Knowledge, not glory, drives Kamiak High School champions

MUKILTEO — When they emerged from the classroom, a state championship trophy in their hands, just about everyone else had long since headed home.

The hallways of Camas High School in southwest Washington were nearly empty after a final grueling round of questions.

That lack of fanfare by no means diminished the excitement of the six Kamiak High School students who won the state 4A Knowledge Bowl championship.

Theirs was always an anonymous yet rewarding pursuit.

Somewhere around Vancouver, as they headed north on I-5 in a Mukilteo School District van, the students cranked up Queen’s “We Are The Champions” until the windows rattled.

They weren’t singing at the tops of their voices.

“Mostly we were sort of sitting in there basking in it,” said Stephen Kirkpatrick, a junior who served as the team captain. “Quite frankly, I never envisioned this, but I could tell my freshman year this (team) would be something special.”

Coach Bill Costello had to close his cell phone and stop his conversation as the music blared.

He was by no means angry. Mainly, he was proud.

“It is always exciting to work with students who are excited and focused,” the English teacher said.

Focused, indeed.

The Kamiak kids are a bright bunch whose members are trying to decide whether they will attend Harvard, Yale, MIT, Northwestern, Duke or Stanford next fall. Two members — Annissa Alusi and Jennifer Xia — are National Merit Finalist winners, having scored among the top students in the country on a national exam.

“Be it coaching or teaching or advising an activity, the most fun is when a sense of purpose is felt collectively and a goal is being attained,” Costello said. “Not surprisingly, when the rare moment comes along in which all those factors come into play and you get to be a small part of the interplay of brilliant, enthusiastic minds, you simply count your blessings and sit back and enjoy the ride.”

Costello did enjoy the ride from the first practice in the fall to rolling into the Kamiak parking lot after dark March 22. His team edged schools from Federal Way and Tacoma for the state championship.

His squad recorded the highest point total of any team in the past five years in the state championship.

Over the course of the day, they faced roughly 350 questions over six rounds.

Hundreds of teams across the state competed throughout the year. The 54 highest finishing 2A, 3A and 4A schools then competed in the state Knowledge Bowl tournament.

The Kamiak team included seniors Alusi, Xia, Lester Black and Josh Chao and juniors Ross Shkurinskiy and Kirkpatrick. The team finished sixth last year.

Knowledge Bowl, which started in Colorado in 1978, is an academic contest similar to the old General Electric College Bowl. It includes a series of oral rounds and a written round.

Questions cover a variety of subjects, but there are no textbooks to scour beforehand.

Each Kamiak student brought a strength to com­pe­titions.

Xiu was strong in math, government and Shakespeare; Alusi in literature and music and Black in art, biology, government and philosophy.

Kirkpatrick brought expertise in geography, history and government; Chao in math and music and Shkurinskiy in history and geography.

“They are all great in their own way,” said Shkurinskiy, who emigrated from Ukraine when he was 5 and made the state finals in the National Geography Bee twice when he was in middle school.

Kirkpatrick, 17, and Shkurinskiy, 16, said they always enjoyed the weekly practices where they could go on far-reaching academic tangents that their teammates would always appreciate.

“The whole concept of Knowledge Bowl is just really random,” Shkurinskiy said. “Being off topic is like the most help.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.