Holy Family School, located at 4200 Broadway Ave. in Great Bend, will host the first HFS Scholars Bowl at 3 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23. Schools competing will be Park, Riley, Lincoln, Jefferson, Central Kansas Christian Academy, St. Joseph of Ellinwood and the host team, Holy Family.

Debbie Hagans, who became the HFS principal last July, served as the principal at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Ness City for eight years. She said her school always participated in Scholars Bowls and she is excited to bring the tradition to Great Bend.

The round-robin competition for fifth and sixth graders will be played according to KSHSAA rules with five players on each team. There will be seven rounds played with each round having 16 questions – three each from social studies, English language arts, math and science, and one question each from fine arts, sports, miscellaneous and current events.

Classes at HFS will dismiss at 2:30 p.m. Monday so the staff can prepare for the event. Hagans said the HFS students have had several fun practices and are ready for this citywide competition.

“We hope to hold another Scholars bowl in February or March and the (HFS) students who are not playing on the 23rd will go to that one,” Hagans said. “Scholars Bowl for fifth and sixth graders prepares them for junior high and senior high Scholars Bowl. These competitions are fun to watch and we invite the public to attend!”

More community competition

This past year, HFS has also expanded into community events with other schools by having students in grades 3-6 play basketball with students from Central Kansas Christian Academy in Great Bend. “We played CKCA for five games, which was good,” Hagans said.

In addition to that, Holy Family School plans to take part in the Barton County Spelling Bee next month – something the school hasn’t done in recent years.