The Grand County Middle School team proved a dominant force in a pair of southeastern Utah Quiz Bowl competitions. The score tells the story, with GCMS students outscoring their opponents 3-1. GCMS took first place in a competition in Green River April 15, and they repeated the feat April 20 at Grand County High School. In both contests the students faced familiar faces in the final rounds, where they bested the freshman team from Grand County High School, which took second both times. Photo by Ron Georg
The questions may have been trivial, but the outcome of this month’s southeastern Utah Quiz Bowl competitions was substantial for Grand County students – Grand’s middle school and high school took first and second place, respectively, in two separate contests held in Green River and Moab, April 15 and 20.
The format for the contest is simple. Two teams of four face each other across tables on a stage, and an announcer reads questions on a variety of topics. The first team to hit a buzzer gets to answer; correct responses earn points, incorrect answers lose points.
Grand County High School dominated the tournaments, up to a point. In both Green River and Moab, GCHS students Matz Indergard, Hadley Schank, Riley Manley, and Udit Bhavsar won their first three games, advancing undefeated to the finals.
Meanwhile, Grand County Middle School representatives Kamron Call, Donna Snow, Wesley Rodda, and Mary Rice struggled a bit. They lost one game in each tournament, and they had to compete from the losers’ bracket. Still, they fought back each time to make it to the final rounds.
In both Green River and Moab, the middle school students would see familiar faces in the final round – ninth graders from Grand County High School. While the GCHS students were undefeated, 6-0, against other schools, they couldn’t top the GCMS quiz bowlers. The middle school students won all four times they met during the two tournaments.
They weren’t easy wins. The final round for the varsity teams in the Grand County High School came down to the last question, GCMS coach Mike Estenson said.
The schools field separate teams because the tournaments are open to students in grades six through nine. That allows middle schools that go through ninth grade to include their entire student bodies, while it also means some high schools can field a team of freshmen.
Both schools have deep rosters, with junior varsity squads and alternate competitors. Estenson said he uses sample questions from past Quiz Bowl contests to hold intramural contests to identify the strongest competitors, who end up on the varsity team.
While the high school has a number of competitive academic programs, including debate and Sterling Scholars, they’re not as common in the lower grades. “It’s good to see the kids who don’t get a chance to shine normally have that opportunity,” Estenson said. “It gives them an avenue to show their talents.”
Estenson said he plans to participate again next year, along with high school coach Jeff Richards. Then they’ll be able to figure out if coaching or the roster accounts for the eighth grade upset. Estenson would probably concede the latter, as he credited GCMS competitor Mary Rice with a high percentage of correct responses. With Rice at the high school next year, the 2010 GCMS team may not be able to beat the ninth graders.
For her part, Rice said the victory goes to the entire team. “It was everybody,” she said. “Cameron answered all the questions that required more common sense, Wesley had current events and sports, and Donna helped cover everything else – she knew just about everything. We all have strengths and weaknesses.”
Since Rice doesn’t watch television, she doesn’t see as much news as some of the others, so it’s not surprising current events aren’t on her list. Still, information sources are shifting, and broadcast television may be behind the curve for many kids.
“We pulled up ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ on Wesley’s iPod,” Rice said of the team’s preparations. “Or you go and Google, ‘random, useless trivia,’ and look up some good stuff. Like I learned the average person inhales over 80 spiders a year in their sleep. That didn’t come up in the Quiz Bowl.”
It won’t come up on any of the requirements for federal No Child Left Behind testing, either, but Estenson said that’s not a problem for these high-achievers. He said these are students who’ve already mastered the curriculum, and participating in the Quiz Bowl helps them expand on that.
“It’s a chance for kids to go a little further,” he said. “It does reflect the curriculum, and it supplements it.”