Quiz Team Wins County Championship
In the back row, from left to right, Logan Miscannon, Julia Balulis, James Malek, Stephen Comisac, Evan Woodward and Advisor Mr. Rhoads. In the front row, from left to right, Yseult Barbedette, Kaylee Becker, Cade Herndon, Evan Vidal and Katie Comisac. Senior Stephen Comisac said, “I’ve only been on the team for one year. My friends asked me to join and I thought it would be interesting. I always thought we had a pretty good chance of winning but I got pretty nervous in the final rounds. Now I’m just happy we get the day off to go to the capital. My favorite thing is being with my friends and there really isn’t much of a bad part.”
The Pottsville Area High School’s Quiz team participated and won in the County Championship. It was held at Penn State Schuylkill.
The quiz team is an academic competition where they play against other schools in the county. In normal years, they will also participate in tournaments hosted by schools in other areas of the state. The questions are trivia questions based on school subjects. It is very similar to Jeopardy, except that you don’t have to answer in the form of a question. Also, four people play on each team at a time.
Advisor William Rhoads said, “We felt really good going into the county championship. We thought we had a really good shot at winning the whole thing. We had a good first match, then a pretty bad second match that put us behind a little and made me a bit nervous. After that we played Blue Mountain and defeated them. Once we did that I knew we would win the whole thing. I was thrilled when we won and so were all of the players! It was a tremendous victory.”
Rhoads said, “I was the advisor about 10 years ago, but had to give it up due to other commitments. This is my second year back as the coach, though there was no league last year. So this is my first year back coaching with competitions. I do this because I am a very big fan of Jeopardy and trivia and enjoy sharing that with students who enjoy it as well.”
Senior Kaylee Becker said, “I joined the quiz team this year with a bulk of the members due to COVID stopping us last year. I really love trivia games and I have fun with quick-buzz knowledge. Watching our team compete and win the whole tournament was fulfilling, like all the work we put into this team meant something. I love how carefree and lighthearted we can be at practice and we all genuinely support one another. There are no downsides to quiz team. We all love doing it even if we aren’t all answering every question.”
Their next stop is the State Tournament in Harrisburg on April 29.