Quiz Bowl members reap rewards

Quiz Bowl members carefully ponder a question as the proctor waits for an answer at theSacramento Fall Tournament at Rio Americano High School on Saturday, Sept. 13.
Quiz Bowl members carefully ponder a question as the proctor waits for an answer at the Sacramento Fall Tournament at Rio Americano High School on Saturday, Sept. 13.

By Krystal Lau,

Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

Memorizing sheer numbers of science, pop culture, history, literature and math facts, the DHS Quiz Bowl club ranks nationally and competes in local, regional and national tournaments.

Competing on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Rio Americano High School tournament in Sacramento, Quiz Bowl members showed that they have a promising year ahead of them.

Members practice extensively prior to tournaments, allowing them to be competitive with other teams. President and senior Alex Chen feels that the frequent practice pays off.

“We’ve done a lot of practice; all of us meet to practice weekly on Thursdays. Personally, I’ve been reading a lot of Wikipedia and trying to practice as much as possible. I think many of my teammates are doing the same because we’re all very competitive; we’re all trying to do well,” Chen said.

An online application called “Protobowl” also helps members practice. Many study before tournaments using this website, which replicates questions that may appear during tournaments.

Junior Henry Zhang finds it an integral part of his studying process leading up to tournaments.

“I used [Protobowl] for a few days before the tournament to prepare,” Zhang said. Zhang feels confident about his chances, and believes his team will do well as a whole this year.

“Everyone supports each other and we cheer each other on,” Zhang said. “My favorite part of Quiz Bowl is the rush. I mean just being in the room and competing–it’s a good feeling when you can get a question right. You have this overwhelming surge of adrenaline when you hit the buzzer, it’s just like ‘oh man I got it, I got it.’”

Each round of Quiz Bowl is comprised of 20 toss-up questions. If one team gets a toss-up question correct, they receive the opportunity to answer three bonus questions.

In regard to the September 13 tournament, Chen believes the DHS team could work on improving their bonus question scores.

“Our performance is okay; I think we could do better on the bonus questions and get more bonuses, but so far everything’s turned out pretty well,” Chen said.

It’s not just about points, however; many members attribute their love of Quiz Bowl to the friends they make while on the team. Senior Bijan Varjavand has made lasting friendships through competing.

“I’ve met friends through Quiz Bowl; definitely through teams you get a lot of team bonding because you’re trusting each other to study specific areas,” Varjavand said.

“The people on my team practiced really hard even though there wasn’t much time and we learned a lot and I’m really impressed with how much they’ve grown in just the past week,” he added.

“We’re a tight group and we hang out a lot,” Chen said. “And also we gain a lot of knowledge about history, science, literature; that actually comes up in our classes a lot […] we get a lot of knowledge that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”

Knowledge was the pull factor for sophomore Jasper Murphy, who came originally for his friends, but feels he has learned a lot “about subjects that [aren’t] normally taught in school” through the experience.

Chen believes that anyone can and should join Quiz Bowl.

“Quiz Bowl is one of those clubs on campus that you actually have a lot of fun at; I think that it’s a really rewarding experience, because you have a lot of fun, you’re playing a game, and at the same time you’re also gaining a lot of knowledge. And you make friends, we come out together at tournaments and hang out,” Chen said.

Students interested in joining Quiz Bowl can sign up and attend practice at lunchtime on Wednesdays in S-7.

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