An uphill battle

On Sunday, Conestoga had 3 matches at Lancaster Mennonite. As the night would go on, each of the quizmatches would get tougher as we would have to face a harder team. On that Sunday afternoon, the quiz team met at Julia Yoder's at 2 PM. A few of us had to circle around her road a couple of times to find her house. We practiced in fron the of the fire place. Amanda found one of those old-fashion foot massagers and she had it under her feet most of the time. For Kristy and Denise, who weren't at practice on Wednesday, I updated them where we were in our standings and what are goal was: to get at least 5 team bonuses by the end of the year. We went over 4 rounds of new questions, taking a break halfway through. During our break, I introduced the quizzers to Lightning Reaction Extreme, a game that shocks the slow buzzers. I know a lot of people who fear this game, but the younger quizzers seemed to like it. We ended our practice with one match of all the questions that were missed on Wednesday. This was good for Kristy and Denise to hear those questions. Denise got a little bit frustrated wtih some of my questions, but I insisted it was learning the material. Julia Yoder served us a wonderful breakfast for dinner: blueberry pancakes, bacon fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. I had to leave for a quizcoach meeting at 5:45, so I left the quizzers early, letting them to their own devices.

I got to the coach's meeting right at 5:45 p.m. I think I might enjoy coach's meeting a little too much. Coach's meetings are like a rite of passage to me now. It represents that I have grown up and I am truly the coach now. But the coaches meeting was nothing overly exciting. We discussed what worked, what didn't, and what was going to happen for the final season playoffs, the ACC Tournament, and the Invitational in Kidron, Ohio. The meeting got over at 6:20, 5 minutes after worship started, so I had to go through quite the search to find my quiz team. When I found them, I joined them in worshipping the Lord. Then the typical announcement and joke, then all of us left the auditorium at once. In the midst of trying to get through the crowd, I thought I spotted out of the corner of my eye someone I knew. It was someone I knew! It was Coach Dave and Coach Vicki from Spring City! I darted through that crowd so fast so I could hug them (although it seemed to end up to be more of a tackle). I was so glad to see them. They said they hoped to come to more matches, but they had to go to ministry committee meetings, so they couldn't come to as much as they like, but here they were. I couldn't wait for them to come to Conestoga's matches.

Conestoga's first match was during the second round against Hinkletown 1. When Erik Zimmerman from Hinkletown 1 buzzed in on the first question and got it right, I was worried. Hinkletown 1 was below us in the standings and the easiest match we'd have all night. If we lost this match, it could really damper spirit. But there was nothing to worry about, for Denise quizzed out by question 7, and Justin followed by quizzing out on question 8. This allowed both Amanda and Meredith in to help us for team. After Justin quizzed out in question 8, Kristy and Joy got the next 2 questions correct after buzzing in, giving us team bonus on question 10. We had the four quizzers for team bonus, but it didn't stop there. Amanda buzzed in on question 11 answered correctly with "Paul was abnormally born." It was funny because Amanda told us in practice her favorite phrase for this week was "abnormally born." The match wasn't over yet. Joy quizzed out on question 14, and Amanda got the last question, also a buzz-in. The end score was in Conestoga's favor, 155 to 20. This was our best match by far all season.

Conestoga's second match was against Zion 2, who were slightly ahead of us in the standings. I had watched two of their matches, and it seemed like they were evenly matched to me. It was all a matter of Zion gettig team bonus. I recognized Joel and Ben as younger siblings from older siblings I quizzed along side of. It was pretty close for the first few questions. After six questions, it was Zion 2 - 40, Conestoga - 20. Even with Joel from Zion 2 quzzzing out on question 8, the 35 point deficit was not putting down the team. Sure enough, Zion 2 got four of their quizzers to get a correct buzz-in and got team bonus. I just urged them to stay strong and still get the most points they can. And that's exactly what they did. Denise quizzed out on question 12, and Joy followed, quizzing out on question 14. Justin kept at it by getting the last question correct. Conestoga did lose the match, but did earn 80 points, which technically above our average.

The third match was consective to our second match. The opponent was RiverCorner, 3rd place in our league. Their top quizzer was one away from perfect. Yet she seemed a little tipsy off of Mountain Dew. She did get the first two questions right, one a buzz in and one a bonus. But on questions 3 and 5 she errored, which Denise was able to get one of them correct. The reason she couldn't get in on question 4 was because Denise got the buzz-in correct. With her two errors, RiverCorner called a timeout after question 5, and pulled her. At that point, the score was tied with 20 points each. But after timeout, the team was refreshed. RiverCorner answered 6 of the next 7 questions correct, all buzz-ins. In that, they got team bonus and 2 quiz outs. Joy buzzed in on the last two questions, getting one right, and erroring on the other. After a close start, RiverCorner won, 110 to 40.

So after Sunday night, Conestoga's average went up from 78 to 81. Yet we stayed the same in standings, in slot 11. Denise is now 20th in the Top 50 Quizzers List. And after Justin's quiz out and Joy quiz outs, the two of them are now in Top 100. Next week we have the oppurtunity to go up in the standings.