With its strong finish at the Clever Invitational, the Houston R-1 School District Scholar Bowl team proved worthy to play on a national stage.
On Friday, April 25, the team will represent their school in a 148-team national competition: National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Small School National Championship Tournament.
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. It is the national version of the game that is often locally called Scholar Bowl. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture.
The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.
Houston has attended the Small School National Championship Tournament once before. In 2023, they made the playoffs and finished in fifth place.
The SSNCT is the only quiz bowl national championship pitting small schools against each other. It has one division containing nonselective public schools with 500 or fewer students in their top three grades, and another division for other schools with 350 or fewer students in their top three grades. Houston may face familiar foes in Rosemont, Eldon, Iberia and Skyline (from Urbana).
The team comes in with some nationals experience: Allie Benoist and Tyler Kelly played in the 2023 Small School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago).
The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, will be captained by Allie Benoist, who will be joined by Ryan Haslett, Keaton Hinkle, Kendal Johnson, Tyler Kelly, Thomas Kincaid, Chris Leighty and George Smith. The team will be coached by Jason Pounds.
Tournament results will be updated throughout the three days of competition at http://www.naqt.com/go/stats/16001.