In a friendly competition, the Quiz Bowl team challenged the faculty to a trivia match, hoping to beat their teachers in the very subjects they teach.
Making their quiz bowl debut for the teachers, math instructor Scott Porterfield, American history buff Christopher Parrett and dean Kim Turley, showed their array of knowledge, putting the students in their place.
For the students, senior Del Herman, sophomore Micah Kinney and junior James Payne tried their best to keep up with their teachers, but they were plagued by slow buzzer fingers and indecision, allowing the teachers to run away with the game.
The game, mediated by Quiz Bowl coach Christina Baybay Bykov, consisted of 100 English, math, history and science questions with difficulties ranging from easy Jeopardy questions to complex math problems. The team who buzzed in first with the correct answer earned a point. If the team was incorrect, that team would lose a point and the opponents would have a chance to answer.
Falling behind 3-8, the students dug themselves a hole early in the match and they could not recover. Soon the score was 4-13 in favor of the teachers. Much like basketball, each team made runs, elevating their point total. With 10 questions remaining and the students down 15-39, Turley proposed that each of the last questions be worth five points. The students quickly agreed in the hopes of making a late comeback.
The rule change, however, only solidified the teachers’ dominance, making the final score 25-69 in the faculty’s favor.
Porterfield was frank and confident in his and his co-workers’ abilities.
“We kicked butt,” Porterfield said.
Herman, playing for the students, was disappointed in his team’s performance against their teachers.
“We definitely were not on our game today. We performed horribly,” Herman said.
Underclassmen interested in Jeopardy can contact Baybay-Bykov for more information about joining Quiz Bowl next year.