The Paris Cooperative High School Varsity Scholastic Bowl season has reached its midway point, with the team holding a 22-8 record and recently being named the Little Illini Conference (LIC) regular season co-champions and the LIC Tournament champions.
Their season began at the David L. Riley Kickoff Tournament in Mattoon at the end of November. Paris finished sixth out of 11 teams, playing shorthanded due to a band and chorus event on the same day. After a long break, the season's main events began in January. The team finished third in the Blue Ridge Turnabout tournament, behind Normal University High and Champaign Central teams.
The team almost went undefeated in LIC play, outscoring opponents by over 1000 points (1930-920) in the seven conference matches. A low-scoring 170-160 loss against Robinson was the only blemish in a 6-1 conference finish. Marshall and Robinson also finished 6-1 in the conference, scoring 1480 and 1390 points throughout the season, respectively, with all three schools being named co-champions.
In the LIC Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 25, at Lawrenceville, the top-seeded Tigers went 3-0 to earn the tournament championship dominantly. They started the day defeating Casey, 440-90, and Newton, 390-60, before earning the championship win over Robinson, 270-140.
With 20 tossups (questions any individual can answer) per match, the Paris team has heard 600 total questions this year, correctly answering 328 with opponents answering only 174. Individually, Keenan Svendsen leads the team with 173 tossups, while senior captain Eli Brinkerhoff has answered 88. Both boys, along with Graham Templeton, were named First-Team All-Conference in the LIC, meaning they were among the top 10 question answerers in the conference. Svendsen and Brinkerhoff also earned all-tournament honors at Blue Ridge, and Svendsen was second on the all-tournament team at Mattoon.
The Tigers season will continue with non-conference matches and conclude with participation in two statewide tournaments—the first sponsored by the Masonic Lodges and the final by the IHSA. In the IHSA tournament, Paris competes in the largest class of schools, AA, and will be hoping to earn its first regional title since 2019.