HHS Quiz Bowl Team Closes
Successful Season
The Huntington High School Quiz Bowl team closed out another successful season at the regional finals tournament at Plainview High School.
Coached by science teachers Lori Kenny and Dame Forbes, Huntington entered both varsity and junior varsity teams into Quiz Bowl competition this year.
Described by team member Jacob Roday as "Team Jeopardy," Quiz Bowl is an academic competition that pits teams of four against squads from opposing schools. Teams answer questions on a variety of topics that include anything from zoology to anthropology. Students draw on personal knowledge and what they have learned at Huntington High School.
Huntington's JV team consisted of freshman Jason Stickell, sophomore Joe Saginaw, junior Brian McConnell and seniors Allegra DePasquale and Emaad Khwaja. The varsity squad included juniors Aron Coraor, Brian Gilbert and Marc Feldman and seniors Danny Gallagher and Jacob Roday. Also competing at various points during the year were freshman Emily Shutman, sophomore Can Toprak and junior Ben Nikodem.
The two Huntington teams vied in five qualifying matches over the course of the current school year, with the Blue Devils winning every single match. After going undefeated, both squads were invited to compete in the regional tournament seated in first place in their division.
"The teams are very devoted," Mrs. Kenny said. The squads hold practice scrimmages every week and team members are given assignments to research and study.
"We are very fortunate to have a group of very bright and motivated young adults," Mrs. Forbes said. Many of the students involved in Quiz Bowl have either been students of Mrs. Kenny or Mrs. Forbes in the past or currently are right now.
Mrs. Forbes teaches AP Chemistry while Mrs. Kenny teaches honors living environment. Both teachers also lead sections of Huntington's science research class and are heavily involved with all things science at the high school. They are the advisors for the Science National Honor Society as well as the coaches of the Science Bowl team that recently competed in the national finals in Washington, DC. The Quiz Bowl and Science Bowl teams are part of Huntington High School's science research club.
At the regional finals at Plainview, each of Huntington's Quiz Bowl teams won all three of their first matches in the round robin portion of the competition, with both squads advancing to the semi-finals. The teams both finished in second place by numerical score in the round robin competition, but lost their fourth matches of the day in the semi-final round.
Both teams mirrored each other's performances, with both winning eight games and losing the ninth. "All of the members were disappointed, but were very happy with their winning streak up until that point," Mrs. Kenny said. Although Huntington will lose its seniors to graduation, returning team members are already looking forward to an even better season next year.
Huntington High School's Quiz Bowl and Science Bowl teams are set to expand. Students interested in competing should seek out and speak with Mrs. Kenny (lkenny@hufsd.edu) or Mrs. Forbes (dforbes@hufsd.edu) to sign-up for next year.