Quiz Bowl: You May Not Win But You Should Always Have Fun

This last Saturday, here at my school, there was a quiz bowl competition. There were 29 teams. This selection of teams consisted of novices but most were experienced teams who have attended nationals and many who have won. So the competition was a fierce one. I decided to make sure that all my students attended at least one competition so we took 6 teams of 4. Our strongest players paired up with some of our less strong players. At the time this seemed a good strategy.  I was told as many teams possible to try and get another team qualified for nationals, we have one already. But alas, this was not a successful strategy. We had two teams make the top 16, or finals. These two teams tied for 9th place out of 29 teams. Not bad at all. But as a team they were very disappointed.

The next tournament is February 11th, I will take three teams of my strongest players. A different strategy. We will see how that plays out. I told my team every time you play you gain experience. This is very competitive and you need to have fun and if we qualify we qualify. No worries. But there is still a lot of pressure. We won many games and we lost many as well. But it all adds up to experience which will make them better players. Quiz Bowl is an amazing tournament. Today, in the mail I just got an invitation to a Junior National Academic Championship Tournament in New Orleans so that was exciting. It is a Quiz bowl competition just a different tournament series. AND our stats are high so we may even get a wild card spot at nationals. So we are doing great but when you lose you get to feeling defeated. I can't wait to tell my team we have been invited to another tournament.

This is one of many competitions I mentor but by far the most challenging and rewarding. So if you are thinking about starting a team, I would. It is an amazing way to build relationships with students and parents and help promote your school.