With its strong finish at Greatest Snow on Earth, the quiz bowl team from Batavia High School proved themselves worthy to play on a national stage. On Friday, April 26, the team will represent their school in a 143-team national competition: National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Small School National Championship Tournament.
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture. The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.
Batavia has attended the Small School National Championship Tournament two times before. Most recently, in 2023, they made the playoffs and finished in fifth place.
The SSNCT is the only quiz bowl national championship pitting small schools against each other. It has one division containing non-selective public schools with 500 or fewer students in their top three grades, and another division for other schools with 350 or fewer students in their top three grades. Batavia may face familiar foes in Rosemont, as Bellefontaine and Indian Hill (from Cincinnati) will also be attending.
The team comes in with some nationals experience: Yash Dayal, Jack Garrison, Harmon Kahl, and Mahi Patel played the 2023 Small School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago); Jack Garrison played the 2023 Individual Player National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago); and Jack Garrison, Harmon Kahl, and Mahi Patel played the 2022 Small School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago).
The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, will consist of Savannah Bennington, Yash Dayal, Jack Garrison, Harmon Kahl, Mahi Patel, Drew Smith, and Xavier Wagner. The team will be coached by David Smith.
Tournament results will be updated throughout the three days of competition at http://www.naqt.com/go/stats/14701 so everyone can follow along and see how the team does. You can also follow #ssnct on Twitter.