Hurricane Bowl: Long Beach team tops in 5 states

OCEAN SPRINGS — Long Beach High School students will compete for a national title in ocean science knowledge after beating 21 other teams from five states.

Mississippi teams took four of the top five places out of 22 teams from Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Officials said it was the biggest group of Hurricane Bowl contestants since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

The quiz contest formally known as the Central Gulf Coast Regional Ocean Sciences Bowl has been held at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory’s Marine Education Center since 1998, director Chris Snyder said.

“It gives us great exposure among high school students who are interested in science, particularly ocean sciences,” Snyder said. “They come here, and it gives us a chance to check them out and them a chance to check out what we have here.”

A number of Hurricane Bowl competitors have returned to the University of Southern Mississippi facility for graduate school, he said.

The Long Beach High School “A” team won and will compete with 24 other regional winners in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, scheduled April 20-22 in Baltimore. Teams from Poplarville High won second and third place, and Bay High took fifth. James S. Rickards High School of Tallahassee, Fla., took fourth place.