The National History Bee and Bowl was pleased to visit Barry Briganti and Chaminade-Madonna High School in Hollywood, FL for the Florida State Championships on Saturday, February 18, 2012. This tournament featured one of the highest turnouts for the Bee that we have seen, with 67 students total between the Varsity and JV divisions, including our Southern Florida Middle School regional champion!
The JV competition was so large that special permission was given to hold a full 10-person final round. Students from Ransom Everglades, Chaminade-Madonna, Archimedean Upper Conservatory, and South Fork all qualified to our National Bee on Sunday, April 29 by making the playoffs. From there, the field narrowed to five as Jack Davis, Mark LeBeau, Dante Bolzan, A. J. Washio, and Alex Petrus answered 3 questions each in the first phase to advance. In the second phase, Dante was the first to secure his place in the final after 17 questions, while Mark answered questions 19 and 20 to make his way to the final. Mark raced out to a 3-0 lead in the last phase, but Dante caught up to him and eventually won the Florida JV Bee 5-4.
The Varsity field qualified 13 students to Nationals from Ransom Everglades, Chaminade-Madonna, and John Ferguson. The final 10 were all from Ransom or Chaminade. In a 22 question first phase, the advancing students were Cole Press, Jimmy Kardis, Alexander Boucourt, Faizan Kothari, and Cyrus Moradi. The latter two were the #9 and #10 seeds! In the second phase, Faizan continued his Cinderella run by answering 4 of the first 11 questions. Top seed Cole joined him three questions later. The final phase held to seed; Cole beat Faizan 5-2 to defend his 2011 Florida Varsity Bee title.
| Date | February 18, 2012 |
| Registration Deadline | February 17, 2012 7:00pm EST |
| Address |
500 East Chaminade Drive, Hollywood, FL
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| Coordinator |
Greg Bossick greg@historybowl.com |
| Director | Greg Bossick |