By: Lily Amback / News & opinion editor
For those who dream of being on a game show, buzzing in after a question, the joyous feeling of getting an answer right, quiz bowl may be the perfect activity.
“I think it’s really fun to see what are all the different things that people in your team know and how much you don’t know that maybe other teams do,” senior Blake Hurst said.
Hurst is among four other seniors (Erin Kihiu, Nate Hulet, Molly Dunn and Lillian Wooton) and two sophomores (Jonah Hughes and Eli Schultz) on the Quiz Bowl team coached by English teacher Madonna McGovern.
Although there are seven team members, only four to five play each round with substitutions coming in-between rounds.
“You work as a team to answer just random trivia questions, you buzz in and there are different rounds. So, the first round is kind of like anyone can buzz in and you can’t talk to your team members. And then, second round is a bonus round,” McGovern said. “You have to buzz in and get it correct in order to get the bonus question. You can talk to each other if you get the bonus question. And then our third round is the minute quiz, where you’re given categories and then you decide what category you want, and you have a minute to answer as many questions correct. There are 10 questions. Then, you get to stick the other team with a category topic, and then the last round is the experts. They’re supposed to be harder questions and they’re worth more points.”
Although they have not won many, the Quiz Bowl team has still been doing exceptionally well at their competitions.
“Our third match, though, we almost won, it came down to a tiebreaker. And I was missing some of my key members. So I felt really good about how they did with some people not there. And it was against a team that historically has been tough, and so I was still proud of them,” McGovern said.
Their goal is not only to win, but to grow closer as friends.
“I think expectations are more just to have fun, have a good time. I think we hope to win a few more matches and hopefully get closer as friends,” Kihiu said.
After their third match where they almost won against Shelbyville, the team went on to compete in the HHC tournament. There, they went 1-6 with a win over Delta.
“I really enjoy the competitions,” Kihiu said. “We have an inside joke going where we use different names sometimes on our name tags, and so that’s really fun. And then whenever we do a really good job, it feels really good to do well.”
