Seniors Victorious in School-Wide Quiz Bowl Tournament

The cheer team performs before the final Quiz Bowl tournament round March 8 / Credits: Adah Svetlik

On March 8 during advisory, all of Walls tuned in from their classrooms to watch a cheer team performance followed by the singing of the national anthem. This elaborate ceremony was, of course, a prelude to none other than the championship round of the Walls Quiz Bowl tournament.

Organized by humanities teacher Jeffrey Jordan, the Quiz Bowl tournament featured student teams from each grade who competed against each other to answer a variety of trivia questions.

Jeffrey Jordan already sponsors the Quiz Bowl club at Walls, where students meet twice a week to play the trivia game, but he wanted to give the whole school a chance to experience it.

Competing in the first round of the tournament were the freshmen against the sophomores, with the sophomores coming out on top.

The questions the freshmen and sophomores were asked were created by Mr. Jordan and a few other teachers instead of official questions made by Quiz Bowl that some of the contestants were used to. Eleanor Brosowsky (‘26), a regular of the Quiz Bowl club, was surprised by the kind of questions asked. “For that first round, the questions asked were not Quiz Bowl questions,” she said. “There’s a very specific format for Quiz Bowl, and that was not it.”

According to Mr. Jordan, the questions were created to incorporate content the students had learned about in their classes into the trivia questions.

Brosowsky said that this made it much harder to prepare for, especially after attending Quiz Bowl club and getting used to the types of questions. “Our strategy shifted. But afterwards, it was basically just buzz as soon as you have any idea,” she said.

The next round of the tournament, where juniors faced off against seniors, featured official Quiz Bowl questions instead. Seniors would emerge victorious from this round.

Moments before it started, Devan Tatlow (‘24) was sitting in his advisory when he got a phone call from a fellow classmate. “He was like, ‘Devan, come to [music teacher Christopher] Alberts’s room now,’” Tatlow said. “And I was like ‘Okay?’ and showed up at Mr. Alberts’s room, and it turned out to be Quiz Bowl.”

For Sydny Horge (‘23), the round against the juniors was more of an introduction to the trivia game. “I was really moral support that round,” she said. “I was not helpful at all. And even the ones I did know, the juniors got before I could even say anything, or it was something everyone knew.”

Since the seniors won the round, Horge had another shot at getting to answer trivia questions in the subsequent, final contest. “The second round was definitely redemption,” she said.

The seniors developed a strategy for the finals where each member of the team would specialize in particular types of questions. She was assigned to the science questions right before the final round started. “Suddenly all of the science facts were coming into my mind,” she said.

Ian Springer (‘25) was up against Horge in the tight finals match, where the seniors were declared the Quiz Bowl champions. The sophomores have two more years to win over the title of Quiz Bowl championship. “I think we got a good shot at winning,” he said. “Hopefully we get as many people from all the different grades so that we can have the best tournament we can next year.”

Mr. Jordan has more things in store for the future of Quiz Bowl. “Something’s coming up real soon that you guys will see,” he said. “Students should look forward to it, absolutely."