With six returning players, the Montgomery County Scholar Bowl team is setting its sights on bigger and better things this year.

Juniors Brendan Craven, Beckham Cothren, Landon Pottebaum, Jordan Hicks and Bryson Nichols and sophomore Emily Clark are the returning players for the Wildcats and will look to lead their team to Eastern Missouri Conference and district championships. MCHS has won six conference titles and four district crowns in its history.

“Expectations are high,” Pottebaum said. “Hopefully, we’ll meet those expectations.”

Last year, the Wildcats were eliminated by North Callaway in the semifinals of the EMO tournament at Wright City. They led by 10 points going into the final category before North Callaway rallied to win the match and advance to the finals.

Later in the season, MCHS was eliminated in district play at Hallsville.

“We took like a four-week break,” Cothren said. “We went to Hallsville ready to go and we got our butts handed to us all day.”

This year, the Wildcats will compete in a tournament at Moberly a week before districts, which is scheduled for April 13 at a site that has yet to be determined. MCHS will compete in the Class 4, District 6 tournament that will include Bowling Green, Centralia, Hallsville, Macon, Moberly, Palmyra, Winfield and Wright City.

MCHS will have a home match at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 17 against Van-Far, Wright City and North Callaway. The event was originally scheduled for Jan. 9, but was postponed due to weather issues.

The Wildcats also will have matches at Van-Far (Jan. 23), Wellsville-Middletown (Feb. 6) and Silex (Feb. 20) and will compete in the EMO tournament on March 5 at Bowling Green and the Mexico Tournament on March 9.

MCHS began its season on Dec. 1 by competing in a tournament at Washington High School. Craven said he enjoyed playing in his first tournament.

“It was pretty wild,” Craven said. “I had a lot of fun asking a ton of questions.”

Pottebaum and Cothren are back after earning all-EMO honors a year ago. They were among the top eight scorers in the preliminary round of the 2023 conference tournament.

MCHS has 15 players on its roster. Sophomores Aiden Christian, Nora Eoff, Rachel Harris, Kendrick Lewis and Anthony Palmer and freshmen Dakota Marion, Olivia Spurgeon, Grace Thier and Luke Eggen round out the team.

Eggen said he was happy that he won a spot on the varsity.

“It’s pretty fun having this honor and being able to be here,” he said. “It’s kind of cool to be a freshman on varsity and have all of this competition. I have a bit more experience than the other freshmen because I was doing this in seventh and eighth grade, also.”