Arts, Athletics, Activities, and Achievements
Olivet Quiz Busters Team Has Successful Season
Paula Eldridge, Advisor
Quiz Busters is a game show similar to Jeopardy with a few different qwirks. The game is put on and aired through MSU and WKAR, channel 23. There are a total of 64 high schools around the state that participate and are divided into 2 divisions, green and white. The green division is typically the A/B schools and the white division the C/D schools. Competition starts in late September or early October for the qualifying round. Winning your qualifying round allows you into the tournament in which you can advance to quarter finals, semi – finals, division finals, and then the overall grand championship which places the green division champion against the white division champion. Winners of each division earn up to 4 $5000.00 scholarships to MSU to use in the freshman year and the winners of the grand championship earn a year worth of textbooks from the Student Book Store.
Questions are asked by the host, Matt Ottinger, who has been the host since the conception of the game 21 years ago. The questions range from science, language arts, history, and math to current events and potpourri. There is no “best” way to prepare for the competitions because of the variety of questions.
Olivet’s team this school year consisted of Connor Dodehoff, Chris Rutenber, Nick Walker, Ryen Krusinga, and alternates John Deppe and Zofia Knorek. This is the 3rd year Nick has been on the team and the 2nd year for Ryen and Zofia. These kids are also part of the school Quiz Bowl team along with many other students. The quiz bowl team competes just within the KVA and has a final tournament around mid to late November. The questions are similar, but not quite as hard or long as Quiz Busters. We practice for both the same way. Practice for these kids would usually occur before school or after school. It was difficult to set up a time and day when all students could attend because of the multitude of other activities they were involved in. Practice starts the same just about every time; the advisor begins reading “practice” questions. Practice questions can come from old question sets, books, online, or even games such as Trivial Pursuit. We run through as many questions as possible in the amount of time we have together. This helps get the brain functioning and thinking. If we take a bus trip, we practice on the bus. When we head to East Lansing, the students will quiz each other from books or old question sets. The last few matches we competed in preparation was a little different. We took the opportunity to download old matches from the WKAR website and watch/practice with those on the way to the meet by connecting the computer to the vehicles sound system. This method of practice was very helpful to our team. It gave us a heads up of what the team we were to compete against might be like and if we watched a game several years old, some of the questions are repeated in the current days competition.
Olivet’s quiz buster team won the white division championship! They earned 4 $5000.00 scholarships to MSU and the prestige of being the first team from Olivet to make it past 3 games. This year, the team competed against Leslie, Hanover-Horton, Stockbridge, Jackson Lumen Cristi, Bath, and Dewitt. By beating Bath, the team won the championship and had the opportunity to go on and compete against Dewitt. Unfortunately Olivet lost the match against Dewitt, but these are some amazing, outstanding, and “champion” students. “I could not be more proud of them. They went into each match with the attitude of winning. Never did the option of defeat cross their minds. Each student participated in the wins. They each have their primary area of expertise, which helps in developing a team.”
The students were also appreciative of the opportunity to participate in Quiz Busters through Olivet High School. One student commented that “for most of us, who don’t do too many sports, Quiz Busters was another way to participate in a sport that we all loved and enjoyed.” The students added that they “learned how to focus myself” and shared that participation on this team “allowed me to use my intellectual ability in a way other than in school.” Another team member commented that Quiz Busters “is really a team game, our team work and team chemistry played an important role in our success.”
The competitions will air on channel 23, WKAR on June 1st at 8:30 and 9:00 pm, June 29th at 8:00 pm and July 10th at 6:30 pm. The first two competitions have already aired, but can be seen as reruns throughout the year. You can go to www.wkar.org/Quiz Busters to find the schedule of broadcasting.
Congratulations Olivet Quiz Busters on a wonderful season!