North Hollywood High Team Makes Science Bowl Finals

A team from North Hollywood High School made it into the finals of the National Science Bowl Competition Sunday night in Chevy Chase, Md.

The five-member team will face 11 others from across the country today in an effort to go all the way to victory and break its second-place jinx; North Hollywood has finished second in the last two annual national competitions.

The San Fernando Valley team, which represents Los Angeles County, goes into the finals as a favorite. Because North Hollywood prevailed in Sunday’s double elimination competition--in which any team that lost twice was eliminated--it will start off today in the “winners bracket.”

“A team in the winners bracket can win the top prize if it wins its first three matches,” said Walter Zeisl, a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power official who accompanied the team to Maryland. DWP is the sponsor of the local science bowl competition.

If North Hollywood loses one of its first three matches, the team can still go on to win first place, but it would have to prevail in several additional rounds.

On Sunday, the competition began with 60 teams from 40 states. North Hollywood lost only once--to Newton North High School from a Boston suburb.

“But the team came back and beat Newton North in double elimination when it really counted,” Zeisl said.

In addition to Newton North, North Hollywood defeated teams from Natchitoches, La., and Reno, Nev., in the double elimination round.

The North Hollywood team members were elated Sunday evening, up to a point. “They were pretty excited, but they knew they still had some hard work in front of them tomorrow,” Zeisl said.

Today’s competition should be completed by about 9 a.m. Pacific time.

North Hollywood’s first match probably will be a nail-biter, pitting the Valley team against last year’s top winner, Montgomery Blair High School of Silver Springs, Md.

The members of the North Hollywood team are Daniel Bersohn, Nina Han, Tyler Rubin, Jackie Wong and Jeff Zira.

Han, who has already been accepted at Yale University, is the captain.