Huntington’s Quiz Bowl Team Has the Answers
These kids can come up with correct answers fast. Huntington High School’s regional Quiz Bowl team is one of the best in Western Suffolk and ranked among the top ones on Long Island.
“The Long Island regional Quiz Bowl is a fast-paced, quick thinking Jeopardy style competition, which covers a wide variety of academic and pop culture disciplines,” said Huntington science teacher Dame Forbes, who serves as the team’s coach along with department colleague Lori Kenny.
“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,” Mrs. Forbes said.
Huntington’s varsity Quiz Bowl team consists of Steve Yeh, Cole Blackburn, Max Polster, Tommy Kopstein, Scott Venturino and Spencer Pashkin. The junior varsity squad includes Rachel Roday, Christopher Chang, Ryan Hoffman, Erin Bonitz, Jack Blakley and Jack Gallagher.
“The team competes once a month against other local schools in our division from October through March,” Mrs. Forbes said. “After each match the teams are ranked and the information is posted on the regional site. The team may compete in special invitationals, which are held around New York during this time period. The top teams will go head to head in April to determine the Long Island champions.”
Quiz Bowl teams consist of four players answering questions at a time with one substitute allowed. Competitions include four rounds. “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.
“It is a really great trivia activity,” Mr. Pashkin said. “We are a small team without funding. This year we might even go on to the final tournament if we win out final match next Wednesday. We have also competed in separate tournaments. Last year, we competed at Columbia University and did fairly well.”
Huntington has won three of four matches this season and sits in third place 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. Overall, Huntington is currently ranked No. 15 out of 56 Long Island high schools with Quiz Bowl teams. The top 18 varsity and JV teams will advance to the Long Island regional finals.
“At Huntington, many teachers and staff members have been involved in helping the teams at competitions this year, including Cathy Croke, Judyann Pazienza and Tara Fisher, who have accompanied students and acted as moderators and readers,” Mrs. Forbes said. “It truly is a school effort since the team practices without being a fully financially supported by the school.”
Visit http://www.regionalquizbowl.org for more information about the regional Quiz Bowl program.