Interested in Quiz bowl but school has no team

[spagen]

We live in Howard county and my child is planning to go to a private independent school next fall, that doesnt have a quiz bowl team. While, at some point the school might develop one, my child who is going to be a Junior will probably not be able to get something like that going while he's there. However, he is very interested in this (he is in his current school's quiz bowl team). Is there a way to join a local high school team or any other club that would allow him to pursue this interest without being in a school that has a team?

[alexdz]

Hi! Without knowing more information about where you're located, it's going to be difficult to answer your question. Some states have organizations with restricted membership rules about who can compete, and others don't.

That said, I teach (and coach) at an independent school and would be happy to talk more about how I got a team going. Please feel free to ask questions or send me a message on here if you'd like!

[spagen]

Sorry I should have been clearer. We live in Howard County, Maryland. Our districted public school is Atholton High school, but the independent private school we are considering for the 2024-25 year (when my son will be in 11th grade) only just started an in school Quiz club but doesnt yet participate in any tournaments. Trying to find any outlet by which he can keep this interest going!

[zbennyy]

When it comes to joining the quizbowl team at another local school, the answer is unfortunately a pretty clear "no". NAQT's Eligibility Rules (which are sort of the de facto standard for high school tournaments) only allow players to compete for schools with which they have an established affiliation, which they establish by enrolling in and regularly attending classes at the school in question. In short, you can only play for a school if you actually go to it. That said, some schools in your area may be amenable to letting your child come to their practices and particiapte in ways that aren't playing in tournaments - you'd have to reach out to those schools and coaches directly to figure out how to go about setting that up.

While you mention that getting a team started at your child's new school is probably a longshot, I wouldn't completely close the door on playing on behalf of that school just yet. Especially at the high school level, players often compete solo, or with just one or two teammates. There don't necessarily have to be regular meetings and practices, or even an official "club" to play tournaments on behalf of the school. If necessary, you could even play under a pseudonym so that you're not breaking any official school policies (something like "Howard County Scholars" rather than the name of the school itself) - though if you're going to do this, you should reach out to the organizers of each tournament you plan to play to explain the situation and see if they'll allow it. That particular trick probably won't fly with competitions run by local or state organizations, but with proper justification and communication with tournament directors it's relatively common practice at NAQT events and the independent high school competitions you see advertised on these forums (NAQT's policy regarding pseudonyms can be found here). Of course, regardless of whether you play under a pseudonym or are an "officially registered" club that just happens to only have one or two members, going this route requires (a) playing a lot of tournaments solo, which can be a bit of a slog and perhaps not as fun as playing with friends and teammates; and (b) paying for tournament costs and travel out of your own pockets, rather than having them funded by the school's administration.

All that being said, playing in tournaments is not the only way to stay involved in quizbowl. Local tournaments could almost always use help staffing (in my experience, active or recently active players, even high schoolers, who actually know the rules of the game well make for vastly better staffers than the random teachers or volunteers that these tournaments sometimes end up getting). In a lot of cases, staffing for tournaments can even count toward volunteer hours for programs like National Honor Society. If your child is interested in getting into quizbowl writing, there are opportunities there too: sets will often post calls for writers in the mirror requests subforum. This can be a bit trickier for high school students, since some sets restrict their writing teams to only high school graduates, but there are still a fair number of sets written largely, or even entirely, by high schoolers.

I hope this helps! There are certainly plenty of ways that an interested student on in inactive team can stay involved with quizbowl, and I'm probably forgetting some, so don't hesitate to reach out to anyone you think could provide an opportunity.

[spagen]

This is incredibly helpful, thank you! You've given me a lot to think about. I am curious to see if I can work with the new school as it seems like getting the quiz club to go to the next level of opportunity might not be as hard as I thought. I also like the idea of volunteering in this area. Thanks again!

[mate]

I'm responding here as a junior from the North East.

My school has no Quizbowl team, but rather a trivia club that competes at minimally competitive tournament at a nearby high school every month. Last year, I was introduced to Quizbowl by a senior who had the club go to a Quizbowl being held nearby. I enjoyed it a lot and so since then I've gone to a couple more Quizbowls, but not with the school per say. I sign up myself and go with my school friends for fun, and while we're under the school name and the club teacher knows about it, it's not anything official. And honestly, I recommend this for your son. It's actually a lot of fun without taking winning seriously. Also, when you're the only one who knows much, it makes you feel more important :). These friends I've brought to tournaments like them a lot, and want to go to more, but don't want to really go to club meetings, because competitions are just fun. But if he's the kind of kid that does take stats and record seriously (I take my personal stats seriously, not team record), then he could also try starting a trivia club, from which he could find other kids who like trivia and mention going to tournaments through the club.

This is the first time I've ever responded to anything on this website, but I felt I had to mention how you don't need a club to do it. Hope this is useful.

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