The 2013-2014 campaign has been a successful one for the Wauseon High School quiz team. The Team completed the “Trifecta”, winning the league title, in which they were undefeated throughout the season, winning the double elimination Fulton County Tournament, and also winning the round robin NBAL quiz tournament. The team recently added another accomplishment to their resume, as they have moved on to the regional competition which will be held on April 12th in Tiffin.
The quiz contests test competitors on ten different categories, including American literature, mathematics, world history, fine arts, life science, world literature, U.S. government, physical science, world geography, and U.S. History. Teams get individual questions, toss-up questions, compete in “alphabet rounds” where answers will start with a given letter of the alphabet, and then a 20 question lighting round, where either team can buzz in with an answer. Team coach Ami Richer stated that there is indeed some strategy when trying to get the right lineup of players in to the contest at the right time. “You clearly have students that perform better in the lightning round or in geography or math.” said Richer “You have to try to put the team members in during the half when those types of questions are asked. You can only substitute players at the mid point, after the alphabet round”.
The team consists of members Justin Mourguet, Brenden Kost, Derrick Kamp, Jameson Kamp, Caleb Blanchong, Sean Baker, Danny Hench, Josh Benarth , Olivia Rodriguez, Alex Wenger and Lacotus Spiess-Ebersole. While there is almost an infinite amount of topics that could be brought up and questions that could be asked, Richer says that the team is careful not to try and overwhelm themselves with preparation, and instead relies on the education the students have received throughout their schooling careers. “We hold practices once a week on Wednesday mornings and they occasionally look through a study guide I have prepared, but honestly we don’t prep much. We practice some techniques so that we follow all the rules well and have our timing down. Many of the questions are sorts of questions that you just know it or don’t. Otherwise, I feel our school does a pretty good job preparing our students for the categories, especially sciences, history, and government.”
The Indian’s quiz team now has the opportunity to advance to the state competition if they can perform well at the regional level. The team has been able to reach the state competition before, but due to conflicting schedules, things didn’t quite play. “We did get to the state level once before.” Richer stated “Unfortunately that year the state tournament was held the same day as prom about two hours away, so we didn’t get a chance to go. I had two girls on the team that year that were very key players that didn’t want to miss any part of prom, which of course is very understandable.”
Coach Richer expressed her pride and enthusiasm about the team’s success this year “I’m proud of this team. Even team members that might not get any playing time for a particular match are very supportive of those playing. Our quiz team is a good representation of the education happening in Wauseon Schools.”
Good luck to Coach Richer and all members of the Wauseon quiz team as they compete for a chance to move on to the state competition!