We are so proud to announce that our Sister Elaine Freund, ASC is being inducted into the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Sister Elaine has been a Scholastic Bowl Coach for 34 years and counting. In 1987, she re-started the program that had grown dormant at Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo, Illinois, where she taught from 1975 to 1978, and from 1984 to 2013. The Gibault program has been going strong ever since.
Scholastic Bowl is an academic team competition of varsity, junior varsity and freshmen teams that quizzes students in math, science, literature and social sciences. The idea is to play as many schools in the state as possible in the academic year. Last year, Gibault had 35 wins and 4 losses when the pandemic cut the season short. In her 34 years as Scholastic Bowl coach, her team placed in the state’s Top Four three times.
Sister Elaine is one of three coaches being honored in 2021. A celebration is scheduled for 2022. She said the recognition has her feeling “over the moon.”
Asked why she’s stayed with Scholastic Bowl for 3 ½ decades, she said, “I always say ‘yes’ year by year because I see a good group of freshmen coming in that I want to see succeed into their senior year.”