Eastipedia: Categories

East’s Categories team was founded in the mid 1970’s. Categories itself is an academic trivia game show, similar to the more widely known Scholars’ Bowl. However, Categories is locally run, and East only competes against high schools from the Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley Districts.

In each regular season, each school plays four games against other schools, where their general winning record and their accuracy rate will be recorded. At the end of the regular season, the top four schools will advance into the semifinals and the finals to determine the year’s winner.
East has won more games than all other schools combined, but Blue Valley has dominated in the past three years.

However, Southwick expects to finally retake first place this year.

“This team might be the best we’ve ever had. The problem is they don’t have experience, they don’t have the confidence, they don’t buzz in quickly, they don’t trust themselves,” said Southwick.

That was an obvious weakness in the first game of the year, on Oct. 20, against BVN. East lost 19-26.

“They knew the answers, and they were kicking themselves afterward,” said Southwick. “But a game like the one we just played is sort of a wake up call that they really to start absorbing some information, and then get really fast at recall.”

For now, power players like seniors Henry Walter and Mackenzie Hobbs (also captain this year) are trying to groom their new teammates.

“I love these guys. But, at the same time, we want to better each other, sharpen our skills, and make it all the way to finals,” said Hobbs.

The team’s next game is on Nov. 10 against BVSW. They will pick the five member team to send based on how often members have attended practice, how well they have done at practice and who is able to attend.

Click this picture to follow a link to videos of each Categories competition: