Intense energy filled the air as students conversed amongst themselves in preparation for the match before going onto spring break. On Mar. 16 in Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) library, BVH’s varsity Quiz Bowl team played against Castle Park High (CPH)’s Quiz Bowl team to determine whether BVH’s would share the title of North League Championship in their sixth school division.

Throughout the season, BVH would play five league matches to determine whether they would compete in the playoffs. Currently, BVH has won four out of five league matches against Chula Vista High (CVH), Sweetwater High, Hilltop High and the most recent win against CPH. BVH’s Quiz Bowl will be facing Eastlake High (EHS) when school resumes after spring break on Apr. 6.

“If we win against Eastlake after the break, we will be the champions of the North League Title. If we lose, we will share the division title with whichever team wins between Chula Vista and Sweetwater the same day as our Eastlake game,” Quiz Bowl Head Coach Joseph Szakovits said.

During the match against CPH, BVH’s junior varsity (JV) Quiz Bowl team played against CPH’s JV team, winning 300-120. This would be their third time playing, as their games do not count towards the playoffs. After a short break, varsity starters take their place on the panel, including seniors Cyan Schiele, Diego Nava, Giselle Geering, Daniela Radashkevich and junior Tai Cassel Engen. 

“We do not have playoffs or anything like that. We play for fun. JV is seen as a precursor or a beginner level of varsity to prepare students to become varsity players,” JV captain and sophomore V Arancibia said.

CPH starts the match with answering the first toss-up—the first question asked that either team can answer—and the following set of bonus questions. However, they miss two out of the three bonus questions, leading the score to be 0-20. BVH is able to answer the second toss-up and the following bonus questions, leading the score to be a close score of 30-20. The beginning of the match is fairly close.

“You never want to look at any one stretch of three or four questions. You can fall into that trap, especially when they’re at the beginning of the match. There’s a reason you have to play the whole game,” Szakovits said. “At that point, I was not shaken. I was still confident that we were willing to put up a strong showing.”

BVH continues to answer toss-up’s and contribute to the score, such as Schiele and Geering buzzing in, along with other team members collaborating for the bonus questions. At the score of 170-60, CPH calls their time-out to switch out members. Shortly after, Szakovits puts the reserved players—players who did not start the match—on the panel, including seniors Matthew Arca and Miles Tobitt. 

“I feel my role in Quiz Bowl is to dominate each and every sports question that comes up. There’s maybe one sports question per match and I happened to be put in for the time we got it. As soon as I heard ‘double play’, I knew it was a baseball question and I got every single one very easily and it made me very happy,” Tobitt said.

According to Tobitt, he was able to play in today’s match due to the fact that BVH was ahead in score with eight minutes out of the 35 minutes left on the clock. This is Tobitt’s first year on varsity and his first time playing in a varsity match, but he has watched BVH win the two matches he attended previously. 

“It always feels good to win. I’m really proud of everyone else on Quiz Bowl. I got my 30 points out of our 300 something points,” Tobitt said. “For everyone else who got the other 300 plus points on the team, I’m really proud of everyone who played and participated.”

Similarly to Tobitt, as a reserved player, Arca was “hoping for some playtime”. In previous matches, he played for five minutes, but was unable to answer questions because he was “buzzer-shy”. However, in the match against CPH, he was able to buzz in and get a question right. 

“I was really hoping [to play] because I have been dying to get in. In practice, I’ve been getting questions right. I wanted to prove myself with this game, so I think I did a decent job of that,” Arca said.

In the scrimmage match against Mater Dei High, Szakovits made it a goal to train varsity members on knowing when to buzz in to avoid penalties while also being confident in themselves. As an individual, Arca talks about his own progress as a player during a match.