TROY—One of the greatest seasons in Troy High School history isn’t taking place on a field, a court, a track or a mat.
In fact, it’s taking place in classrooms throughout Southwest Ohio.
The Troy High School Quiz team recently wrapped up its regular season with an 86-65 win over Tippecanoe, allowing the Trojans to claim the Miami Valley League championship and finish with a perfect 18-0 record. Troy will now compete at the state tournament in April.
It’s the first undefeated season in the 21 years THS history teacher Steve Becker has coached the team, and while records prior to his arrival are hard to come by, it’s quite possibly the first time in school history the quiz team has gone undefeated.
“This team is the most complete team I have ever had,” Becker said. “I have had individual players in the past who were better than any single member of this year’s team, but I have never had a team who together was this strong in every subject. More importantly, they really like each other and like spending time together. For them, working on Quiz Team isn’t working, it’s having fun with friends.”
Academic Quiz Team is open to all Troy High School Students. It tests knowledge in academic subjects such as math, science, literature, social studies and fine arts. Teams are made up of four participants who compete against each other in buzz-in and paper-and-pencil questions. Troy has both a varsity and junior varsity teams.
“What I like about Quiz Team is the people,” junior Ava Scheerer said. “It’s a welcoming community that wants to have fun and learn. We put a lot of work into it. In addition to practice everyone plays about 30 minutes of Protobowl a day. We have a good time researching things and telling each other about them.”
Becker said it’s important for all team members to a wide breadth of knowledge, but also to have certain areas of expertise that will complement their teammates.
“Participants usually have a subject or two they focus on,” he said. “We usually have a fine arts person or a literature person or a math and science person and a general knowledge person. We then use old questions to see what comes up often and study those items. For example, our literature person studies Russian Literature because those questions come up again and again. Our social studies person would study presidents and amendments, as those come up often. They use Protobowl and other online testing and prep sites. We practice as a team twice a week to practice answering those questions and compete once a week.”
Junior Noah Carter agreed with Becker in that having students who can cover all the difference academic areas is critical in competition.
“All of our strengths cover each other’s weaknesses,” Carter said. “Quiz Team is 20 smart kids in a room trying to prove they are the smartest.”
Troy senior Nathan Mamitag said the best part of being on the Quiz Team is spending time with like-minded students.
“What I like about Quiz Team is getting to know other kids that have the same interest as me and hanging out with other kids,” Mamitag said. “Quiz Team is something I love doing. There is a rush that comes from knowing an answer. We are successful this year because our knowledge compliments each other.”
Senior Charles Wyatt had a much simpler answer when asked what he liked most about Troy’s Quiz Team.
“Winning,” Wyatt said. “When we can’t think of something we have each other to back us up and help.”
