Bible Quizzing preseason?

 I have often wondered what a Bible Quizzing preseason would look like.

See, as a football, I can tell you that NFL football has clearly marked offseason, preseason, season and postseason. The NFL offseason has events to mark its progression. First comes the pre-draft free agency. This is when the star players, who contract has expired and their team decides not to pick it up again, end up on new teams. Next comes the combine, when college football players, who hope to get drafted by a team, work out in front of scouts to demonstrate their abilities and skills. Then comes the draft, in which NFL teams take turns picking out college football stars to place on their teams. Following that comes post-draft free agency, which not only includes NFL players, who have been dropped by their team due to picking up a star football player in the draft, but it also includes undrafted college football players. Finally comes off-season training camps, when the players of the NFL teams report to their respective teams for their first practice. This event marks the end of the offseason. Next comes the preseason, in which each NFL team plays 3 scrimmages. Standings are kept, but they really don't matter. What does matter is the stats, as coaches will use these stats to determine who makes the team and who doesn't. The end of the preseason is marked by the final roster due date, in which NFL teams cut the roster down the maximum number of players allowed. Then comes the NFL season, the 18 weeks in which each team will play 17 games. Finally, the NFL football year closes out with the postseason, which consists of the playoffs, ultimately leading up to the Super Bowl. After the Super Bowl, repeat cycle.

I am careful to distinguish between the terms "quizzing season" and "quizzing year." The quizzing year has the quizzing season within it. The quizzing season is the 8 weeks in which the quizzing material is divided into eighths, and the quiz teams quiz on an eighth of the material of every week. The quizzing year not only consists of the quizzing season, but it also includes the 2 tournaments following the quizzing season. I guess one could say that those 2 tournaments are the "quizzing postseason" because they happen after the season. At the same time, however, it sounds weird calling the 2 tournaments the quizzing postseason because the term postseason typically implies playoffs, and while these tournaments can have playoff-like brackets, everybody participates in the tournaments, not just the best of the season. Furthermore, the season playoffs happen during the season itself, so does that technically mean the last 3 matches (2 semifinal matches + 1 final match) are the postseason? I digress.

For the time outside the quizzing year, that is quizzing offseason, and there really isn't a quizzing preseason. In my younger years as a quizzer, I would call the month of December the quizzing preseason, but I just did so because it was closer to the beginning of the quizzing year. Nothing really marks a quizzing preseason, like preseason quiz match scrimmages, because no such thing exists. Perhaps the quizzing practices before the first quiz meet counts as a quizzing preseason, but they do not look any different from quiz practices during the quizzing season. Again, it just makes more and better sense to say there's a quizzing year and a quizzing offseason.

If I quizzer would ever ask for the best way to prepare for the next quizzing year, the best answer I could give would be to read the quizzing material and write questions. That's what worked for me. Ever since my first quizzing offseason, between my first and second year of quizzing, that's what I have done. I have read the quizzing material and write questions. How many quizzing questions I could write depended on a couple factors. First, it came down to how much free time I devote to quizzing during the offseason. Second, since I aimed to write exhaustive questions (every question that could possibly come out of that verse), it also depended how many verses the first couple or few chapters had in them. When I was a quizzer, my question writing process involved writing a rough draft on paper with pen and then typing up my final draft on the computer. As a young quizzer, this process worked excellent because re-reading the question and answer on paper to type it gave me the opportunity to proofread it. This too took up time, which may have prevented me from writing questions.

In my first quizzing offseason, I wrote questions for the first 2 chapters of the quizzing material. The next offseason, I wanted to beat my record. On that second offseason, I wrote questions for 3 1/2 chapters (I found out the first week of the quizzing material would only cover the first 3 1/2 chapters, and since I was running out of time to do the whole 4th chapter, I called it quits halfway through the chapter). The following offseason I beat my record yet again. Not only did I write questions for the whole first week of quizzing, I wrote some for the 2nd week and some for the 6th week (the quizzing material got rearranged during the offseason, so what I thought would be week 1 ended up in week 6). The offseason after that I only wrote for the first 2 chapters of the quizzing material, but to be fair with me, the first chapter was long chapter, over 50 verses long. That gave me barely enough time to work on chapter 2. From there, it did not look too pretty. Every offseason following, as a quizzer, I would only write questions for the first chapter of the quizzing material. I imagine it mostly had to do with the fact that I was getting older and I had more responsibilities. I went into my senior year of high school and then into college. I barely had enough free time to enjoy a video game, let alone write quizzing questions. Then again, it may be due to the fact that I didn't need practice questions to learn and study the material, so I put less of a priority and less time on them. Even in my first year of coaching, I had barely managed to get 2 chapters worth of quizzing questions out there before the start of the season. 

Then came my ten-year tenure on staff. At first, I was just a timekeeper. Knowing that writing quiz questions was going to have no use, I put less priority and less time on them. In both 2011 and 2012, I have an incomplete set for the first chapter of the quizzing material. Yes, I got a bit of the way through the chapter, and then I ran out of time and stopped. Heck, in 2013, I didn't even bother to write a single quiz question, deciding instead to write a commentary, using the degree I had and was in the process of earning. Then came 2014, in which quizzing returned to Exodus. Quizzing had done Exodus before, and that's when I wrote questions on 3 1/2 chapters. I had lost those questions since, and I was kind of glad because they weren't the best questions. I decided that, since I lost those questions, I wanted to rewrite them, so I could, in a way, "gain them back." Then, halfway through the offseason, quizzing announces that they will change to the ESV. I had already written out questions for the first 2 chapters at that point! I had to start all over again. I did manage to get back on track, though. By the time that the quizzing season kicked off, I had finished 4 whole chapters of Exodus, technically beating my record. Then for 2015, they announced the quizzing material would be Mark and Acts. Just like Exodus, Mark had done before, Mark had written question on, but I lost those questions (and again, I'm glad because they weren't the best questions). Therefore, I resolved to once again "gain those questions back" by rewriting them. I did reach my goal of rewriting the first 2 chapters...when the quizzing coordinator Fred contacted me. He asked if I could become a judge for the staff this year. My motivation set on fire! Now that I knew I could use these practice questions to become a better judge, I worked harder on them. I doubled the results I wanted. I wrote questions on the first 4 chapters of Mark, which would become the whole first week and a bit of the second week. That spark of motivation did not last long, though. For the next few years, I again only wrote questions for the first chapter or two.

Then, for the 2020 quizzing year, I had a new spark of motivation. See, my church did not have any youth, and they did not have a lot of children, either. Finally, in time for the 2020 quizzing year, I had 2 youth eligible for quizzing. This gave me that spark of motivation to get back to question writing. Knowing the quizzing material would be on Joseph and Esther, and knowing quizzing covered that material before, I knew the quizzing season would begin with Genesis 37, 39 and 40, and I set a goal to at least get questions for those chapters. I would tread new territory, as the last time Joseph and Esther was the material, I only did a part of Genesis 37. I did reach my goal. By the launch of the 2020 quizzing season, I had exhaustive questions for Genesis 37, 39 and 40. Unfortunately, both of the youth of my church declined forming a quizzing team. While ultimately bummed that I could not coach for another year, I at least felt a bit of satisfaction knowing I could get back into the swing of quizzing question writing.

Despite the 2020 quizzing year ending without an invitational, an announcement for the quizzing material came later on that spring, and that announcement said the quizzing material would cover the stories of Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah. Still clinging to the hope of coaching a quiz team at my church, I still started on Job chapter 1 the day I heard the announcement. I will admit, due to the uncertainty of changing the youth's mind on quizzing, and the uncertainty of having a quizzing season during a COVID pandemic, I slowed down on writing the questions. By the time October rolled around, I only had that first chapter of Job done. October just so happened to be the same month I approached my church's youth about quiz team. When I first approached them, I got a probable, questionable and doubtful interest in quizzing. I told them to think and pray about it. Meanwhile, my spark of motivation caught fire. I now rushed to a second chapter of Job done. I finished that in November, the same time I approached the youth a second time. That probable, question and doubtful became a yes, yes and yes. Now that spark of motivation became a bonfire of motivation! I hurried to knock out the third chapter of Job. Unfortunately, the quizzing material changed to accommodate to an abbreviated quizzing season. The new quizzing material would be...Mark! I had realized that it was too late to go back and write questions on Mark (I received this news in December), but I did quietly finish Job 3, just in case I needed it for a later date ;)

At the end of the 6-week, biweekly quizzing season of 2021, the quizzing coordinator Fred did acknowledge that the coordinators did not know the quizzing material for 2022, but I had feeling, though. When they announced the change in quizzing material for 2021, they said they wanted to hold off the originally announced material for a time when they could all come together for a tournament. I knew if all the quizzing conference felt comfortable holding an invitational, the quizzing material would be on Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah. Therefore, for the beginning of the offseason, I went back to Job, starting at Job 40. That summer, I received confirmation of my suspicions. The quizzing material for 2022 would indeed cover Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah. Furthermore, by this time, all 5 of the quizzers said something to me about wanting to quiz again for the upcoming quizzing year. Between these two factors, I was spurred on to write as many questions as possible. By December, I had finished questions for all 6 chapters of the Job quizzing material, and I had even squeezed in a chapter of Joshua. 7 chapters, 152 verses, 1,724 questions, I'm pretty sure this is the most I have ever written in a quizzing offseason.

Reflecting back on quiz seasons past, I never realized how much I lost my love and my joy of quizzing. I know it may not seem like it to outsiders, but I did. The evidence of my offseason question writing stands alone as proof. Also as proof, look at where I applied to for my doctorate. I applied to both Wheaton College and Dallas Theological Seminary, both out of state. Clearly, I could not stay involved in quizzing in either state. I had truly lost my love and joy of quizzing. When I finally got to coach a team again, that love and joy of quizzing grew again. Again, just look at the number of quiz questions I wrote as proof. Same goes for the all the other studying. During the offseason, I would normally look for key words. When on staff, I would only find the key words for the first couple chapters or the first few weeks. Now that I had a quiz team again, I made sure they had the keywords for the entire year. Reflecting back, I realized I liked being quizzing staff, especially judge, but I love being a quizzing coach.

As for what else I did in the quizzing offseason, I sometimes would commit passages to memory. It usually was just 1 chapter, although for my third year of quizzing, I memorized 4 1/2 chapters! I don't do that anymore. As their coach, I try to practice alongside my quizzers, and I promised them no memorization (although I wouldn't discourage it). Instead, I encourage what I call "subconscious memorization," which means reading and listening to the material over and over until the repetition burns into their memory by default. I have already provided the quizzers their quizbooks and the ESV Audio Bible on the quizzing material on an audio CD. They have the resources. I will be reading and listening to the quizzing material alongside them. Let's see what sticks!

My Top 5 Favorite Quizbook Covers

 Many things mark the beginning of a new quizzing year, from the preliminary schedule (which not only has the dates and times of the quizmeets, but also the quizzing material breakdown and the possible location) to the coaches & staff meeting. Another thing that marks the start of the quizzing year is seeing and receiving the new quizbook. What makes seeing and receiving the quizbook peculiarly exciting is seeing the new quizbook cover. Ultimately, the quizbook cover does not really impact quizzing itself. After all, most Bible simply have a black cover with HOLY BIBLE in gold lettering. Some quizbook covers, however, go above and beyond in their design, somehow aligning with the quizzing material in te quizbook, and that deserves recognition. In honor of my 20th year involved in Bible quizzing (a little overdue, but before my 21st year in Bible quizzing begins), here are my top 5 favorite quizbook covers over the past 20 years, ranked from 5th favorite to most favorite.

Honorable Mention: 2002 - Joshua, Ruth, Esther, Daniel Jonah

Ok, this honorable mention technically makes this list a top 6, but this honorable mention deserves the mention because, if not for a recent quizbook cover, this cover would have made the top 5 list. The honorable mentions goes to the 2002 quizbook with Joshua, Ruth, Esther, Daniel and Jonah. At first, it seems like nothing fancy with its red text on purple background. Look closely, however, and the alignment of the text has more creativity behind it than previously thought. Traditionally, not only will the quizbook have on it the name of Bible books quizzed on, but it will also have the names of the quizzing conferences, as well as "Quizzing [year]." The 2002 quizbook found a creative way to do this. In a lighter purple text, the names of the quizzing conferences, as well as "Quizzing 2002," fall on each side of the Bible book names. Ruth falls between West and Liberty, Esther falls between Wayne and County, Daniel falls between NW and Ohio, and Jonah falls between Quizzing and 2002. Put it all together, and the Bible book names neatly descend in a diagonal direction, almost naturally, even without the names of the conferences and Quizzing 2002. While nothing creative with images or pictures, the creative alignment of the text alone deserves an honorable mention.

5th favorite: 2009 - Genesis

From the quizbook of my first year as a quizzer to the quizbook of my last year as a quizzer. The Genesis quizbook in 2009 is the first quizbook to add some sort of imagery on it, besides the book name. The 2009 Genesis quizbook has a simple image on it: a lens flare. This simple imagery of a lens flare makes a small yet nice touch. Since a lens flare comes from light, the lens flare symbolically represents light. It calls back to the creation account in Genesis 1, in which God creates light first on the first day. Since the term genesis means origin, beginning or creation, it all fits together. The book of Genesis contains the beginning of the creation of the world, and the beginning of the creation of the world starts with the creation of light, as represented with the lens flare. If God did not create the light, the lens flare would not exist. The lens flare on 2009 Genesis quizbook gets the quizzer to think about origins and beginning, from the beginning of the creation of the world to the beginning and creation of the nation of Israel, starting with Father Abraham. The 2009 Genesis quizbook at least puts the 2018 Genesis quizbook to shame (although the 2018 on the back cover forming the E in Genesis was a pretty cool idea)

4th favorite: 2020 - Joseph & Esther (Genesis 37,39-50 & Esther 1-10)

While technically not having an image or picture on it necessarily, the 2020 quizbook on the lives of Joseph and Esther, covering Genesis 37,39-50 & Esther 1-10, could still have meaning behind the quizbook cover's pattern. In Genesis 37:4, Jacob gives Joseph a robe of many colors. With the purples, pinks, reds, oranges and yellows on the cover, the cover could easily be a close-up of Joseph's colorful robe. The font of Joseph & Esther somewhat resembles that the font used for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Esther isn't fully left out, either. While the title cover has many colors represented on it, the dominant color seems to be purple, the color worn by royalty in Old Testament times. The dominant purple calls back to the fact Esther becomes queen. While lacking an image or a picture, which pushes it back on the list, the pattern on the quizbook cover almost suffices as an adequate substitute for this lack of image or picture. It definitely puts to shame the 2011 quizbook on the same material, with its white writing on a black and purple background.

3rd favorite: 2010 - 1 & 2 Corinthians

Masthof Press, the printers of the quizbooks, were really on top of their game when it came to quizbook covers in the early half of 2010, as my top 3 favorite quizbook covers all come from the early half of 2010 (perhaps that's why the 2009 quizbook on Genesis ended up in 5th place). My 3rd favorite quizbook cover comes from my first year in quizzing not as a quizzer and my first year as quiz coach. 3rd favorite belongs to the 2010 quizbook on 1 & 2 Corinthians. No, I am not being biased because the quizbook cover is my favorite color (in fact, I prefer darker oranges). This is the first quizbook to have a more concrete picture, more concrete than a lens flare. Big and center on the quizbook's front cover stands a Corinthian pillar. While nothing fancy, the Corinthian pillars make a connection to Corinth, its place of origin, the same Corinth to which Paul wrote 2 epistles. Even the font has a Greek feel to it, further putting in place the Greek mindset. Everything from the text font to the single background picture points back to the quizzing material on 1 & 2 Corinthians.

2nd favorite: 2013 - David (1 Samuel 16-31, 2 Samuel 1-12, 1 Kings 1:28-2)

So much is going on here with the 2013 quizbook cover. The 2013 quizzing material covered the life of David, from humble shepherd to exalted king. Of course, the Bible mainly focuses on the exalted to king because David serves as a predecessor to the ultimate exalted king, Jesus Christ. Likewise, the 2013 quizbook cover focuses on the kingly symbols for David. This quizbook has a picture on it, a crown, the ultimate symbol of a king. Actually, it has 2 crowns on it, for even the name of David wears a crown on the quizbook's cover! The colors of the quizbook also further emphasize the theme of an exalted. This quizbook has a gold background with purple lettering and purple pictures, two colors worn by kings. Originally, Masthof Press planned to inverse the colors, with purple as the background and gold for the lettering and pictures. Ultimately, I'm glad Mashtof Press went with the gold background and purple lettering and images, for the gold looks like legitimate gold, not just simply yellow. With so much happening on this quizbook cover, it deserves the spot as 2nd favorite. It's hard to imagine what could beat it for most favorite.

Most favorite: 2014 - Exodus

On the 2014 Exodus quizbook cover, it seems to have a picture of a bare bush, bare in the sense that the bush only exposes its branches without any leaves. Considering the 2014 quizzing material covers Exodus, the only bush that appears in all the book of Exodus is the burning bush in Exodus 3. Then it all becomes clear. The quizbook cover does not have a bare bush, but rather, it has burning bush. The flames of fire out of the midst of this bush are the red, orange and yellow colors of the quizbook. It almost looks like the quizbook cover is a closeup of the burning bush, so close that it can't be seen outside the burning bush. It's one thing to put a burning bush on the cover of the quizbook; it's another thing to make the whole quizbook cover the burning bush. Even the text fonts contribute to the message and theme of Exodus. The bold and capitalized font face of the title Exodus brings out the importance of the book to the overall Old Testament. The subtitle text, colored in a yellow-orange hue, makes it look like the text is part of the flames of fire out of the midst of the bush, which one would think would make it hard to read, but surprisingly, is not hard to read. The only improvement that possibly could be made would be to make the title Exodus a gray color, symbolically representing the smoke of the burning bush. Ultimately, though this quizbook cover combines the best my 4th favorite quizbook with my 2nd favorite quizbook, thus making it, in my opinion, my favorite quizbook. It definitely puts the 2004 Exodus quizbook cover to shame.