While many students at Longfellow do extracurricular activities, some take it to a different level. The students on the Longfellow Quiz Bowl team traveled this year to several competitions, including the National Championships.

Their hard work paid off this year when one of Longfellow’s two teams (the A-team) won first place at the MSNCT, the middle school Quiz Bowl nationals, in Chicago.  The B team placed 5th, putting two Longfellow teams in the top 10 nationally.

Quiz Bowl is a fast-paced buzzer competition where students answer twenty questions, or “toss-ups” per round, with three bonuses answered for each correct toss-up. Each team has four students. The teams are coached by Eugene Huang, who also teaches math at Longfellow.

Doing well on Quiz Bowl takes a lot of work. “[I spend] maybe ten hours a week, fifteen [practicing],” says team member Sophia G. However, that all pays off with going to nationally recognized competitions. Despite studying for several hours a week, students aren’t stressed out.

“Our coach is relatively relaxed about the club, and so are the students, so there’s not as much performance pressure, “Sophia explained.

Knowing all that info not only helps with answering toss-ups but also comes in handy in class.

“Quiz Bowl has helped me in bits and places,” said member Anthony Z. “Like on hangouts with friends, I can impress them with fun (sometimes morbid) facts, or maybe in science, where I can get an advantage on the teacher’s lesson. Either way, a very nice utility. You never know when it’ll come in handy.”

Students who do well in Quiz Bowl also often love trivia, though everyone generally focuses on one subject, their “main,” composing a well-rounded team. Subjects are split by categories and sub-categories, such as Science, History, Literature, Fine Arts, Mythology, and Religion, as well as others.

Teamwork is one of the biggest parts of Quiz Bowl and is important to succeed. Every student on both teams is close to all the others.

“I have gotten to know or gotten closer to several of my close friends because of the team environment of Quiz Bowl. Not only that, but the team environment means that you can do all sorts of fun stuff with the team,” said Anthony.

The team looks forward to seeing what the 2022-23 season will bring.