The student news publication of Bryant High School in Bryant, Arkansas

Prospective Online

Breaking News
  • March 26Senior Week starts next week, all seniors who have signed up will be spending advisory, and on Wednesday their lunch periods, in the arena to play games so their teams win
  • March 26Spanish Honor Society is hosting a Spring Dance Competition on Friday, March 29 during Advisory and 1st Lunch. Contestants will be asked to pay a $5 entry fee, and prizes will be awarded to competition winners! If you’d like to compete, click here. // LINK: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v6Dz0MT1NWCMUw7RVFslA1QMGNAFyKBoU-HAHG5Ff4Q/edit
  • March 26On March 26th at 5PM the Bryant High School Baseball team will be playing a home game against Central on our Home field
The student news publication of Bryant High School in Bryant, Arkansas

Prospective Online

The student news publication of Bryant High School in Bryant, Arkansas

Prospective Online

Meet the Staff

Meet Hayden. Hayden is a junior, and this is his first year on The Prospective. Beyond newsapaper, Hayden is the secretary for the Hornet Fashion Club. Hayden loves everything to do with clothes...

Buzz in: High school quiz bowl teams prepare for competitions

Students listen to advisor Will Heatherly help supply new strategies  at the Quiz Bowl meeting. | photo Madeline Colclasure
Students listen to advisor Will Heatherly help supply new strategies at the Quiz Bowl meeting. | photo Madeline Colclasure

The senior and junior high quiz bowl teams have practiced every week for their state tournament April 11 and other competitions.

AP history teacher Will Heatherly began helping out physics teacher Alan Scott with the two quiz bowl teams last year, and between the two there’s been six years of experience. Before he transferred here, Heatherly was Bryant Middle School’s Quiz Bowl sponsor.

“I remember Ms. [Sue] Reeves sent out an email to all of the teachers asking for someone to take over the team since the previous sponsor didn’t have enough time for it. And I deleted it,” Heatherly said. “She sent it out again and rather than see the club die I decided to take over. And now I’m on the state board and I absolutely love it.”

The junior high team is strictly just the freshmen. AP Language teacher Tim Sisk helps Heatherly advise the team.

“They’re at a different level and are doing really well,” Heatherly said. “I expect them to go to state as long as they show up and do their best.”

Filled with mostly sophomores, the senior high team has sophomore Malcolm Jackson as the Captain.

At practices, members play games to study the academic and trivia questions that might arise. Students also look over what categories they might have to answer questions from and talk about different types of strategy.

“We even give them assignments over breaks sometimes, because other schools have actual classes for Quiz Bowl, we have to work all the more to be on the same level,” Heatherly said.

At tournaments there are usually four 30-minute games with each school’s team, and if a team wins four games then they’ll be going to the tournament. There are around 20 students on the team but the team travels with 8 to 10 students when attending competitions. Quiz bowl focuses on analytical thought and is usually a mixture of two or three different things. While the questions are factual, they are determined to make the students think, so they’re open-ended questions.

“I’ll be at the state tournament in April no matter what because I am on the state board,” Heatherly said. “But it’d be awesome if I got to go with my school.”

Quiz Bowl has tournaments in February for the junior high team and March and April for the senior high team. The state tournament is only for the senior high and is April 11.

“It really helps out student’s self-confidence because to be good, they have to not be afraid to get a question wrong,” Heatherly said. “Getting to compete against people you don’t know also helps with that and the comradery boosts their self-esteem.”

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Prospective Online Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *