The annual Black History Bowl took place in the auditorium on Feb. 28 during Pride Time.

The event is organized in a trivia-based manner with the rules being fairly simple. The two teams that went head to head this year were comprised of five juniors going against four seniors.

Each participant has a signaling device and is allowed to buzz in once the question is read. The first contestant to buzz in gets to answer the question and if they answer correctly, their team is awarded one point. However, if they answer incorrectly, the question becomes available to the other team to answer.

The senior team, consisting of Jonathan Assefa, Ayman Elhag, Abbey Yared and Rohan Miah came away victorious as they defeated the junior team made up of Frances Montevilla, Karla Mercado, Ayia Ismael, Elizabeth Dula and Susan Connell.

“It was exciting to have the crowd chant for us and support us,” Assefa said.  “I am proud of myself and my teammates for the performance we put on.”

The Black History Bowl opened with the speech by the event’s host, Technology teacher Phil Harris. There were a total of 12 questions asked with the range of categories including music, television, art, science, military, sports, politics, sports, movies and the civil rights movement.

“We spent a lot of time deciding on who would study which subjects from the study guide because it had a lot of information on it,” Miah said. “So it felt good to know that all that time we spent studying paid off even though some of the categories weren’t touched upon.”

Questions asked included “Carl Burton Stokes was the first African American mayor of which major U.S. city?” with the answer being Cleveland, and “Which prize fighter won the middleweight title a total of five times?” with the answer being Sugar Ray Robinson. 

Other questions required more complex answers such as playing 10 seconds of a song and having to respond with the name of the song and the artist.

“Our team felt really good on stage because we were confidant,” Miah said. “Also, I heard we were the first the beat Mr. [Joseph] Valentino’s in six years so that was pretty cool.”