Pirate Quiz Wins It All

By GABRIELLE SHIOZAWA

Moapa Valley Progress

Only a few weeks ago, Varsity Quiz was almost unheard of in Moapa Valley. But after the MVHS Quiz team made it to playoffs for the first time in Pirate history, it was impossible to ignore the seven trivia-talking trailblazers who, despite being underdogs, were on their way to dominating the league.

In the semifinal round of the playoffs on January 12, Moapa Valley took on Las Vegas High School at the Las Vegas PBS Studio. There, the Pirates emerged victorious against the Wildcats with a score of 130-100. Also competing in the semifinals that day were Faith Lutheran and Bishop Gorman, the latter of which came out on top with a score of 165-100.

Last Friday, Moapa Valley and Bishop Gorman returned to the PBS studio to battle it off in the Varsity Quiz Championship. Accompanying the Pirates were Coach Jared Bushman and student body president Kasen Kolhoss, along with a group of staunch supporters from the MVHS student body.

The first round of competition was comprised of 25 questions. Once host Nate Tannenbaum finished reading a question, competitors were allowed five seconds to answer general trivia queries, and ten seconds for calculation problems. If one team answered incorrectly, their opponents had a chance to answer the same question before time ran out. Each correct answer was worth five points.

Starting out the competition were MVHS contestants Grady Call, Evan Conger, Morgan Aikele, and Gabrielle Shiozawa. The Pirates had a strong start, successfully answering questions about science, government, and theatre, as well as solving for variables in calculation problems.
At the end of the first round, the score stood at 45-35, with Gorman in the lead.

Not to be discouraged, the Pirates dove into the second round. In this bonus circuit, 10 questions were presented to the two opposing teams. If one team answered correctly, they were given two more related questions, along with 10 seconds to confer with their teammates for the correct answers, in an opportunity to vie for even more points. This fast-paced round was a crucial aspect of the Varsity Quiz competition, and it was here that the Pirate players began to make their comeback.
Call, Conger, and Aikele were joined by Anson Call in this round.

The first success of the bonus circuit was a correctly answered query about oxymorons, which led to questions about J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Homer’s The Odyssey. Other victories for the Pirates during this round came from questions about the Fifth Amendment and the 3/5 Clause, the function of bone marrow, and more calculations.

At the end of the second round, the Pirates had captured the lead! The score was 80-70.
Excitement was growing and tensions were high with still one final round to go. This was the speed round where 30 questions are presented during a six-minute circuit. Only three seconds are allowed for each response. Grady Call and Evan Conger were joined by J. Gary Leavitt and Sedona Thomas for this final round.

Correctly answered questions by the Pirate team included such topics as Henry Ford’s Model T, Bourbon Street Jazz, pineapple grenades, and newspaper editor Horace Greeley. Conger took special pride in being able to answer a query about the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—a subject he and his teammates had learned about in Mr. Charlie Cooper’s U.S. History class only a few hours before the competition.

The contest came quickly to a close, and the Pirates waited with bated breath as the judges tallied the scores from the final round. It had been a tight, closely matched competition. As Tannenbaum had proclaimed earlier in the match, “Anything could happen.”

With a final score of 140-120, Moapa Valley High School defeated Bishop Gorman for the Championship! President John Case of the Kiwanis Club of Las Vegas, which sponsors local academic programs, presented the Pirates with the coveted Varsity Quiz trophy.
“It feels great!” commented Coach Bushman, who has advised the MVHS Varsity Quiz team for about eight years. “When you win something that’s academic in nature, something that’s about being intelligent…That’s just one of the greatest feelings you can have.”

When the Pirates returned to Moapa Valley, they were escorted by fire engines and other vehicles in a parade that led all the way to Lin’s Marketplace before ending back at the high school. There, the champions were met by other community members to participate in a traditional ringing of the victory bell and singing of the MVHS Fight Song.

“I think we knew that this year was the year,” said team captain Morgan Aikele. “We have the best-balanced team we’ve ever had, and we practiced really hard, and I’m really proud of us!”

The semifinal match will air on PBS-10 on February 5 at 7:30 pm, and the championship will air on February 19 at 7:30 pm.