. So does a level of maturity among the players, who work well as a team, and don't get overly confident or despondent during a match.

"You don't want to get too up or too down," Jones said. "You can be up 200 points but five questions later you can be tied."

Much like "Jeopardy," Scholastic Bowl questions go to whoever has the fastest right answer. Unlike "Jeopardy," there is the occasional math computational question.

There's also a strategic component, which the two coaches zero in on. Summers has been coaching for 15 years; Jones was a Scholastic Bowl athlete himself at Gallatin County High School. In practice, he and Summers try to help the kids reason out an educated guess when they don't know the answer.

The coaches also keep track of the types of questions asked in the first set of a match, and may substitute other players in the second set based on categories they expect to come up. If there have been only a few history questions in the first half, for example, it stands to reason that there'll be more in the second half.

After that, Jones said, it's really up to the kids.

"We've told them what good teams do, but it's up to them," he said. "They are as competitive as any kids I've ever seen."

Preparation, then, is a big part of Du Quoin's edge. These kids prepare in ways that other teams don't bother with, Jones said.

If someone misses an answer, they write the question down to research it. The kids practice with old questions, and look for themes, Jones said. Guy Indorante, one of the team's stars (OK, pretty much they are all stars) discovered what books the National Academic Quiz Tournament uses to get its questions from and now they study from those, too.

"Your run of the mill bowl team does not do this," Jones said.

And still, they manage to have fun. "The kids are having a blast," he added.

Coming up Tuesday is the River-to-River conference match at the SIU-C Student Center. The IHSA playoffs begin March 9 with the regionals (Du Quoin doesn't know where it will be assigned yet) and then the sectionals on March 14 at Johnston City, where the Indians have already been voted the #1 seed by the other teams that will compete. The state finals will be held March 20 in Peoria.

The Du Quoin team as they get ready to compete at Fairfield High School for the Masonic Bowl. From left, Caitlin Stanley, Emily Boyett, Guy Indorante; Katie Indorante and Maddie Cornett. Courtesy of Shane Boyett