Quiz Bowl is my favorite club in the high school. Last year I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but as the season went along, I ended up loving Quiz Bowl! Everyone involved in the club loves Quiz Bowl so much, and it’s fun to be in a group that everyone loves. Every single match is exciting. I’m so proud of our group for winning three matches already! Our only loss was to Ashland 25-30. The Quiz Bowl team has come a long way since last year. We lost a lot of matches last year, so it’s great to start the season off as well as we have. We have a lot more team chemistry this year, which is great to see. A Quiz Bowl day is a good day!
Mr. Stark came to watch a Quiz Bowl match after school, and he said, “I loved it! I didn’t know you could watch the Quiz Bowl matches.” It was amazing to interview the principal and have him so intrigued by Quiz Bowl. I could tell he genuinely enjoyed watching the match and was so supportive of the team. When I asked him what the most interesting thing he learned from watching Quiz Bowl, he responded with, “The varying questions. I’m a math, science, tech-ed guy so I knew the answer to the questions about catapults!” When I asked Mr. Stark if he would watch another Quiz Bowl match in the future he said, “I would! I wish I could have made it to more.” The most wholesome thing about the interview was when he showed me a highlighted schedule pinned to his wall.
Each match has 40 questions in total. The matches are held virtually through the black smartboard. A moderator gives the questions to the teams. The “home team” receives the first question, and kicks off the match. Each question is worth 5 points. If your team gets the question wrong, you get -5 points. If your team passes the question, your team doesn’t lose any points; if the other team guesses the answer correctly, they get 5 points. Your team only gets 15 seconds to answer, but your team can ask to repeat the question to give your team more time to think. If the question gets passed, the opposing team doesn’t have the ability to repeat the question. A spokesperson is the only person who has the ability to say the team’s final answer. The moderator for Hayward is Egan Young.
The best strategy is to have everyone be quiet and think to themselves the first time the question is asked, and then have the moderator repeat the question. When the moderator repeats the question for the second time, the team should discuss their answer.
I interviewed some fellow “Cane Brains.” Lynsey Master said she joined because she likes the treats before the matches and likes Mrs. Duffy. Sami Diedrich really likes trivia and wishes she “could do trivia for a living.” Sami Diedrich said her favorite part about Quiz Bowl was the, “quick whispered discussions and how Kaitlyn comments on how anyone with glasses is smart.” Everyone is very humble, but when I asked what they added to the team, Sami responded, “Everyone has their own specialties. Egan is really good at geography.” Clara Spraggins said that our biggest competitor this year is, “no one, because we’re awesome.” Sami said, “I sorta thought it would be everyone because of last year, but we’re on a winning streak.” Go Cane Brains!