The De Soto High School varsity Scholars Bowl team hosted the largest tournament in the state on Nov. 28.

Over 30 schools attended and the team put a lot of effort into making sure that the meet ran smoothly.

“The most time-consuming part in preparing for the tournament was writing the questions. We composed some of our own questions and then went back through some of the State tournaments and our own tournaments and used some of those,” said senior Scholars Bowl captain Zach Yarbrough.

Not only did they create questions for the tournament, but team members also had to find volunteers, invite teams and make sure that the meet went accordingly.

To ensure that the tournament proceeded in an orderly fashion, members were assigned different positions to be in charge of.

“My job was moderating. We had over 30 teams, so we had something along the lines of 12 student moderators,” Yarbrough said. “We got to read the questions and potentially accept the answers. It’s one of the most important jobs, which is why I was so excited for the tournament.”

Not only is the meet enjoyable, but head coach Philip Hamilton explained that the meet gave the team opportunities to learn how the tournaments are run.

“I think it allows them to see what happens when they go to a meet, and it allows them to appreciate all the hard work that other schools do,” Hamilton said. “It allows them to have a greater sense of understanding of the challenges that people in those various jobs face and allows them to help those people do better when they are competing.”

Junior Daniel Smith agreed that hosting a tournament is a great learning experience.

“We get to do the behind-the-scenes stuff of whatever goes on at a meet,” Smith said. “Since we go to so many [meets], it’s nice to get to learn how hard other teams work to make their tournaments work.”

According to Hamilton, the meet went smoothly despite the amount of things that they had to accomplish.

“It went really well. We ran reasonably timed rounds, and Eudora ended up the winner,” Hamilton said. “It was really competitive and really fun.”