Correspondent photo / John Patrick Gatta The Weathersfield Junior High Academic Prep Bowl team poses with the first-place trophy at Saturday’s Junior High Academic Prep Bowl at Lordstown High School. From left are Coach Alex Roth, Chase Flaherty, Landon Zimomra, Dexter Wagley, Gavin Domino, Bekah Plant, Ainsley Lowery and Jaclyn Bingham of Trumbull County Educational Service Center.

LORDSTOWN — The Weathersfield team members were all smiles as they enjoyed their victory as the winners of Saturday’s Junior High Academic Prep Bowl at Lordstown High School.

Their joy encompassed reaching the top after nearly four months of studying for the tournament as well as relief that the stress involved with answering questions as quickly as possible to earn points over their opponent is over.

Encouraged by the enthusiasm demonstrated by members, Mineral Ridge High School seventh-grade English / Language Arts teacher Alex Roth has coached Weathersfield teams for four years and plans to do it again in the future.

“They really enjoy it,” she said. “The students enjoy practicing every week. The trivia is fun, learning new things. Just watching them have so much fun, it makes me want to do it every year so they can keep coming back.”

The most difficult part for her happens when she watches and is unable to help students as they mentally search for an answer to a question.

“It’s mostly stressful when I know we’ve gone over things, and I know we’ve studied it and they’re staring at each other, but the fulfillment they get when they do get the question right or they throw out a random guess, and it is the right answer. It’s fun to watch,” she said.

Consisting of grades seven and eight, the Junior High Prep Bowl featured 17 teams that are represented by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, including Weathersfield, second-place Junior High Academic Prep Bowl winner Howland, Lakeview, McDonald, Champion, Bristol, LaBrae, Warren, Niles, Joseph Badger, Lordstown, Pymatuning Valley, Hubbard, Girard, Mathews, Maplewood and Southington.

The Junior High teams answered questions from seven categories — children / young adult literature, mathematics, social studies, language arts, science, geography and fine arts.

Ainsley Lowery, seventh grade, said, “It was really fun to work with my team, especially during the alphabet round. It was a team effort. Meeting other teams, seeing different kids, it was all a really fun experience to be able to share trivia with the people we love.”

Keeping score and not participating in the 16-question lightning round, which ended the final competition, was particularly stressful for her. “It definitely got nerve-wracking but once we started getting more questions right, the weight was lifted off our shoulders.”

Eighth-grader Chase Flaherty said, “It was a fun experience. I feel like it was a team effort. Everyone participated. It was really fun, but it was really stressful because it was back-and-forth and Lakeview (in the semi-final round against Weathersfield) was coming back toward the end but everyone had good sportsmanship.

Appearing in his first Prep Bowl, Dexter Wagley, seventh grade, echoed his teammates’ thoughts. “It was really enjoyable. I loved getting to hang out with my friends, and it’s all these cool questions. It was extremely stressful because there’s so many things that are similar for answers.”

Despite the pressure of needing to give correct responses within seconds because of time limitations, or before their opponent hits the buzzer and answers, all three relished being a part of the 2026 Junior High Academic Prep Bowl and want to be a part of the annual event in the future.

Their overall positive experience coincides with what the TCESC, which hosted the event, aims to promote with teams at every grade level.

“We want our younger students to gain experience and confidence,” Jaclyn Bingham, supervisor of gifted and talented at TCESC, said.

“Our Prep Bowl provides a safe place for students to take risks as they make best guesses at difficult questions. They are learning to work collaboratively and positively together as a team, to communicate well with each other and demonstrate good sportsmanship. We want this to be a time where they can put themselves out there, make educated guesses, be wrong and still be supported by their teammates and families, to develop resiliency.”