Students Prepare for Science Bowl

The North Hollywood High School Science Bowl team hopes this weekend to extend Los Angeles schools’ three-year domination of the national competition in Washington, D.C.

Not since 1994 has the national champion been a school from outside the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“We’re just going to take it one game at a time,” said team captain Greg Marsden. “We have no idea how we’ll do. We can only try our best.”

The five-member squad won the right to represent Los Angeles schools by capturing the Department of Water and Power’s regional tournament earlier this year. It competed in a field of 42 teams and won the title by defeating Sun Valley’s Francis Polytechnic High School in the final competition.

Besides Marsden, the team is made up of Emily Kuwahara, Emily Wang, Iris Ahronowitz and Michael Saji.

It will be one of 48 teams, including seven from California, competing in the game-show-style contest on such subjects as biology, chemistry, trigonometry and astronomy.

Each team uses four members, with one alternate, and they press a buzzer before answering the questions.

Teams are eliminated in each round, and the final competition will be held Monday, Marsden said.

To prepare, the North Hollywood team members have spent several hours a day reading texts and practicing their reflexes on the buzzers.

“The strength of our team is our commitment,” said Marsden, a senior. “We’ve worked so hard for this.”

If the North Hollywood team wins, it will become the fourth Los Angeles high school to capture the national title in as many years. Teams from Venice High School won back-to-back championships in 1996 and 1997, and Van Nuys High School won in 1995.