Academic Team Coach – Dr. Sartain
1: Before we get started, what is Academic Quiz Team? What do you guys do?
“Academic Quiz team is a quiz competition between schools. The topics can be anything. It’s kind of like Jeopardy, except we compete as a team, not individually.”
2: Is there a conference? If so, what schools do you compete with, how often do you guys compete, and do we have a rival?
“Academic Quiz Team is officially a Winter Sport, and competes in the ECC. Matches are once a week through December, January, and February. I don’t think we have one particular school in our rival. Walnut Hills often qualifies as a finalist for the state tournament.”
3: Are you able to pay for tickets to, or watch the competitions?
“We love an audience. There is no charge, and our matches are Wednesdays in the community at our home matches. They start at 4 o’clock.”
4: Are there ‘playoffs’ and/or a championship?
“We play 1 on 1 against all the other conference schools, and just like in other sports, there’s a conference tournament at the end of the season. We also do tournaments over the season, and if you win a tournament, you qualify to compete in the state regionals and the top 2 teams compete in the finals.”
5: How do you train the academic athletes for their competitions?
“We have question sets that have been used in past years that we study and sets the league provides, and we also do some research from time to time on specific topic we don’t down as much about. What’s most important is figuring something out that you don’t know for sure, and we try to figure out how to generate a good guess.”
6. Are there any specific rules you must follow when competing in Academic Quiz Team?
“There’s a whole bunch, and the matches have a certain structures you must follow.”
7: How well did the team do last year?
“We only won 1 match last year, which was kind of a disappointment.”
8: Do you think the Academic Quiz Team is becoming more well known and gaining traction? If so, how many more competitors are on the team compared to last year?
“We’re about the same as last year. We have about 15 people, which isn’t a bad number. We run both Varsity and JV programs.”
9: How much potential do you think this year’s team has? What record do you think the team will end with?
“I certainly expect to improve over last year. I don’t think we know what our sealing is. We only have 2 people back from last year’s Varsity. I think the people moving up have it within them to do really well.”
10: Finally, how long have you been coaching an Academic Quiz Team, and are their any other coaches to help you train the team?
“I’ve been doing this for about 11 years, I think. I’m assisted in this Mr. Prueitt. “
Academic Team Varsity Player – Kiersten McCoy
1: Have you participated in Academic Quiz Team in the past? If so, for how long?
“I have participated the past two years.”
2: How do you train to compete in Academic Quiz Team?
“We practice three times a week, with one of those days being a research day in which we research a certain topic like operas and countries around the world.”
3: Do you train outside actual practice? If so, what do you do?
“Usually, if you have a hobby, that helps. Like, I like to read, so I try to expand my reading to all kinds of eras to ‘train’ for the literature category.”
4: What do you do if you don’t know the answer to a question?
“Academic Quiz Team is all about guessing to the best of your abilities. It’s not about what you do know, it’s about guessing on what you don’t know. So, a lot of times teammates just take a stab at the question and guess.”
5: What are you most looking forward to this season?
“I’m most looking forward to forming strong bonds with my teammates and learning more information in the categories I’m not so strong in.”
6: How did you and the team perform last year? How are you hoping to improve as a team?
“Last year, I was on JV. And the JV team did relatively well.Our record could have been a lot better, though. I’m hoping we can be more confident in taking guesses because making a guess and getting it wrong can be tough on some people. So I hope we can change our perceptions on guessing and hopefully we do better.”
7: Is there anything that you specifically struggle with? How are you planning on fixing whatever you struggle with?
“I specifically struggle with a couple categories. I hope to fix this by studying some more general concepts in those categories. Like, I struggle with geometry and geography the most. So I hope to practice a bit on that and ask others about certain things that are particularly difficult.”
8: Do Varsity and JV compete separately in competitions?
“Yes. We go to the same meet on the same day. JV competes first, then Varsity.”
9: Finally, what are your goals for this season? What are you hoping to come away with by the end?
“My goal is to become more confident. I have struggled with confidence my whole life. And over the past couple years of Academic Quiz Team, I’ve slowly gained more and more confidence in myself. I hope to come away with full confidence in myself. And my goal is to have a better record than last year’s Varsity. I hope to come away with full confidence in myself, and strong bonds with my teammates.”
Academic Team JV Player – Leah Nolan
1: Have you participated in Academic Quiz Team in the past? If so, for how long?
“No, this is my first year.”
2: Do Varsity and JV participate in separate competitions?
“I don’t know for sure, but I think we compete seperately.”
3: How do you train to compete in Academic Quiz Team?
“We have days that we research different topics and days that we run past competition sets and simulate a competition.”
4: How well do you think you’ll do in Academic Quiz Team? Do you have any specific goals?
“I don’t think I’ll do the best this year, it being my first, but I want to improve enough that I can fill out at least half of the sheet in the alphabet round.”
5: What do you do if you don’t know the answer to a question?
“If we din’t know the answer, then we guess to the best of our ability. We go off of things we already know and try to lead ourselves into the right guess.”
6: Do you train outside of practice? If so, how so?
“I study. I write down the questions I got wrong or didn’t know and I study the answers so i know them next time.
7: Finally, what are you most looking forward to in Academic Quiz Team? What are you wanting to come away with by the end?
“I’m excited to compete and I want to come away knowing more about the world around me.”
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