By Kaitlin Hoskins, News Editor
Both the Gadsden City High School and Gadsden Middle School Scholars Bowl teams were recognized by Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford Tuesday, August 15, during a regularly scheduled meeting of the Gadsden City Council.
“It seems like we keep coming down here [City Hall] to honor our scholars bowl teams,” Ford said.
The teams competed on a national level at the end of their 2022-2023 season. The high school team placed first in the regional competition in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the Memorial Day weekend. The high school team then competed in June at the national competition and placed third in the junior varsity division. The team was among 10 other schools from across the country competing for the national title.
The high school team is made up of Corbin Ho, Aiden Maks, Chris Holder and Alvinh Nguyen.
“I would like to commend the Gadsden City High School Varsity Scholars Bowl Team for a job well done at the national level,” Ford said. “We definitely look forward to the team excelling once again this year. Thank you for representing the City of Gadsden so well.”Colonel Wayne Davenport, the junior varsity team’s faculty advisor, was at the council meeting with three of the team members. He thanked the council and city for their support.
“I’d like to say that these young people that represented us worked extremely hard,” Davenport said. “If we go to a tournament somewhere — and we ride three or four hours to a tournament — these guys will practice for the three hours down, play the tournament and then read questions the three hours back. They are wholly dedicated to it.”
Davenport went on to say that people are sometimes surprised when the team from Alabama does well.
“We’ll play somebody from New York or California, or wherever, and they say ‘Where are you guys from?’ We say — very proudly — that we are from Gadsden, Alabama, and then we proceed to beat them.”
Ford recognized the middle school team next.
“We’ve seen you all before,” Ford said. “In March, we recognized the Gadsden Middle School scholars team for coming in first at district championship in January and third at the state level for the Alabama Scholastic competition in February.”
Just like the high school team, during the Memorial Day weekend, the middle school team placed first in the regional tournament in New Orleans.
The team, comprised of mostly seventh graders at the time, then went on to compete in the national championship in June. The scholars placed second in the middle school division after competing with 14 schools from across the country.
The middle school team is made up of team captain Latika Prasadh, Lowndes Robinson, Andrew Nguyen, William Edwards, Grey Stephens and Hudson Ellis.
“I want to thank the city council and the City of Gadsden,” Gadsden Middle School teacher and scholars bowl team advisor Dr. Sue Bliss said. 
“We are very proud to be Titans. Our team worked hard as [Col. Davenport] mentioned before, yes we do have people say “Where are you from?” and we do go on to beat them.”
Bliss went on to say that the team members were new to scholars bowl and that last season was their first time ever competing.
“It’s a great accomplishment. We took first in district, third in the state, first in regionals and second in the nation. It [national competition] came down to about 90 seconds. But we’re ready to take on nationals next year,” Bliss said.
Bliss also said that both the high school and middle school teams left nationals and went to a week-long scholars bowl camp at Jacksonville State University.
“These kids are serious about this,” Bliss said. “And we are proud of them. Thank you [city council] for honoring them.”
Both teams had photos taken with the Gadsden City Council and Mayor Ford after receiving their commendations Tuesday.