February 2023 News

Ethics Bowl Team Runners-Up

Monday, February 6, 2023

Saturday, February 4, the Indiana Academy Ethics bowl team, consisting of seniors Kayra Karamanli and Kody Coyne and junior Aidan Tomlin, competed in the Indiana Regional Ethics Bowl competition at DePauw University in Greencastle. Mr. Josh Ruark and Dr. Dain Kavars took them down for what was a very long, but very rewarding day. The team left about 5:45 a.m. and returned around 10 p.m. The students had never participated in Ethics Bowl before and were competing against teams who had students with 2-3 years of experience. The students and sponsors weren’t sure what to expect but the team did a phenomenal job.

The competition consisted of 16 teams that competed in 3 rounds in the morning. The Academy was 2-1 in the morning rounds, and that was good enough to advance them into the top 8 for knockout rounds in the afternoon. They won their quarterfinal match and then faced Herron High School in the semifinals. This was the 9th year of the high school Ethics Bowl competition and Herron was the Indiana winner in 6 of the 8 years, including last year. Herron beat us in the morning rounds, but the Academy had an amazing semi-final round to knock out Herron. They faced off against Culver Academy in the final, whom they beat in a very close match in the morning rounds. Both teams did phenomenally in the final round. The judges’ decision was split 2-1, but Culver came out just on top.

Congratulations to Kayra, Kody, and Aidan on their hard work and great accomplishment. This team was formed after most teams had been practicing for 2-3 months. They walked in very inexperienced but surprised many schools with their performance.