Last Saturday, the AMHS Academic Quiz Bowl Team was UNSTOPPABLE and won the Alpha Lambda Delta Challenge hosted by University of South Carolina in Columbia! After ten gruelling, high-scoring matches, Magnet went undefeated and took home the Championship trophy!  John McQueen and Kabir Zaman individually placed in the competition! The  power, motivation, and teamwork of these players is truly remarkable to witness. 

Say hello to the brainiest raptors on campus! The Academic team is a quiz bowl team that competes at both district and national levels (have any athletic teams even made it to state?) answering questions about categories such as history, english, all different types of math, science, sports, or even pop culture. Here are some examples of questions they may practice or be asked at competitions:

https://www.naqt.com/samples/hsnct.pdf

Although I have never been an active member, this club has always intrigued me. I tried to join in sophomore year for reasons limited to nothing but delusion, but ended up not going to any of the practices due to an inability to drive. When my friend Annika joined this year, I knew this was going to be my in. 

They use two rooms: Mrs. Etikerentse’s room and Mr. Garris’s room. Each room has a slightly different vibe- In Ms. E’s room it’s mostly friends just hanging out, whereas Mr. Garris’s room is dedicated to more serious practice for national competitions. However, members are free to go wherever they want. I liked being able to go back and forth and just observe. I think one of my favorite things to do is listen to smart people talk about smart stuff, and Academic team is the perfect place to do this. 

The vibe is very casual. The members were eating pizza which their entire budget gets spent on and just chatting with their friends. Annika Johnson rates the pizza a 6.5/10. They get prize money from winning competitions or getting second place. According to Ms. E “If they don’t win, they don’t get to eat.” Their money comes from winning the district competitions especially, and they win almost every single year. Despite the tasty pizza, most members have said it is this fun vibe that keeps them coming back. Peyton Schultz told me she “dragged” all her friends to join, which seems to have paid off for her as her friends Emma Fang and Lillian Osbone both said they like the environment. Amelia McMarlin likes that everyone there is friends, and many people know stuff you wouldn’t know. Maria Rutter knows a lot about music although she doesn’t compete. Andrew Angermeier knows a lot about the Spice Girls which he is apparently “never living down.”

The subject content is extremely varied. For just about every question that was asked, with the exception of one about Frozen Two, my initial reaction was “how do they know that?” They would switch from chemistry ionic bonds to ancient history at the drop of a hat -one about an Egyptian king robbing a tomb. There is everything from socialism to medieval literature. Even a couple about AP Seminar. Next, there are geometry trig questions and stuff about calculus that sounds like a different language. All stuff I lack the general IQ to understand. Needless to say, I was quite impressed! Most of the members have a subject category they specialize in. Coltrane Margosian specializes in geography and his friend Jessie Ross can answer questions about baseball. No one likes the sports questions though, ironic because it seems like their team is the best performing varsity sport at Magnet. When I was watching them practice, they seemed to like the historical questions best. Coltrane told me that the answer to most of the historical questions is “Charlemagne the Roman emperor.” Their collective favorite is funny pop culture questions; some members mentioned an Among Us question at nationals last year!

When I was there last Thursday, they were preparing for their first CCSD competition against Lucy Beckham and SOA which they hosted. In order to prepare, they use a website called QB reader where they can practice quiz bowl questions. I asked if it was possible to cheat the game and memorize all the questions ahead of time. Apparently this is impossible! There are usually two rounds of competition, each lasting forty five minutes and going until 7:45, meaning the members of Academic Team are the last people to leave school on these days. That means they are spending quite literally half of these days at school… I can’t imagine. I complained heavily about staying until six for two hours of cheer practice. Props to them though, because this stamina is impressive. They won this competition too! The Saturday after, the team went to USC for a tournament where they took first place! Seniors Kabir Zaman and John McQueen took fourth and tenth place, respectively. If they make it to nationals (it’s Academic Magnet- no shot they won’t), the team will travel to Atlanta to compete. Amelia McMarlin’s favorite memory was at nationals last year, where the team sang karaoke in the hotel and talked about who each member of the team would be if they were knights of the round table.

Their competitions will be every Thursday, with the final one on February 22nd. They will also be competing in a tournament at Porter-Gaud on February 24th along with states in April and nationals in May!

Here’s the roster:

Kabir Zaman (12)

Scarlett Rutter (12)

Maria Rutter (12)

Jessie Ross (12)

John McQueen (12)

Julia Gulledge (12)

Graysonn Goodier (12)

Bowen Gao (12)

Andrew Angermeier (12)

Nicholas Edwards (12)

Ava Trolley (12)

Amelia McMarlin (12)

Coltrane Margosian (12)

Annika Johnson (12)

Joshua McDowell

Finn Hayes (11)

Graham McGregory

Ethan McCleary

Emma Fang (11)

Nikki Wu

Sameen Basunia

Peyton Shultz (11)

Tennyson Broadhurst

Roger Shi

Lillian Osbon (11)

Lucas Oppelt