Braden Booth Takes it All the Way this Scholar Bowl Season

Fair Grove High School student Braden Booth (11)  attended the Individual Player National Championship Scholar Bowl Tournament in Chicago, Illinois on the first weekend of April.

In order to compete in this tournament, Booth had to be specially selected. He explained, “All through the year, the directors of Missouri Scholar Bowl watch the tournaments and pick the best players to represent Missouri in the All-Star tournament.”

To prepare for nationals, Booth kept with his same study habits to ensure he excelled. “I am always practicing, as there is really no offseason. At Individual Nationals, they do use college level questions, so I worked on getting up to college level in a couple of the categories I’m good at,” Booth explained.

At the national tournament, Booth played against the top players from all across the country. He had been to this tournament the year prior, however, it was online due to COVID-19. That meant this would be Booth’s first time experiencing the National Tournament in person.

Fair Grove High School English teacher and scholar bowl sponsor Michelle Wahlquist had all good things to say about Booth’s trip to nationals. “Braden finished 22nd in the first in-person national tournament since Covid,” shared Wahlquist. “He also took first place overall in the pop culture and sports category; seventh in the science overall rankings; and 10th in literature.”

Booth is only a junior, so he will have another opportunity to go to nationals and do even better next year. “I am extremely confident going into next year,” Booth revealed. “Between last year and this one, I went from 57th to 22nd in the nation, so with another year of practice I am excited to see where I will be ranked.”

Booth will also be leading the rest of his scholar bowl team to team nationals on April 22-24 as their captain. Members of the team will be competing in the Small Schools National Championship Tournament, the team won the title of state champions last year so they are confident going into this national tournament.