McLean’s Quiz Bowl state champions won 255-190 against a group of teacher volunteers today during Highlander Time Flex, with students spectating from the auditorium seats. The annual teachers versus students Quiz Bowl match is a way for the team to generate student awareness and grow their numbers. This year, the event was also a way to advertise the upcoming Trivia Night fundraiser on April12.
“Hopefully we introduce ourselves to people who have no idea what we do, and they see what it’s like, and hopefully there were some people out in the audience that were like, ‘oh, I knew that,’” physics teacher and Quiz Bowl advisor Jeffery Brocketti said. “If people are interested, then they’ll maybe consider joining us and being a part of the team.”
Questioned topics varied widely, from the beginning of the Cretaceous Period to the philosophies of John Locke. Round two was composed entirely of handwritten questions about 1990s popular culture in order to give teachers an advantage, and audience members were entertained by the Gen Z students mulling over the names of Nirvana albums and how the Foo Fighters emerged.
“We knew that if it was just like a normal game that the kids would win by a whole lot…even with [the ‘90s questions], the teachers just stayed even with the students,” Brocketti said. “It leveled the playing field, but it didn’t give as much of an advantage [to teachers] as we thought it would.
Despite the attempts to equalize the match through the ‘90s questions, the match ended in a decisive victory for the students, with both the audience and the teachers astounded at the breadth of student knowledge.
“I was really amazed at how much [the Quiz Bowl team] knew… I definitely felt like there were things I probably could have answered if I’d had a little bit more time to think, but they were very quick,” biology teacher Julia Murdock said. “It was a little intimidating, but it was also a lot of fun.”
Typically school sporting matches involve the physical body rather than the mind, and junior Quiz Bowl member Ryan McKenzie is hopeful that trivia can be just as engaging to the audience.
“Most of the other sports, like football, baseball, softball, are big spectator events where people go and watch it, and I think Quiz Bowl can be like that,” McKenzie said. “It’s just a really fun way of showing knowledge and building a community with your friends and just answering some fun questions.”
