Defiance and Shawnee took home top honors in the Western Buckeye League Scholastic Bowl Tournament held Friday, May 2, 2025, at The Ohio State University at Lima. Defiance swept its matches to win both the varsity and junior varsity competitions with Shawnee as runner up in both. This is the second year in a row that Defiance has won the varsity tournament.
The varsity team from Defiance included Christopher Brinkman, George English, Henry Hoffman and Jacob Schnitkey. The team finished with an 8-0 record. The varsity team from Shawnee included Evan Conley, Caiden Garlock and Ezra George.
The winning JV team from Defiance included Tristan Hamot, Max Keck-Priest, Jack Kost Kaden Salez and Zachary Wieland and finished with a 8-0 record. The JV team from Shawnee included Georgianna Damschroder, Caleb Fuller, Angie Karapondo and TamDuc Tran.
The Defiance coach is James Kerr and the Shawnee coach is John Young.
The WBL Scholastic Bowl All Tournament Team was chosen by the coaches and made up of one member from each school. The 2025 All Tournament Team members are Jeff Herbst from Bath, Tim Hiles from Celina, George English from Defiance, Leila Hannouz from Elida, Jackson Blue from Kenton, Noah Brinkman from Ottawa-Glandorf, Owen Bubp from St. Marys, Evan Conley from Shawnee and Graham Shively from Wapakoneta.
High school teams from around western Ohio went head-to-head in the round-robin scholastic bowl tournament. Varsity and junior varsity teams from Bath (Daniel Grime), Celina (Chris Wood), Defiance (James Kerr), Elida (Melody Morris), Kenton (Todd Daquino), Ottawa-Glandorf (Joe Jahnz), Shawnee (John Young), St. Marys (Chad Doll), and Wapakoneta (Adam Friemering) competed. Van Wert did not compete. Coaches’ names are in parentheses.
The competition is hosted and sponsored by The Ohio State University at Lima.
