The RBHS quiz bowl team, led by coach Greg Irwin, placed fourth in a field of 32 teams at Tiger Bowl VII. The Tiger Bowl is an annual tournament held by the University of Missouri Quizbowl Club, contended between high schools from all over the state of Missouri.
Although RBHS entered three teams into the tournament, labelled A, B, and C, the A team was the only team to place at the tournament. The team consisted of: seniors Robby Schmidt, Delaney Tevis, Clarissa Curry, Alain Chen, and sophomore Nathan Kempf.
The team went 5-0 in the preliminary round, and then 4-1 in one of the two playoff pools, with a single loss to Savannah High School. Next, in the super playoff, RBHS lost to Hallsville 510-200 and then to Hannibal as well, 410-290, putting them at fourth place in the tournament.
“The three games we lost were all to teams that had a very good individual player along with a few solid teammates to supplement their main scorer,” Kempf said. “The one against Savannah was especially tough because we weren’t expecting them to be nearly as good as they were, and the loss against Hannibal was also tough because we were leading at halftime and would have possibly won if a few more buzzer races (when both players know the correct answer from the same clue and buzz at the same time) had gone our way.”
Nevertheless, Kempf said he was only expecting the team to place somewhere between fourth and sixth place anyway. Although the majority of questions must be asked individually without any help between teammates, Kempf believes that it is of the utmost importance to have a well-rounded team effort.
“Team efforts in quiz bowl are important because one person can’t know everything that gets asked about all the time,” Kempf said. “So if you diversify who knows what categories individuals can get a more in depth knowledge base of a certain subject.”
 
By Luke Chval