MOUNT VERNON — “What last name shared by the two sisters had long been settled in Sussex?” Coach Rob Fetters said.
A couple seconds of silence hung, while students calculated their potential answers, buzzers resting in their hands.
“These are hard,” Fetters said, cutting through the mumbles and whispers.
SLAM
One Mount Vernon quiz bowl student struck the buzzer causing a green light to radiate from Fetter’s control center, where all the answering devices were connected to.
“Dashwood!” the student replied.
“That’s correct, but please be gentle with the buzzers,” Fetters replied. “We need them to last a very long time.
This was one question among several that was asked during Mount Vernon’s Quiz Bowl practice on March 3, planning this year’s regional tournament on April 15.
The team has been to regionals quite a few times, Fetters replied, held at Lima, Steubenville, Portsmouth, Copley and often times Lancaster, and has its collection of trophies.
Recently, both varsity and junior varsity placed 2nd at the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center Academic Challenge tournament on March 10.
Fetters noted that in his 20 years as coach, this year’s team is made up of something special.
“I think people have an interesting combination of strengths,” Fetters said. “Sometimes you’ll find students are really good at chemistry, and really good at literature but not good at chemistry and literature.
“I think that’s a safe description for a lot of the players. They have multiple strengths, which are unique and special.”
The team is comprised of 14 Mount Vernon high school students, with six seniors.
“When I was a freshman I wanted to get in some clubs and this one sounded cool because I was nerdy,” quiz bowl team member Nick Grega said. “Then after that, it was just fun. So I kept doing it.”
Grega started noticing he was good at quiz bowl when he went to tournaments and started banging away on questions.
“When we went to tournaments and I answered questions I was like maybe I shouldn’t keep going because I’m not just sitting here. I contribute something and that’s neat,” Grega said.
For another quiz bowl teammate C. Mays, the school has been the most important part of her life.
Mays has learned more about science and psychology, Mays said.
“Last year, I was in AP Government and AP Bio, so I gained a lot of information about the current government and other countries. “This year I am a psychology major, I’ve been taking many psychology classes.”
One challenge remains: keeping all these random facts and tidbits stored inside the noggin.
Grega’s focus on history doesn’t translate to chemistry. He relies on his teammates to carry that load.
Others focus on sports, chemistry, literature and current events.
“It’s a combination of things,” Grega said. “I’m a big history nerd so I like learning about that kind of thing. I read a lot of books and then also I just remember random things sometimes and that’s helpful.”
