As the last days of summer waned, students in three high schools from San Bernardino County, California were heating up the Vocabulary Bowl leaderboards.
Located less than ten miles apart on the map, the Rialto Knights, the Cougars from Rancho Cucamonga High, and the Etiwanda Eagles each launched a September word surge that catapulted them to a field of the top schools in the nation. It was anyone's guess in the early weeks where these local rivals would rank in a national competition with powerhouse schools all over the map.
For days and weeks, dedicated students in all these schools kept at it — answering questions, improving their vocabulary, and mastering words. Finally, it was the Eagles who soared to number one with a 6,000 word lead that earned them the title "North American Champion" for September, as well as California State Champion. Pretty impressive for a team that just got their game on a few months back.
Since bursting onto the national Bowl scene in June of this year, the Eagles have been on an upward trajectory. Etiwanda's back-to-school word learning onslaught in August (22,000 words mastered) led them to 3rd place overall that month. Then the Eagles doubled that effort in September and fought their way to first with 46,599 words mastered. Among other achievements, they have twice made it to the ranks of North American Top Ten, an achievement awarded each month to schools with the most words mastered.
This was a school-wide effort, with over twenty teachers creating classes and encouraging their students to play, compete and learn. It's also just the beginning for Etiwanda High, whose success as a newcomer to the Bowl just goes to show you that no matter what you've seen on the leaderboards in the past, there is new talent emerging all the time.
It's also the dawn of a geographical hotbed of Vocabulary Bowl action that has suddenly positioned these three California schools as big-time contenders in the 2016-2017 season. Now, how far will they go, and where is the next competitive cluster going to storm onto the national word-learning map?
