The announcer reads off the final question. The clock counts down: 5…4…3…2… senior Lily Schmidt slaps the buzzer. Urgently, she announces her answer, waiting for the final score.
“You will see shaking knees or hear heavy breathing if it’s a close game. I think the best thing to do is breath slowly and speak calmly. Having a trigger finger with the buzzer is bad, but so is stammering over the answer,” Schmidt said.
The quiz bowl team finished off their Macomb county league season on Jan. 13 with their 13th victory. Concluding the season, the seven person team, comprised of sophomore Annalisa Yepko, juniors Adam Misch and Connor Cummins, seniors Aaron Sieracki, Adam Sieracki, Connor Schury and Schmidt, ranked second place among the 15 schools in the league.
“We did well against IB (Utica Academy for International Studies), but we still lost. It’s always a bit nerve wracking when we go up against a team like that,” Schury said.
Throughout the season, the team lost one match and it was to IB. It was a close game with an end score of 380 to 430, according to Coach Glen Kolbicz.
“I think the best experience I’ve had has been this year’s collective league competitions. We just kept winning and finding that roll; and after every game there was this awesome sense of teamwork and accomplishment,” Schmidt said.
The team was one of seven Michigan schools to make a list of the top 200 schools in the nation, ranking 140. It has been 15 years since the school’s quiz bowl team earned as much success, according to Kolbicz.
“Listening, learning and being surprised about how much the students actually know always amazes me. I’m not a math person and when they can get these math questions within seconds, and I don’t even understand the question, it always amazes me,” Kolbicz said.
The team also placed first in a smaller tournament created by the school league; earning them a spot at the state competition in April at Michigan State University (MSU).
“I can’t wait,” Schury said. “I want to do more trivia, prepare for States more and keep an eye on my competition.”
Two to three times a year, the team travels to MSU for advanced competitions. They also visited The University of Michigan (U of M) for a competition and ranked third out of seven other teams.
“I am very proud of them. They did an excellent job and they are very committed,” Kolbicz said. “We’ve gone to a tournament at MSU and U of M this year and we’ve gotten excellent comments from other schools, the people running the tournament, people reading the questions and the judges in the room have made good comments about our team members.”
In order to prepare for weekly matches, the team gathers for practices every Tuesday for two hours after school. On top of group practices, members hold mock games, review school curriculum, study through books and online sources. Students also practice speed rounds to help eliminate pressure during the games, according to Schury.
“It’s fun having the team environment and the competition, but also having the knowledge there,” Kolbicz said, “It helps them learn more things they might not have been exposed to. Exposing people to what they didn’t know about makes it fun, too.”
The quiz bowl team seeks more members to sustain their future success. Three years ago, a school team didn’t exist due to lack of participants. The current members built their team from the ground up, according to Sieracki.
“It’s fun and I want to do it next year,” Misch said. “It’ll be a lot harder next year, because the seniors are really smart and leaving. We are going to have to work harder next year to try to be as good as we are this year.”