ROSEMONT, Illinois — On the weekend of Saturday, April 23, Evergreen High School joined 109 of the top quiz bowl teams from small public high schools at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare for the 2022 Small School National Championship Tournament to determine who was the best.
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture.
The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas.
Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.
The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, consisted of Jacob Goodson, Caleb Grasser, Brock Patrick, Grey Roesti, and Ben Saunders. The team was coached by Bill Blanchong.
Evergreen was one of 16 Ohio teams competing at the national championship. Evergreen finished the preliminary rounds with a 3-7 record.
There were some tense moments. Evergreen suffered a heartbreakingly narrow loss to Itawamba Agricultural from Fulton, Mississippi, 240-235 during round 9 and suffered another narrow loss to Zane Trace, 145-130 during round 10.
Evergreen was on the brink of elimination when they defeated Martin County from Inez, Kentucky in round 8 to stay alive.
Unfortunately, they lost to Itawamba Agricultural from Fulton, Mississippi, ending their shot at the playoffs.
The Traditional Public Schools Division champion was Glasgow High School Glasgow, Kentucky. The Open Division champion was the A team from St. Mark’s School of Texas Dallas, Texas.
The 2022 Small School National Championship Tournament (Traditional Public Schools Division)’s field featured 55 teams from 16 states.