Liberty team headed to state Knowledge Bowl

SPANGLE – Liberty High School’s Civics team is on the rise, making waves as they advance to the state Knowledge Bowl championship in Wenatchee.

With their recent victory at the regionals, the team is poised to showcase their knowledge on government and general content against schools from across the state.

Susan Mattoon, grandmother to two Liberty students, expressed her admiration for the team’s dedication and intelligence.

“They are asked a bunch of questions about the government; it’s mind-boggling what these students know about the government,” she said. “ hese kids work so hard at being smart. Liberty won the regionals, and now its going to state at Wenatchee.”

“The Knowledge Bowl is a state competition; it’s put on by the local educational district,” team adviser Randy Degenhart said. “On Feb. 16, we had our regional knowledge bowl in Spokane. We are the second of the 1B teams. We beat all the 4A, 2A, and 1A schools as well.”

Degenhart emphasized the team’s triumph over much larger schools.

“We won against the 2B in the state last year, but this year we won the regionals,” he said. “We beat Ridgeline and University ... schools four times the size of Liberty.”

The coach highlighted the diverse content covered in the competition.

“I would say it’s general content related, so anything related to science history, art, math,” he said. “We scored the highest score of the last 40 years of any team in all of Eastern Washington in one of our rounds.”

The state Knowledge Bowl meet is March 23 at Wenatchee High School, 1101 Millerdale Ave.