The Sherrard Middle School team’s hard work that led to these lightning-fast responses all paid off when it won the West Virginia History Bowl at the West Virginia Culture Center in Charleston.

The team included eighth-grade students Allison McGraw, Ella Finley, Sarah Naome and Zoe Zervos. Teacher Jeff Stephens also helped coach the team.

Gatts said the students worked hard on studying for their competitions that began with the Marshall County Schools West Virginia History Bowl last November. Then they placed first at the Region VI WV History Bowl held in Wheeling. Winning the regional competition allowed them to enter the state quiz bowl.

Gatts noted some of the students actually began studying West Virginia history three years ago during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bowl starts out with a team round where hard questions are posed and the team can discuss their final answer before giving it.

“The second round is an exciting one because they get to have buzzers,” he said. “They get the questions ahead of time; there are about 2,000 of them.”

Having studied the questions and answers allowed for the ultra-quick answers in this round.

Gatts said the students are asked mostly about facts, but sometimes the questions require them to think on their feet.

“Some of the questions are really hard and intense; they ask what book a person wrote in a year,” he said.

Gatts said for the competition he also gives each team member a specific category to study: arts, sports, war and cities.

Gatts noted West Virginia’s history is interesting and wide-ranging. The students study about its beginnings all the way to contemporary leaders and even famous professionals who hail from the state such as actress Jennifer Garner.

“There are some very famous people from West Virginia who did interesting things. They can learn they can do the same things when they get older. I want them to be proud to be a West Virginian,” Gatts said.

“I hope they love the state so much they want to stay here,” he continued. “Unfortunately, a lot of kids leave. So if they’re proud of West Virginia, maybe they will consider staying around and building West Virginia as a better place.”

Zervos said she enjoyed the state bowl though at times it was “really stressful.”

“It was nerve-wracking but a lot of fun. I enjoyed it,” she said.

Zervos said it has been interesting learning about the state’s history and “all the people who did such amazing things.”

“It was really inspiring,” she said.

Zervos and her fellow teammates won money during the competition – $500 each. McGraw won an additional $300 for being named the bowl’s MVP. Zervos said she plans to put her winnings into her college savings account for the future. She thanked Gatts for preparing her team for the bowl.

Finley said getting ready for the bowl was a lot of work and at times “very stressful,” but it was also great to get on stage and create so many great memories.

“I had faith in our team,” she added. “I had faith we could win.”

Finley gave credit to her coaches and their team captain, Allison McGraw, as well.

She said for younger students thinking about trying the history bowl team they should give it a try.

“They should definitely do it. It was so much fun. It seems like a lot of work but it paid off in the end and I made friends,” she said.

Finley said she plans to put her earnings in a savings account and use it as needed and for her college fund.

“I want to thank our coach. He pushed us hard and it paid off,” Finley added. “We had such a great team. We would not have been able to win without our captain, Allison McGraw. She helped push us through.”

Gatts said the bowl was created in 2010 by Commissioner of the Division of Culture and History Randall Reid-Smith as a way to help bolster scores on the West Virginia Golden Horseshoe history test. He believes it has done that and more. He got to know the students and their families better than if they were just a student in his classroom.

“We became a family. They would stay after school a couple nights a week and every Saturday morning we would have food and laugh and sometimes they would argue,” Gatts said of the teammates. “At the end of the day, it brought all of us closer.”

Gatts has led five other history bowl teams to state titles; three at Cameron High School and two others at Sherrard Middle. He is a Moundsville resident and Class of 2000 graduate of John Marshall High School.