Valentine's Day Quizzing at Petra

 While the quizzing schedule was back on track, quizzing was far from back for normal...well, at least for this year. Because the postponed week landed on what was scheduled on an off week, the next quiz meet would be on the following Sunday. The quizzers would only have a week to prepare. While a single week to prepare is closer to a typical, traditional year for veteran quizzers, for rookie quizzers, who are use to quizmeets every other week a single week to prepare is a brand new experience. For Stony Brook, a team of rookie quizzers, it was a brand new experience for everybody. Furthermore, with quiz practice on Friday nights, the quizzers would only have a single day to fix what they needed to fix.

Of course, the Stony Brook quiz team came together on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. to practice. Caleb had to step out at 2:30 p.m. for choir practice, so we started with a practice match instead of our usual reading, just so Caleb could at least get a practice match in before leaving. That practice match did not go well. In the first third of match, there was 3 errors, and a 4th question absolutely nobody knew. At that point, I, as their coach, decided we needed to stop the practices matches and read. Caleb started off the reading, so he could do his part right before leaving. He read his part and exited. The rest of the quiz team wrapped up reading, and then they went back to practices matches. These practice matches went a whole lot better. Even moving quizzing out to 4 question quiz outs because Caleb was out, the rest of quizzers could still quiz out easily. They were ready. The quiz team wrapped up practice by going over lists, like the current week's longest list of the 13 evils that come from within and defile a man, and review lists like the 12 disciples. While the quiz team waited for dinner to cook, they took a break by playing Mario Chase, a minigame on the Wii U game Nintendo Land. Everybody got the opportunity to play as "it" on the Wii U game pad, running away from the players playing with the Wiimote. It was a lot of fun. Around 4:15 p.m., dinner was ready, and the quiz team sat down to eat some lasagna made by Karen Hershey. Caleb rejoined the team at 4:30 p.m. for dinner. Once everybody finished eating, the quizzers loaded into the Metzler van to leave. After a quick pit stop at Stony Brook Mennonite Church to take our team photo, we drove off to Petra Church for our quiz meet.

The Stony Brook team photo

The Stony Brook quiz team arrived at Petra Church, so the team went into their nook to do a few rounds of questions. As their coach, I did not want to overdo it, so the team headed into the sanctuary to wait for worship.  After a few worship songs and announcements, Stony Brook had to exit the sanctuary immediately, for the team had the first match of the first round.

Waiting for worship

For the first match, Stony Brook faced off against Petra 9, a team at the time last place in our league. Despite Petra 9 dominating buzzing in for every question the first half of match, they errored on a quarter on them, and Stony Brook got all the bonuses correct, keeping the match close. Stony Brook had a bit of a score when Petra 9 answered 3 questions correctly in a row, including one of their quizzers quizzing out, putting Petra 9 a solid 35 points in the lead. Stony Brook would answer with their own streak of 3 correct answers, helping the team catch up, yet they still fell short 5 points due to the Petra 9 quizzer quizzing out back on question 7. It didn't help when a Petra 9 quizzers buizzed in and answered correctly on question 13, putting Petra 9 ahead 15 points. On question 14, Petra 9 buzzed in and errored, but Stony Brook could not pick up the bonus and answered it incorrectly. On question 15, Olivia buzzed in, answered correctly and quizzed out, tying the match! Yes, the final score was 75-75. The highlight of the match was Olivia getting her second quiz out of the year.

After an hour of wait time, Stony Brook had their second match of the night, this time facing off against Hinkletown 4, the 3rd Hinkletown team for the year. Now Hinkletown 4 had Rebekah Showalter and Hannah Martin, 2 perfect quizzers, meaning they had quizzed out every match this year so far. At the same time, however, I noticed how the rest of the quizzers on Hinkletown 4 hadn't done much. Before the quizmatch started, I, as their quiz coach, reminded the quizzers that the beginning of the quiz match may become the Hannah and Rebekah show, but Stony Brook could sweep in at the end and take the match. Man, I hate it when I'm right. For the first 9 questions, Rebekah and Hannah buzzed in on 8 of them, answering three-quarters correctly and erroring on the other quarter, which Stony Brook picked up all the bonuses correctly. Then, after both Hannah and Rebekah quizzed out, a 3rd Hinkletown 4 quizzer by the name of Elisabeth buzzed in and answered correctly, extending their lead even further. Two-thirds the way through the match, and Hinkletown 4 had the lead 80-30. During a timeout, I, their quiz coach, reminded the quizzers that Rebekah and Hannah quizzed out, and now Stony Brook could take control of the match. Stony Brook definitely did try. On question 11, Kate buzzed in and errored. Fortunately, Elisabeth could not answer the bonus correctly. On question 12, Olivia buzzed in and answered correctly, her first action of the quizmatch. Unfortunately, she followed up on question 13 with and error, but fortunately, Elisabeth got the bonus incorrect again. With 2 questions left, Stony Brook was behind 40-80. As their quiz coach, I was unsure if I should leave in the 4 quizzers of the starting lineup, who each had 1 question correct, so they had the opportunity to quiz out, or to pull a quizzer out for our substitute Caleb to increase our chance for team bonus. As their coach, I was indecisive on what to do. Then Hinkletown 4 called their final timeout. I took it as a sign. Since Kaylee and Olivia already had a buzz in, I made a coach's decision to pull Olivia and put in Caleb. Now with Caleb, Kate and Lauren all in, if 2 of the 3 of them buzzed in and answered correctly, Stony Brook would get team bonus! On question 14, Caleb buzzed in and answered correctly. Now it came down to either Kate or Lauren buzzing in and answering correctly for team bonus. On question 15, Kate buzzed in and answered correctly, giving Stony Brook team bonus! If you're keeping score, yes, Stony Brook tied again, this time with a score of 80-80.

At the halfway point of the quizzing season, Stony Brook has a record of 1-2-3. Yes, Stony Brook has 1 win, 2 losses and 3 ties! More importantly, since standings go by points, Stony Brook now has a grand total of 420 points, bumping their point average up to 70 points/match. Hopefully, the increase in total points and point average will result in the team moving up the rankings.

Quizmeet at Petra: Quizmatches vs. Hinkletown 6 & Strasburg 3

 The Stony Brook quiz team had a very busy Sunday for their season opener!

At 10:00 a.m., the Stony Brook quiz team worshipped together at Stony Brook Mennonite Church. Halfway through the worship service, the congregation blessed/commissioned/dedicated the quizzers to the Lord by the COVID-friendly version of "laying of hands" (extending their arms towards the quizzers) and praying over them. The quiz team then gave the church a special treat by reading the Scripture of the sermon right out of their quiz book. Their quiz coach then preached on part of the quizzing material. Now the quizzers didn't have to worry about being tempted to read their quiz book instead of listening to the sermon 😉! After the worship service concluded, the quizzers did not leave empty-handed because they each received their secret sponsor gift.

The quizzers arrived for quiz practice at 2:00 p.m. at their quiz coach's home. As they arrived, their coach received an important text message from the Bible quizzing coordinator. Due to sickness, quizzing was short staffed. Quizzing had to remove a room and staff and add an extra round. Instead of having back-to-back matches, the Stony Brook quiz team now had a match in the new last round. While it would not affect the quiz team immediately, they would be staying later than normal. This was the 3rd practice, with the 8th, 9th and 10th practice quiz match. At first, it did not go so hot. While Kate managed to quiz out by question 5, by question 8, there were 6 errors, of which 4 of the bonuses were dropped (incorrect). By the last practice match, however, the team got hot. The first 6 questions were correct buzz-ins, there were only 3 errors the whole match, and the rest of the match were correct buzz-ins. True, that last practice match was going over missed questions over the past 2 Friday practices, but it demonstrated that the quizzers had learned from their mistakes. It would come in handy. Quizzing practice went so smoothly, the quiz team had dinner early, consisting of spaghetti, meatballs, salad and garlic knots, made by Carrie, sponsored by Dwayne and Teri. With an early dinner, the quizzers got some free time to relax. They played some Ring Fit Adventure on the Nintendo Switch, seeing if they could beat their coach's high score. At 5 o'clock, they departed for Petra church for their quiz meet.

The quiz team reached Petra church at 6 o'clock. After everybody went for a bathroom break, the quiz team found a nook, where the quiz coach did a round of questions with the quizzers over the missed questions from that afternoon and last Friday. The quizzers were ready as they would ever be! The quiz team entered the sanctuary as the worship music began for a time of worship. When worship ended, the quizzing coordinator went through some announcements. During the announcements, he announced all the churches and all the team. As he went down the S part of the list, he announced, "We have 1 new church: Stony Brook!" The team received quite a hearty applause! Due to social distancing during the pandemic, the only ones attending the quiz matches were the quizzers, coaches, staff and immediate family. Therefore, the rest of teams had to wait for their matches in the sanctuary or the lobby. The Stony Brook quiz team retreated back to their nook to wait for their matches.

Before they knew it, it was 7:40 p.m., and Stony Brook made their way to room 301 for their first quiz match, versus Hinkletown 6. The whole match between Hinkletown 6 and Stony Brook was neck and neck. Whenever Hinkletown 6 would answer a question correctly and get ahead, Stony Brook would catch up by answering a question correctly. Whenever Stony Brook would take the lead by answering a question correctly, Hinkletown 6 would follow up by answering a question correctly, and tie up the score again. After the first 2 questions, the score was tied at 10. After 4 questions, the score was tied at 20. After 6 questions, the score was tied at 30. Trevor from Hinkletown 6 would answer question 6 correctly and quiz out, giving Hinkletown 6 a 15 point lead. Stony Brook would take the lead back by answering back-to-back questions correctly, but then Hinkletown 6 would take lead back with their own back-to-back correct answers. Caleb would help turn Hinkletown 6's odd 15 point lead into a tie again with his quiz out on question 13, but Jordan from Hinkletown 6 would quiz out himself, giving Hinkletown 6 their 15 point lead back. A win was out of the question, but a tie would be possible with Kate, who was 1 correct answer away from a quiz out. Knowing this, her quiz coach called out the words of encouragement his coach once gave him: "Kate, this next question is yours!" Those words of encouragement is just wait Kate needed. Kate buzzed in, answered correctly and quizzed out. The quiz match ended in a tie, with a final score of 80-80. The quiz team retreated back to their nook in the foyer to reflect on their first quiz match.

Before they knew it, an hour had passed, and the Stony Brook quiz team made their way to the "oasis" (the Petra youth group room) for their second quiz match, versus Strasburg 3. Strasburg 3 consisted of a team of veterans, and it showed. Strasburg 3 buzzed in on all the first 13 questions, only answering incorrectly twice the whole time. Fortunately, the Stony Brook team only managed to get 1 of those 2 bonuses correct. To make matter worse, those 11 of 13 buzz ins gave Strasburg 3 team bonus and 3 quiz outs. After two-thirds the way through the quiz match, their coach called a time out. He reminded them that standings go by points, not by win-loss record, so don't get to hung up on losing, but focus on racking up some point. That pep talk may have taken a few questions to kick in, but it worked! On the last 2 questions, Olivia buzzed in and answered the questions correctly. Stony Brook would lose 25-145, but Olivia would add 20 points to her individual score, and Kate would add 10 points to her individual score, and Stony Brook would add 25 points to its score.

After their first quizmeet, Stony Brook has a record of 0-1-1, and a total of 105 points, which averages 52.5 per match. Stay tuned to pabiblequizzing.org to see where that lands Stony Brook in the standings!