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Red Rock HS Stages 3rd-Annual Quiz Bowl Camp
It’s no secret that some of the best quiz bowl programs in the country have students who are willing to put in extensive preparation during the summer months when classes aren’t in session. In Nevada, the number of students willing to take on that challenge has now increased for a third consecutive year with the conclusion of the most recent Red Rock Quiz Bowl Camp.
During the week of July 22nd, 13 students from Red Rock High School and Liberty High School collaborated for a week filled with advanced study on common topics in quiz bowl, analysis of packet answers, and advanced in-games strategies for more experienced players. The results were evident by the end of the week, said RRHS head coach Matt Albert.
“If you were to take the best players just from Red Rock and Liberty, we’d have a nice little all-star team to represent the Vegas area. It was an excellent week for the growth of quiz bowl out here. The kids worked hard, and their teachers and administrators should be very proud of these students and their willingness to put in all of this time on their break,” Albert said.
This was the first year that Red Rock opened up their annual camp to students from outside their own building. The willingness to let in other students from training was met with some raised eyebrows initially, but that’s a way of thinking Red Rock doesn’t subscribe to according to their coach.
“It wasn’t that we were trying to hide secrets and info from our competitors. We simply wanted to make sure we had a good product before we offered it to the rest of our community. I get that some coaches around the country are skeptical of coaching up students from their closest rivals, and that’s a choice they’re absolutely allowed to make. We’re just not that kind of league, though. Yes, we all want to beat each other in competition, but our collective focus has always been on how we represent the state on the national level. Our rivalries are as friendly as they get.”
With school in Las Vegas scheduled to begin August 12th, it’s only a matter of time before those rivalries get played out again. Thanks in part to the camp, the matches should continue to showcase the fruits of the rapid growth of the game in Nevada.
During the week of July 22nd, 13 students from Red Rock High School and Liberty High School collaborated for a week filled with advanced study on common topics in quiz bowl, analysis of packet answers, and advanced in-games strategies for more experienced players. The results were evident by the end of the week, said RRHS head coach Matt Albert.
“If you were to take the best players just from Red Rock and Liberty, we’d have a nice little all-star team to represent the Vegas area. It was an excellent week for the growth of quiz bowl out here. The kids worked hard, and their teachers and administrators should be very proud of these students and their willingness to put in all of this time on their break,” Albert said.
This was the first year that Red Rock opened up their annual camp to students from outside their own building. The willingness to let in other students from training was met with some raised eyebrows initially, but that’s a way of thinking Red Rock doesn’t subscribe to according to their coach.
“It wasn’t that we were trying to hide secrets and info from our competitors. We simply wanted to make sure we had a good product before we offered it to the rest of our community. I get that some coaches around the country are skeptical of coaching up students from their closest rivals, and that’s a choice they’re absolutely allowed to make. We’re just not that kind of league, though. Yes, we all want to beat each other in competition, but our collective focus has always been on how we represent the state on the national level. Our rivalries are as friendly as they get.”
With school in Las Vegas scheduled to begin August 12th, it’s only a matter of time before those rivalries get played out again. Thanks in part to the camp, the matches should continue to showcase the fruits of the rapid growth of the game in Nevada.
2018-2019 Year In Review: Big Steps Forward For Nevada Quiz Bowl
As preparations for the expansion of the LVQBA get underway, it's time to get one last look at the past season and celebrate the accomplishments of the students who represented Nevada on a national level this past spring and summer.
Clark High School
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The Chargers performed excellently at two different national-level tournaments this year. In their first appearance of the year, they finished tied for 49th at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. The team went 7-5, averaging nearly 20 points per bonus (19.06) for the entire weekend. The four-student team consisted of Eshaan Vakil, Blu Mehari, Alex Bean, and Shadman Kabir. Also of note was the individual performance of Eshaan Vakil. He finished 7th in the overall standings and was named a Tournament All-Star.
A few weeks later, the Chargers competed in the PACE National Scholastic Championship in Reston, Virginia, and finished in 35th with a 9-6 record. What made this outing especially impressive was that Clark's roster only had 2 players all weekend--Vakil and Mehari. Both players did exceptionally well against a powerful field. In a trend that began at HSNCT, Vakil finished near the top of the individual standings, placing third overall. Speaking of Vakil, he also participated in the NAQT Individual Player National Championship Tournament back in April in Rosemont, Illinois. He finished in a tie for 21st overall, powering nearly a third of his questions. Finally of note for Clark, the Chargers played an instrumental role in being community ambassadors for the game. Both Vakil and Mehari were camp counselors at the Alliance for Academic Quiz Bowl's annual Coding and Quiz Bowl Camp. Founded by Vakil's nonprofit organization, the camp works with high numbers of elementary female students to get them involved in both coding and quiz bowl--two areas around the country where girls tend to be underrepresented. Vakil and Mehari's efforts were highlighted in this feature from the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Quiz Tourney Winner Fights Las Vegas Stereotypes" |
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Liberty High School
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The always-consistent Liberty High Patriots completed yet another successful season in 2019. They made their third consecutive appearance at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. With a somewhat shortened roster, the team still managed to win 3 games in Atlanta, tying their mark from the previous year. The weekend also marked the end for Liberty's exceptionally strong senior class of Roy Margallo, Janavi Sathappan, Ryan Chappell, Jennalyn Tamio, and Conner Thornhill. All of us at the LVQBA send our sincerest congratulations to them on their graduations. We also thank every single one of them for helping build the league since Day 1 in 2016.
Margallo also competed for the second-straight year in the NAQT Individual Player National Championship Tournament, placing in a tie for 71st overall. As the Patriots now look forward to 2020, they will rely on the leadership of Ryan Johns and Caleb Fears to help grow the next generation of Liberty Quiz Bowl. |
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Sierra Vista High School
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One of the feel-good stories of this year no doubt was the growth of the Sierra Vista Mountain Lions. When they began the year, their biggest concern was whether or not they'd be able to field a consistent roster. Enter sophomore Moses Damena, the breakout star of the 2019 season. With Damena adding to the strong performances from sisters Emma and Julianna Jurvelin, the Mountain Lions continued the growth of their program all season long.
Damena finished the year in style, representing Sierra Vista for the first time at the Individual National Player Championship Tournament. Damena's efforts this season were later chronicled by the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Sophomore Represents Sierra Vista at Chicago-Area Quiz Bowl" |
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Red Rock High School
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Struggling to find their rhythm for most of the season, the Dragons finally put the pieces together at the end of the year as they played their best quiz bowl to finish the season. Motivated by their disappointment of not earning a wild card berth for HSNCT, Red Rock competed for the second time in three years at the NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois. The team chose to make a full weekend out of it--traveling to the Art Institute of Chicago, checking out the Adler Planetarium, visiting DePaul University, and getting for some of them their first experience with deep dish pizza. After a full day's worth of sightseeing, the team came through with 4 wins on competition day, easily eclipsing their best mark in school history. Representing the Dragons were Josh Cruzado, Annie Vong, David Jelinsky, Alex Hewitt, Soleil Perez, and Sebastian Lopez.
The Dragons return everyone in 2020 and will have a senior class for the first time in school history. |
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Las Vegas Quiz Bowl Alliance
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The year in review would not be complete without the LVQBA offering its most humble and grateful thanks to the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence as we received the Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award at the NSC in June. We feel that this award gives significant validation to everything we're trying to do in providing high-quality quiz bowl experiences for students in the state of Nevada. All of us at the LVQBA wish to recognize the Vakil family for nominating us and Greg Bossick (informal guru of Ohio Quiz Bowl) for his tireless support and guidance to our league.
We also wish to thank our highly-devoted volunteer staff of community members who make our tournaments a success each week: Tim Woodward, Eric Bell, Lynda Burns, Rei Vital, Rush Wickes, Edgar Urena, and Ron Barth. Also deserving of high praise are the coaches in our league who work with their students each week to help them improve not just as quiz bowl players but also become better scholars in the classroom: David Fisher, Chuck Bean, Dave Jurvelin, Charlcie Holguin, Vaughnika Briggs, Jason Crowder, Mason Kitchens, and Matt Albert. Last but not least, the LVQBA thanks everyone around the country who have been so supportive since our inception in 2016. The national quiz bowl community is one of the finest in the nation, and it's a big reason why our coaches and players have fostered a collaborative atmosphere even during competition. Many of our coaches work together and share secrets to improve their teams, and a large number of the students in our league have formed many friendships across schools. All of this league-wide cooperation is a tribute to what the quiz bowl community prioritizes in deciding what they want the game to be and what they want it to do for students. |
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2019-20 League Information
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