With its championship win at the Frontier Athletic Conference Quiz Bowl the quiz bowl team from McClain High School in Greenfield proved itself worthy to play on a national stage. On April 27, the team will represent their school in a 150-team national competition: National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Small School National Championship Tournament.
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture. The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.
Greenfield McClain has attended the Small School National Championship Tournament once before. In 2017 it finished 3-6.
The SSNCT is the only quiz bowl national championship pitting small schools against each other. It has one division containing non-selective public schools with 500 or fewer students in their top three grades, and another division for other schools with 350 or fewer students in their top three grades. Last year’s tournament featured 96 public-school teams and 30 charter- and private-school teams from across the United States. Glasgow High School from Kentucky won the public-school championship and St. Mark’s School of Dallas, Texas won the charter- and private-school title.
Greenfield McClain may face familiar foes in Rosemont as Clermont Northeastern (from Batavia), Clinton-Massie (from Clarksville), and Miami Valley (from Dayton) will also be attending.
The team in the Traditional Public division will consist of Sam Colburn, Garett Cunningham, Griffin Foltz, Cody Lane and Brenton Louk. The team will be coached by Rachel Poynter.
Tournament results will be updated throughout the three days of competition at http://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-teams.jsp?tournament_id=8402 so everyone can follow along and see how the team does. You can also follow #ssnct on Twitter.
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, founded in 1996, organizes the premier middle school, high school, and college quiz bowl championships in North America. In addition to its national championships, NAQT provides questions to invitational tournaments, league championships, and television shows throughout the year. NAQT operates out of the Twin Cities and Kansas City, but its members mentor coaches, host tournaments, volunteer their services, and share their expertise across the United States.
Submitted by Dwight Kidder, National Academic Quiz Tournaments.
