This the 2007-08 ELHS QB website. For the 2008-09 QB website,
go to ELHS Quiz Bowl in the left column
or click here.
The following entry is reprinted, with permission,
from Mr. Kabodian's blog
(under the tab "Quiz Bowling").
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| June 12, 2008
Okay, here's what happened:
Our East Lansing High School Quiz Bowl team finished the National High School Championship Tournament tied for 5th place, our captain, Kurtis, finished the tournament ranked first in the country for most points, and we were the highest ranked team in the nation with female members.
Maybe this sort of thing happens to you all the time, but it was a first for us.
Chicago's Wyndham O'Hare Hotel hosted the NAQT High School National Championship tournament over the Memorial Day weekend. One hundred and seventy six teams from 37 states, China, and Korea met there for a much anticipated few days of competition, camaraderie, and craziness. The way the tournament was set up, even though there were seven teams from Michigan, we did not play each other.
Our first match was against a very friendly team from Baton Rouge, LA. After our decisive victory, they asked to have a picture taken with us. They won the tournament for sportsmanship and congeniality as far as I'm concerned (both teams are pictured below).
The other teams we played that first day were Rosemount (MN), Walton from Marietta (GA), North Kansas City (MO), Maggie Walker (VA), Dorman A (SC), Walt Whitman (MD), Wilmington Charter (DE), Martin Luther King High School (TN), and Walt Whitman (again). We finished that onslaught 9-1, tied for first (though in third due to point totals), and in a complete daze.
I mean, Maggie Walker won last year...and, even though the team we beat was significantly different that those National Champs, it meant something to get past them. Dorman High School was ranked as one of the best teams in the country before the tournament...and we beat them. Wilmington Charter ended the tournament in second place...and we beat them that first day. It was an other-worldly feeling, yet our team remained fairly calm and focused. Before most games, Kurtis gave a quick pep talk: usually very positive words like "We can do this"; strategic suggestions as to whether to buzz in quickly or wait for more of the question; feedback on how we had been doing with bonus convergence, etc.
One of the most memorable pictures I have in my mind is of the look on the faces of our opponents (and sometimes our own team members) when Kurtis buzzer mashed them; to be "buzzer mashed" is to be beaten by a millisecond, usually early in a question and about an answer about which you are certain. Kurtis' ability to buzz just a little earlier than others was uncanny (all year!) and that look of disbelief from other players became almost commonplace by the end of the tournament. Of course, one needs to know the information, but having the confidence to buzz so early - and potentially risk being wrong - while being right so often, that is Kurtis' gift.
On the other hand, my next most memorable image is of our team working together on bonus questions. Those quick discussions were oh so rich. Why I didn't record even one match (or pep talk) is beyond me. The way Kurtis listens and decides quickly is a clinic all by itself. Priya, Liz, Danny, and Ben all giving answers with self-assurance and Kurtis hearing them all, then picking the right answer (at times not even one that was mentioned) in the nick of time.
Our playoff run went like this: Gonzaga College High School (WA), Dorman B (SC), State College High School B (PA), Kellenburg (NY), Eden Prairie (MN), Dorman B (again). Our only two losses in the playoffs were to Dorman B, who ended up in fourth place (ahead of Dorman A somehow).
One of the most exciting matches was against Eden Prairie. We were losing 235 to 80 at the half. Whichever team lost would have two losses, be out of the playoffs, and end up in about 10th place. As the second half began, Kurtis had that gleam in his eye. He answered the next five tossups, powering four of them. We picked up two or three bonus answers after each tossup and before anyone knew what had happened, we were winning 270 to 230. Their coach called a time out, but it was too late. We won 390 to 335. Between Kurtis' quickness and determination and the rest of the team's able assistance on the bonus questions, we had made our most amazing comeback victory of the tournament.
We finished with a record of 13-3 and in a tie for 5th place with Dorman A. During the two days of matches, we had beaten the teams that came in 2nd and 3rd place ahead of us. Kurtis averaged 119 points per game and still seemed humbled by the experience. Liz was flying high. Priya seemed downright joyful. Danny was amazed and happy. Ben had that glow of just soaking it all in and loving every minute. I felt honored to witness all those matches. It was one special moment after another. And time well spent.
Information about the tournament can
be found at the NAQT website .
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The Varsity team WON the Culver Midwest
Championship Tournament in Culver, IN, on
Saturday, May 11!! We went 11-0 with three
victories over DCC to clinch it. Below are Ben,
Priya, Kurtis, Liz, and Danny.
We finished 3rd at the MSU Honor's College
State Finals on April 18 and 19. We had wins
against Theodore Roosevelt, Lapeer East,
Saginaw Heritage, and Novi (winning by an
average of about 300 points). We lost against
DCC and Novi, making our record 4-2. The
first time we played Novi, we won by almost
200, but the second time, they won by 10.
We couldn't get going against DCC this time
and lost by over 200; we may get another
hance to play them (and Novi) in the Midwest
Championship in Culvert, IN, on May 10 or
at Nationals in Chicago.
WE WON THE NAQT MICHIGAN
QUIZ BOWL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!
Saturday, March 29th, we went 10-1 in Ann Arbor
and brought home the trophy. In the Playoffs, we
beat Ann Arbor Huron 585-85 and then sneaked by
Detroit Catholic Central 350-300. The Final match
was against Grosse Point North, which had beaten
us earlier in the day; we came alive one more time
in that match, winning 405-275 against a very
good GPN team --- a truly extraordinary day in an
already fabulous year. Well done, team!
Below: Ben, Priya, Kurtis (the captain holds the
trophy close), Danny, Liz, Lauren, Old Mr. Kabodian
Below: THE trophy up close
We marched over the competition at the MSU
March Madness Tournament going undefeated
and winning by an average of over 200 points.
The team (below) should be proud of their
accomplishment. That's Ben, Danny, Priya
(holding the first place trophy), Kurtis and Liz.
Our recent trip to U of M Dearborn and the Spring
Classic netted a 4th place trophy! Our Varsity team
of Liz (captain), Danny, Ben, and Lauren surprised a
few people and had 5 wins and 3 losses. This version
of our Varsity team played very well together and
had victories against Jackson 2, DeWitt, West
Bloomfield, Troy 2, and Troy 1. We had lunch with
the fun DeWitt team (see below).
Here's our team with their 4th place trophy (below)
We also did very well in the Tri-County Academic
League, both at the Varsity and Junior Varsity levels.
Varsity took 1st place! That's Kurtis, Liz, Priya,
Danny, & Ben (for some matches)...see picture below.
Junior Varsity took 3rd place at Tri-County:
Anjali, Ben, and Andy (below)...not pictured are
Aiman, Aaron, and Lauren.
Amazing job at the Quiz Busters Grand Championship
match on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at WKAR! We're 3
time Grand Champions! That's the first time any
team has ever done that!
Chicago:
I reserved 5 rooms for the High School
National Championship Tournament in
Chicago at Wyndham O'Hare Hotel on
May 23-25. Three of the rooms are being
paid by QB parents (thank you, thank you,
thank you), so we need to pay for 2 of the
rooms. I'm planning on these people attending
at this point: Kurtis, Priya, Liz, Danny, Ben,
Lauren, Peter, Nora, Aiman, Anjali, Aaron,
and William, along with Ms. Moni, Ms. Droge,
Mr. and Mrs. Fujita, and Mr. Kabodian.
These rooms have refrigerators and we can
have them move in a roll-away bed if needed.
Two rooms for two nights equals $450.
If you divide that by the 12 members coming,
that makes $37 per member.
(By the way, we had an anonymous gift for
the $525 NAQT Team Registration.
Thank you very much!)
If you plan to come to Chicago, please pay
$37 by May 1 (checks written out to
East Lansing High School). Additional
info about Nationals can be found at
the NAQT website.
- Upcoming Tournaments:
- MSU March Madness on March 22 (Varsity)
- U of M Ann Arbor NAQT State Championship on March 29 (Varsity)
- State Championship at MSU on April 18 and 19 (Varsity)
- Check out Mr. Kabodian's blog about Quiz Bowl, as well as observations and thoughts about teaching and learning. See how our teams did at the Rube.
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Yes, we won the Autumn Classic in Ann Arbor on Dec. 8. We did it in grand fashion with a come-from-behind victory (including a Sudden Death playoff) against Detroit Catholic Central (from Novi). That's our third tournament victory of this season, plus the CAAC victory. Could this year be even better than last?! :)
We're Chicago-bound again! We qualified for the National Tournament on Memorial Weekend. Hope to see y'all there.
Here are a couple QuizNet photos that show the wacky fun we had.
***Wednesday, Nov. 14 and Thursday, Nov. 15, we came in first place at the end of the CAAC season and won the CAAC tournament. Pretty awesome job, Trojans!
Excellent victory on Sat., Nov. 10! Our Varsity team (see photos, above) won the Fall Classic at U of M, Dearborn, going undefeated. JV-1 went 5-1, getting into the playoffs in grand style. JV-2 went 2-3, working together very well and losing some close games. We had 14 students participating. Also, four parents and a grandparent made the trip.
***On Sat. Oct. 20, we won the Jan Rademacher Memorial Quiz Bowl Invitational, which was hosted by White Cloud High School in White Cloud, MI. (see photo, above). The Varsity team was on fire that day: Nora, Priya, Lauren, Liz, Peter, Kurtis, Danny.
***Monday, Oct. 22 at WKAR's QuizBusters, we won convincingly against Mt. Pleasant. The Saturday before that, our Varsity won the White Cloud Tournament (going 10-0) and our JV went 6-3 and tied for third in their division ***
QuizNet:
We won our second QuizNet tournament on Monday, 8th. It was a close one, but we pulled it out and won by 5 points.
In the previous tournament, we fell behind early, came back pretty strong in the middle rounds, but ended up in 4th place (out of 10 teams).
The next QuizNet tournament is at Mr. K.'s house on Mon., Oct. 15th at 5:30pm. There are six more over the next couple months. The fee will be $15 since the registration was $150 and around ten people were interested; other fees this year have been lumped into this fee so if you are not participating in this one, please still give Mr. K $3 (for snacks and food he bought for the CAAC meet) or add that to future payments.
Email Mr. K. at kabodian_aa@elps.k12.mi.us with questions.
Here are a few upcoming QB events:
- CAAC meets (all on Wed.):
- Sept. 19 --- Thanks to all the team members who helped set up and clean up...and the Varsity team members that played. We beat Okemos for our first victory of the season. The other matches were also victories, but only because the teams forfitted by not showing up.
- Oct. 3 at Holt High School: We won all three of our matches against Holt, Everett, and Grand Ledge. That means we are 6-0 overall.
- Oct. 17 at Jackson High School: Meet at ELHS at the drop-off near the Performing Arts area at 3:00 pm. We'll be back by 6:15 or so.
- Oct. 31 at Everett High School: Meet at ELHS at the drop-off near the Performing Arts area at 3:00 pm.
- Nov. 14 & 15 at Holt High School: Meet at ELHS at the drop-off near the Performing Arts area at 3:00 pm.
- Sat., Oct. 20 --- Tournament at White Cloud High School.
- We'll be having one Varsity and one JV team for the White Cloud Invitational on Sat., Oct. 20th . It's actually called the Jan Rademacher Memorial Quiz Bowl Invitational and it's hosted by White Cloud High School (that's north of Grand Rapids, a little less than 2 hours from here). Registration is $75 per team. They offer pizza and a drink for lunch at an additional cost. If we have about 15 people come that day, I figure it will cost $13 each for the registration and food. If we have more or less than 15 people, I will adjust the cost. Right now, if you plan to come with us that day, I need $13 cash or a check made out to Aram Kabodian.
- toss-ups worth 10 points, 4-part bonus worth 5 points each (no bounce backs), categories read for each toss-up and bonus alike
- winners of the Varsity division qualify for the State PACE meet and possibly the National PACE meet, depending on how many teams we have
- we'll meet at 7 am at ELHS in turn around drop off spot; we'll hope to be back by 4 pm.
- Mon., Oct. 22 --- Quiz Busters match against Mt. Pleasant at WKAR-TV studio at 6:15 pm.
- Sat., Nov. 10 --- Fall Classic Tournament at U of M Dearborn (Varsity and JV).
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2006-07 ELHS QUIZ BOWL
Most of our Varsity team was at the East Lansing Kiwanis meeting in June. We were honored for our amazing year. They gave each member a Certificate of Achievement and treated us to a delicious lunch. ELHS also received a certificate and Principal, Paula Steele, was there to accept it. We played a quick Pop Quiz in QuizBusters style against five Kiwanis members; it was a fun and interesting meeting. Thanks go out to our local Kiwanis chapter for their hospitality and their recognition of our efforts.
Above is the team with Matt Ottinger of WKAR's QuizBusters and the Grand Championship trophy.
Old News:
Friday, May 11, the JV team played against the MacDonald QB team at 3:15 in Room 115 of the middle school. Both sides played well and had fun --- the JV team dominating.
GREAT NEWS: We've received another donation of $500 toward the hotels for our Chicago trip. People are wonderfully generous around here. :)
GOOD NEWS: Parent Council has just approved the purchase of a set of new buzzers for our team! Thank you, Parent Council, as well as Paula Steele who presented the request on behalf of Mr. Kabodian, our advisor.
MORE GOOD NEWS: We just received news that two anonymous donors have agreed to pay the $475 registration fees for both of our teams going to Chicago's National Tournament in May. Thankyouverymuch (as Elvis would have said) from the whole team!
It was a busy stretch in Quiz Bowl Land...
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Sat., March 17, we earned 3rd place at the State Championship Tournament at MSU! Way to go, teams!
- Sat., March 3rd, our Varsity team won the Wayne State University Warrior Classic!!!!!
- Wednesday, Feb. 28th --- We ended the Tri-County League in grand fashion. Our Varsity team walked away with the 1st place trophy! Our JV-A team also won 1st place and JV-B earned 3rd place. Pretty impressive.
- Tuesday, Feb. 27th we beat Hartland High School at QuizBusters for the Green Division Championship (and the MSU scholarships)!
- Feb. 24th at DCC in Novi . Both our Varsity and JV teams played well and came away with trophies! Varsity finished in 4th place (out of 21 teams) after a fine 7 win performance with only 3 losses. JV was even more remarkable with 8 wins and 1 loss, finishing in 2nd place in their division (out of 15 teams). GO TROJANS! Thanks to Mr. Olson for driving
Call Mr. K. at school (333-7621) or email him at kabodian_aa@elps.k12.mi.us with questions.
Here's an overview of recent & upcoming events:
- Quiz Busters, Monday, Feb. 12 at 6:15 against Howell. More amazing work by our Varsity team. Spoiler warning...if you don't want to know the score, don't keep reading...we won 630-170...no, it's not a misprint.
- The Rube Invitational at MSU in January.
We had 4 teams (3 Varsity and 1 JV). All the teams did well. Two Varsity teams and the JV team made the playoffs and the other Varsity team won 4 and lost 3 matches. We ended up with a 3rd place trophy for Varsity (out of 36 teams) and a 4th place trophy for JV (out of 22 teams). Pretty awesome!
- Monday, Jan. 29 --- WKAR's Quiz Busters match against Okemos. An amazing victory...630-210...wow.
Tri-County League Update: We've hosted a meet at ELHS and been to DeWitt and Everett. So far, our Varsity team is unbeaten at 10-0, our JV-A is 10-0, and our JV-B is 9-1. Pretty awesome, eh!
Upcoming Tri-County Meet: Wed., Feb. 28th at Mason
Tournaments:
- One Varsity team is going to Wayne State on March 3 (one carload)
- MSU State Tournament is March 17 (at least one Varsity)
- We're taking 2 Varsity and 1 JV team to the U of M Tournament date: Sat., March 24.
- May 25-27, NAQT in Chicago. In case you haven't been paying attention, we qualified two teams to NAQT's High School National Championship Tournament by placing two teams in the top three in last week's DeWitt Tournament. It will be at the same location as last year, Chicago's Crowne Plaza (Chicago O'Hare). We're hoping to take as many QB members at possible; please let me know if you are planning on coming asap. Taking two teams means it may be a big more expensive this year; registration is $475 per team and that doesn't include food or hotel rooms. Last year, much of the cost was paid by an anonymous donor; though we can't count on that happening again, we could ask around (Student Congress, Parent Council, EL businesses) or do some fundraising. Some of the funds came from the district last year (about $600 if I remember correctly) so I'll look into that again, too.
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Click on the following link if you want to study up on information that NAQT thinks You Gotta Know .
Our first QuizBusters match was taped on Tuesday, Nov. 7th at the WKAR studio on MSU's campus. We beat Hastings 560-150 and ended up as the first seed in the next round. We'll be continuing to defend our QuizBusters Championship against Eaton Rapids on Monday, Nov. 13th at 6:15 pm.
Go Trojans!!!
CAAC Season
Sept. 27 at East Lansing High School
We went 2-1 with wins over Grand Ledge and Holt, and a loss to Okemos
Oct. 11 at Grand Ledge High School
We went 3-0, raising our overall record to 5-1.
Oct. 25 at Jackson High School (we have the EL Suburban this day), which we won all three again, raising our record to 8-1.
Nov. 8 at Everett High School and we won all three again, moving our record to 11-1.
Nov. 15 & 16 at Holt High School
We will have 3 matches at each Wednesday meet. The 1st match starts at 4 pm. The other schools in our conference are Lansing Sexton, Lansing Everett, Lansing Eastern, Holt, Jackson, Okemos, and Grand Ledge.
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We registered 4 teams in the White Cloud Quiz Bowl Invitational. Our Varsity A team won the whole tournament, our Varsity B team also won a trophy, and our JV teams both won more games than they lost. An excellent showing!
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Review of the end of the 05-06 Season
We won the WKAR QuizBusters Grand Championship Game against Lansing Catholic Central! Check out the game online.
We went to the National Quiz Bowl Tournament in Chicago from June 2nd - 4th.
We had some amazing results. Our Varsity team won 7 and lost 3 on the first day, which qualified them for the Playoffs on Sunday. We were ranked 18th out of the playoff field of 48 teams at the start of play on Sunday; we won 1 and lost 2, and were tied for 25th at the close of the tournament. Complete results can be found at the NAQT website.
In addition, Kurtis earned two tremendous individual performance commendations: he was 4th overall based on his performance in the initial 10 matches; he was also the top Sophomore in the whole tournament (the "All-Star" they call it). Kudos to this quick, intelligent, likeable young man. Well done, ELHS team, too.
Thanks to all the team members and family members who were there for support. And to the ELHS district and two anonymous donors for their financial support.
FYI: In the National Tournament, we played teams from Missouri, Virginia, Pennsylvania (three different teams), Kentucky, Texas, California, Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, Georgia, and Maryland. We went 8-5 overall.
Richard Montgomery High School from Maryland won the tournament; Catholic Central High School, from Novi, which won the State Tournament in Michigan placed 4th at the National Tournament.
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We're Class A High School State Champs!!!
We went 6-1, beating Detroit Catholic Central two out of three matches to win the trophy, the medals, and our first State Championship. The tournament was held at MSU's Union, which seemed like a home meet in some ways. Besides DCC, we beat Utica, Hartland, Grand Blanc, and Novi. The last few matches were very close and our team should be commended for their focus, determination, skill, speed, and teamwork. (team photo below, holding the bracket for the State Championship)
It's a proud day to be an ELHS Trojan!
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Lucky #13
When I noticed that our hotel had a 13th floor, I thought it was a daring slap-in-the-face to superstitious people everywhere; I didn't realize it would also become an important number to our team.
We had two teams qualify for the 2007 Quiz Bowl High School National Championship Tournament in Chicago, IL, on May 25-27. NAQT, National Academic Quiz Tournaments, sponsored the competition; NAQT provides many tournaments with challenging questions throughout the year and has a comprehensive website at http://naqt.com/.
Our Varsity A team was made up of Kurtis (captain), Kai, Michael S., and James. The team won 7 and lost 3 matches the first day of competition, then during the playoffs they won 3 and lost 2 (overall 10-5). Kurtis answered toss-up questions 5th best out of all the players in the tournament, earning him All-Star honors. Varsity A's performance earned them a 13th place out of the 160 teams that participated (http://naqt.com/hsnct/2007/field.html ). This met our goal of improving our 25th place at last year's tournament. They came home with a team trophy (see photo, below) and individual trophies. For complete results visit http://naqt.com/hsnct/2007/results/playoff-results.html.
Our Varsity B team was Michael H. (captain), Shian, Alex, Isthier, Khubaib, Liz, Priya, and Danny. The team won 6 and lost 4 games the first day, then lost 2 games in the playoffs (overall 6-6). Michael was 21st out of all players in toss-ups, earning him All-Star honors, also.
Those are the facts --- now for some fun and miscellaneous trivia.
- playing dozens of games of bridge in-between matches and at every available free moment (a few of us played good ol' euchre too)
- Isthier guessing "Smith" and getting it right
- Ms. D. treating us to a lunch both days
- playing competitively in every game...even against some of the best teams in the country
- freezing in some rooms and sweating in others
- getting lost in the Crown Plaza hallways due to their screwy numbering system for rooms
- spending much of the weekend avoiding the elevators and walking the stairs
- going down the up escalator
- "powering" (answering early in the question for extra points) on as little as "Before their Wandering Days, they lived in the upper vales..."*
- seeing confident young adults shine while playing teams from Pennsylvania, Delaware, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Louisiana, Illinois, Virginia, South Carolina, and many other states
- Kai and Kurtis powering four questions in a row (which is how I knew Kai's fever had broke)
- (if you have other suggestions for this list, let me know and I'll add them)
* hobbits
What a tremendous achievement for these teams! Well done and thanks for a wonderful year!
Mr. Kabodian
Above: Our 13th place trophy from the National Tournament (sitting on our new buzzer system...thank you ELHS Parent Council!)
P.S. Check back soon for more photos from the trip.
P.P.S. When you think about it, there wasn't much "luck" to our 13th place; better titles may be "Kismet #13" or "Hard Fought #13," but they don't have the same ring to them.
P.P.P.S. If you have questions about the Kiwanis luncheon, give me a call.
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