Huntington Quiz Bowl Impresses
Long Island
The high-flying Huntington High School Quiz Bowl team gave its Nassau and Suffolk opponents all they could handle during the five month season, compiling a strong record and finishing the playoffs with a No. 13 ranking. This year’s campaign saw 56 high schools enter competing teams.
Huntington’s varsity team is comprised of junior Steve Yeh and seniors Cole Blackburn, Tom Kopstein, Max Polster and Scott Venturino. Science teacher Dame Forbes coaches the squad. Faculty members Judyann Pazienza, Cathy Croke and Tara Fisher have also pitched in to help make the season a successful one.
Quiz Bowl teams consist of four players answering questions at a time with one substitute allowed. Competitions include four rounds. Huntington competes in the Western Suffolk division, which includes Half Hollow Hills East, Half Hollow Hills West, Commack, John H. Glenn, Harborfields, Northport and St. Anthony’s.
Huntington performed well at the Long Island regional playoffs at Plainview JFK. “The team was energized and excited to compete,” Ms. Forbes said. “The seniors will now make their exit and pass the baton to rising star Steve Yeh and our other talented underclassmen.”
The Huntington squad proved to be gritty competitors. “The team snuck into the playoffs,” said Mr. Blackburn, who was the in-game team captain. “At the playoffs, we went into a round robin with Half Hollow Hills East, Wheatley and the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway.” Huntington emerged with a No. 13 ranking out of the 20 playoff teams.
“Steve Yeh was a big contributor to our success as a team and was the team’s top scorer throughout the year even though he is the only non-senior on the varsity team,” Mr. Blackburn said.
Ms. Forbes said Quiz Bowl is a “fast-paced, quick thinking Jeopardy style competition, which covers a wide variety of academic and pop culture disciplines. The questions are curriculum and non-curriculum based and the goal of the team is to build teamwork, motivation and curiosity and foster a love for the game and learning in general.”
Many of Long Island’s top students annually compete in the Long Island Quiz Bowl regional initiative with their high school team. “The first round has 15 toss-up questions and each correct answer comes with one additional team bonus questions,” according to the regional website. “Collaboration is the key in round two, in which each team works together to answer five questions. Then the pace really heats up as round three is the lightening round with 10 questions in 60 seconds. Tensions grow even higher, if that’s possible, in round four, the high stakes round, in which teams are rewarded for their correct answers, bot lose points on incorrect buzzes.”
Huntington faced some high-powered competition over the past five months. “I’m proud that we were able to make it this far,” Mr. Kopstein said. Teams needed to be on top of their game from the first question at each meet.
Reaching the playoffs in the 56 high school strong field was an accomplishment and continuing on to notch a No. 13 ranking was a proverbial feather in Huntington’s cap. In addition to regular season meets, the team also entered invitational competitions.
“The team had great chemistry and picked up where we left off [last year] with a solid showing at the Columbia tournament,” Mr. Polster said. “We really worked well together as a team this year, which I think was a big factor in making the playoffs. It was a good run.”
Huntington team members complemented one another, with each bringing something to the table. “The team was exceptionally well-rounded this year,” Mr. Yeh said. “We were able to answer trivia questions ranging from Russian literature to modern-day pop culture to mathematical theorems. Though we were in a tough division with top-ranked teams, we were still able to make it to the playoffs. It was a truly unforgettable and great experience to be a part of the Quiz Bowl team.”
An increasingly competitive Huntington squad made its veteran foes stand-up and take notice. “I thought we played really well against some very experienced teams,” Mr. Venturino said. “We had two matches where we lost by small margins and could have won with one or two more correct answers.”
Visit http://www.regionalquizbowl.org for more information about the regional Quiz Bowl program.