Yesterday, I took my school’s winning OBOB (Oregon Battle of the Books) team to the regional meet.
I had a feeling right from October, when OBOB started, that this would be the team that I’d be taking to represent William Walker Elementary School. They’ve known each other forever and work well together. They also came in second at our school last year and ended that season saying that next year would be their year. They were right.Once they became school champs their rallying cry became “Bookmarks 2015”!!!
The regional meet began with preliminary pool play. There were 49 elementary teams, three teams to a room. In the room we play two matches. We lost the first match to West TV, only missing one question. The girls were a little down. They watched West TV play Metzger in the second match and their confidence buoyed. It was Metzger’s first year and they were decimated by West TV. On the third match in our pool Metzger rotated in their alternate and did better, but we still won rather handily. Final totals were West TV 100, William Walker 85, Metzger 55.
Going to the next round, the Sweet 16 is all about point totals. Only the top 16 teams go into the next round. From my experience at regionals over the years, I knew that West TV would be in for sure. I figured we had a 50/50 chance. We went to the cafeteria to wait for the results. It took almost an hour for all the results to be tabulated. Finally, the spokesman came out an announced the top 13 teams. West TV was #1 at the end of the first round. Then he said words none of us had ever heard before. “There is a 5-way tie for the last 3 spots.” He called those names in alphabetical order and William Walker was the last name he called. We cheered madly, then had to go in for the 5-way tie breaker.
The girls’ excitement was back. After drawing lots for positions, the spokesman began the tie breaking process. Coaches have to sit at the front of the room beside the moderator who reads the questions. This is excruciatingly painful. You watch your team (with whom you cannot communicate) and their parents, who are in as much agony as you are. At the end of the first tie breaking round, it was all tied up. By the end of the second round, two teams were eliminated and we were definitely going to the Sweet 16. Then there was one more round to determine our seed position. We came out on top so got the 14th seed spot. On to the next Battle.
By this time, the parents looked as drained as the girls were excited. By the end of the “In which Book” round, the score was tied. Unfortunately, the girls missed a question in the content round and lost, but we were all really proud of how well they did.
Bookmarks 2016!!!
booksandbassets 
Love the pic of your team! We used to do Battle of the Books in TX. My kids loved it. Unable to find anything like it in WA for middle schoolers. We did our own with an after school book club one year.
Congratulations to the team and to you. What an accomplishment. The team has every right to be proud of themselves.
I grew up attending school in Portland, Oregon, did my master’s degree in Portland (Lewis & Clark College), and my year of student teaching there, and somehow I’ve never heard of this event! It sounds awesome!! Can you please share a link or two with more info?
http://oboblsta.pbworks.com/w/page/5653620/FrontPage
Congratulations! What a group of winners! (You don’t have to finish in first place to be winners!) Think of the friendships, comeraderie and knowledge shared! And thank you for all the “extra” time that this takes YOU as well!
They may have missed a question, but they’re still winners! Sounds like a wonderful day. Here’s to books, good times with friends, and knowledge!