Quiz Bowl Story
By Cheyenne Nelson 

Yutan High School has captured East Central Nebraska Conference championship titles in both the one-act and speech competitions this year. On Mon. March 23, another title was added to that list when Yutan went undefeated in the ECNC quiz bowl competition.  

According to quiz bowl coach Barb Roth, this year’s team consisted of seven members. Four students, senior Justin Wagner, junior Jordan Zauha and sophomores Thomas Pascarelli and Allie Roth, returned to the team as veterans. Freshmen Gary Grinvalds and Megan Callahan joined the team, using their experience in junior high quiz bowl competitions, and Jarrod Wagner rejoined the team after years of absence. 

According to Jarrod, it was his first year competing in the high school quiz bowl competition, but he had gained experience from participating on the team in junior high. Because only four team members are allowed to compete at one time during the ECNC competition, Justin, Jordan, Thomas and Jarrod represented the team. 

According to Roth, the team competes in a maximum of three competitions a year, the ECNC, district and state tournaments. Even though the team was together only a short period of the year, they still had goals that they wished accomplish.  

“With the group we had, we knew we could capture the conference title,” Roth said. “But we still just wanted to do well and have fun.” 

Jarrod had his own goals that he wanted to reach. 

“I wanted to be an asset to the team,” Jarrod said. “I wanted to answer some questions and not feel like a waste of a person.” 

The players felt a little uneasy going into the conference competition because they weren’t able to practice many times before entering the tournament. Roth said the quiz bowl team practiced twice a week last year, but they only practiced once a week this year.

It also didn’t help that morning practice slots were all occupied by the several other activities involved some of the team members. Zauha said that this made him a little nervous. 

“I was worried about the fact we didn’t have a lot of practice,” Zauha said. “The championship seemed like a lofty goal.” 

Jarrod also believed that his performance was a little hindered due to his lack of practice.

“I’m sure I missed some questions because of it,” Jarrod said. “But with a wide variety of random questions, there’s nothing that can really help you but random knowledge.”

Jarrod admitted that practicing in the van on the ride there helped the team answer some questions during competition and score some points. But Roth knew their inability to practice wouldn’t affect them much, and it didn’t.

The ECNC competition started with a round robin of four matches to set the seeding for the single-elimination tournament. Yutan went undefeated in its four matches and earned the top seed. The team received a bye in the first round of tournament and went on to face Mead.  

“Mead is our kryptonite. When we played them, (they) were our only close games all day,” Jarrod said. 

Yutan went ahead 35-10, but then Mead answered a string of four questions in a row to take a 30-point lead. Pascarelli answered a momentum-changing question for the team. Afterwards, the team answered the bonus question, the question after that and its bonus, to tie the game. However, the weather wouldn’t let them continue. 

“It was neck and neck with only one minute left, and they told us to take shelter,” Roth said. 

The ECNC tournament this year was held in Murdock, where on the same day, a tornado was sighted outside of town.  According to Roth, they stayed in shelter for more than an hour. The storm didn’t affect their performance, though. When officials gave the clear, the team returned to finish the last minute of competition and defeated Mead.  

Afterwards, they stomped Weeping Water to land in the championship match. There they beat Palmyra by 30 points to win the entire tournament. Although most of the team members aren’t new to ECNC championships, the feeling was the same all around. 

“I felt a lot of pride, especially with the fact that we’ve been champs in one-act, speech and now quiz bowl,” said Zauha, who was a part of each of these championship teams along with Justin, Jarrod and Pascarelli. 

Overall, Zauha believes that winning the tournament was a true team effort. Zauha explained that because all four players answered an equal amount of questions, there was no MVP like in the past. However, they all agree Pascarelli played a large role. 

“Thomas brought up our moral when we were down,” Zauha said. “You get nervous and freeze, but Thomas never lost his cool.” 

This was Zauha’s most satisfying win because he played a larger part of it.“And we did well even without much practice,” Zauha said.