The classroom in historic Boiling Spring Academy on Moores Lane. City of Brentwood photo.

BHS, RHS teams will compete Feb. 10
By CHELSEA BLACKBURN
Brentwood Home Page intern
A new “Battle of the Woods” is about to be fought, but it’s scheduled in a courtroom, not on the basketball court or football field and the outcome will be determined by brains not brawn.

The city’s first History Bowl, pitting teams from Brentwood and Ravenwood high schools, will take place Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. at Brentwood City Hall, hosted by the Brentwood Historic Commission. It will be held in the second-floor board room that also is home to the city’s traffic court. It will also be aired live on the city’s public access Channel 19.

The teams will compete for the Sarah Bayrd American History Award, named for the beloved late AP American history teacher who substituted at both schools after her retirement from BHS, where she taught for over two decades. Bayrd died late last year while traveling abroad.

The evening will be full of fast-paced history questions moderated by retired NewsChannel 5 new anchor Chris Clark and Talk of the Town host and producer Meryll Rose. Both Clark and Rose live in Brentwood.

The Bowl will consist of a Jeopardy-like round and a final lightning round.

“As you can imagine the snow days threw everyone's schedule off,” Brentwood City Commissioner and Historic Commission member Anne Dunn said. “They are ready to field a team and there is a lot of enthusiasm,” she said of the schools.

The Historic Commission’s mission is to promote the preservation of Brentwood’s historic sites and heritage. Creating a greater awareness and love of history in young people is a major objective in 2011. 

“The Brentwood Historic Commission is delighted to recognize the academic excellence of students studying Advanced Placement History at Brentwood and Ravenwood High Schools,” Historic Commission Chairman Anne Goad said. “We look forward to our first History Bowl becoming an exciting annual event for the school teams and their teachers, honoring their achievements and highlighting the importance of learning with a lively community rivalry. 

Brentwood High’s AP American history teacher and History Bowl team coach Amanda Bicsak is not ready to give away her students’ top-secret strategy for victory, but she was willing to share some details about how the team, comprised of BHS juniors, will prepare.

“We will get together and determine each team member's strengths in terms of content knowledge and figure out what we need to be studying before the big night. We will also select who will compete in each round based on their individual skills,” Bicsak said.

Each schools’ audio and video department is working on a respective “We are Ravenwood” and “We are Brentwood” video to be shown during the contest. Dunn likens them to the videos shown on ESPN’s College Game Day. The students producing the videos are under the direction of Ronnie Adcock at BHS and Sara Sweitzer at Ravenwood High.

The winning school will display the bowl trophy, a 12-inch American Eagle mounted on an eight-inch base created by Prestige Trophy, for bragging rights until the next Bowl.  The Historic Commission would like to see the competition opened to other local high schools in years to come.

Local business and individuals have helped underwrite the cost of the event with monetary and in-kind donations.  This year’s sponsors include  Andrews Cadillac, Bert Bosse, Brentwood Home Page, Mary Lee Bunch Educational Consultants, Title American/Tami Derryberry and UnitedHealthcare