Buzzers and Brains: Quiz Bowl Goes to Nationals

On Friday afternoons, Kelly Vikstrom (Director of Library and Instructional Technology) heads for the Campus Center with her computer and a box of cords connected to a set of buzzers. She sets them up on a table, stringing the buzzers along so that each one is in front of an empty seat.

Students begin to filter in over the next few minutes, and before you know it, the table is full, and Kelly begins rattling off a series of fascinating (and often obscure) questions from a quiz packet. The first student to hit their buzzer answers the question.

This is no run-of-the-mill trivia — this is Overlake’s nationally-recognized Quiz Bowl team, and they were selected to participate in the National Championship Tournament in Chicago! 

The team heading to Chicago is comprised of eight Upper School students, three of whom have been participating in Quiz Bowl since 6th grade: freshmen Julian Y., Aarna T., and Zach G. The team also includes seniors Molly K. and Theo C., who have been on the team since their freshman year. Rounding out the team are Aarav V. (’28), Kabeer M. (’27), and Theo O. (’25).  

When they arrive, they’ll play a series of scrimmages that don’t count toward the competition. But on Saturday, they’ll play upwards of 10 games lasting about 40 minutes each. To advance, the team needs to win at least five of those games. It’s a whirlwind of a day, but Julian says the team will “focus on performing at the level we know we can do.”  

Vikstrom has taken three other Overlake Quiz Bowl teams to Nationals, where 154 total teams come together to battle it out. Historically, we’ve placed as high as 17th, and she is optimistic that this year’s team is strong enough to place similarly. 

Team members don’t specialize in a specific category, but literature, geography, and European history are all subjects that the team collectively feels confident in. 

The key to performance under pressure is “to focus on the question at hand only, not the previous performances or statistics of success,” says Vikstrom. Julian agrees. “It’s not like a soccer game, where you have to stay on edge all the time. When another team takes a question, we try and use that time to sit back and recoup.” 

A great thing about Quiz Bowl is that no one single person needs to know the answer to every question. It’s a team effort. “It gets hard under pressure to remember that you aren’t supposed to know everything,” Julian says, “so you have to lean on your team.” 

Nationals is a major competition in the quiz bowl world, and Vikstrom is looking forward to our Overlakers getting to “revel in nerdiness” with each other and other schools’ teams. But beyond that, they’re looking forward to traveling and spending time together as a team. “Quiz Bowl is rightfully perceived as a nerd thing, but between practice, we know how to have fun and be goofy,” smiles Julian.

To follow along this weekend, check out the tournament website.