The inaugural parochial Junior High Quiz Bowl tournament, scheduled for April 20, has attracted interest from eight schools in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Hot Springs, Morrilton and Rogers. Eighteen teams of seventh and eighth-grade students are registered for the event, which will be held at Mount St. Mary Academy.
Teams will compete in multiple games in the morning of the tournament and the top-scoring eight squads will be seeded into a single elimination bracket that afternoon to determine the place winners.
Participating schools include Christ the King, Our Lady of the Holy Souls, St. Edward and St. Theresa in Little Rock; Immaculate Heart of Mary in North Little Rock (Marche); St. John in Hot Springs; Sacred Heart in Morrilton; and St. Vincent de Paul in Rogers. Combined, these schools’ entries include 113 competitors.
Jason Pohlmeier, principal of St. Edward School in Little Rock and organizer of the tournament, said the response is gratifying.
“We really didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “We thought we would at least get one team from some of the Little Rock schools for the first one, but the response has been much better than that. We’re looking for it to grow from here.”
The idea for the tournament came out of Pohlmeier’s own middle school years at St. Joseph School in Paris. During his time there, he participated on the Quiz Bowl team that competed against area public schools.
“We only had the team for one year, but it was something that I always remembered from my Catholic school experience,” he said.
When he arrived at St. Edward School four years ago, one of his priorities was to introduce academic-based extracurricular activities to complement the slate of athletics. Two years ago, that resulted in the school’s first Quiz Bowl team, which competed in the Arkansas Activities Association regional and state tournaments. The team performed well, ultimately losing to Sacred Heart School in Morrilton.
Last year, however, St. Edward and schools like it which are not AAA members were barred from participating in AAA competition, and the idea for an all-Catholic competition was born.
“We originally approached our parochial league for a tournament just here in Little Rock, but we quickly decided there was no reason not to open it up to the whole state,” Pohlmeier said.
Quiz Bowl pits two teams of four competitors each against each other, answering questions from various academic fields as well as current events, entertainment and culture. Matches are broken into four rounds, each with slightly different format and scoring.
Several of the state’s Catholic schools have developed a reputation as formidable Quiz Bowl competition. Trinity Junior High School in Fort Smith is a bona fide dynasty, having won the 2013 4-A state tournament, its eighth title in nine years. Sacred Heart School in Morrilton qualified for the state junior high meet in 2013, as did Subiaco Academy, which was also state runner-up in the senior high division in 2012. St. Joseph High School in Conway and Little Rock’s Catholic High and Mount St. Mary Academy all field quiz bowl teams as well.
Even though the questions — as well as the subject matter from which they are drawn — are secret, resources are available to help teams prepare.
For first-time coaches, such as Rebekah Stewart who is leading the Christ the King contingent, inspiration comes from these and other sources during after-school practices.
“Some of the kids on the team had heard about Quiz Bowl from the older kids who were doing it in high school,” she said. “But what really sparked the kids’ interest was when (Arkansas high schooler Leonard Cooper) won on ‘Teen Jeopardy.’”
Stewart, a 13-year teaching veteran, said she sees benefits to the activity beyond its academic face value.
“The number one thing this teaches is teamwork and it also teaches kids to appreciate others for the knowledge they have,” she said. “It also helps with team members’ self-esteem. Even kids who might be B students but who are strong in other kinds of trivia have a part to play.”
