As I prepare to testify about the Stony Brook quiz team, the 2022 testimony does not feel as grand as the 2021 testimony. Despite feeling this way, the Holy Spirit reminded me a chapel speaker during my undergraduate college years, who preached "Big testimony or small testimony, if it glorifies God, it is a good testimony." Therefore, this testimony may not be as grand in quantity, but it is as grand in quality as it glorifies God.
While a majority of the thank-you cards I received in 2021 did say something along the lines of "I can't wait until next year!" I felt worried that the quizzers of last year would not want to reconvene to form the quiz team in 2022. I worried that I would hear something along the lines of "Quizzing was a great distraction from the coronavirus pandemic, but now that the COVID-19 pandemic has died down, my favorite co-curricular and extra-curricular activities have returned, so I will return to doing them." Surprisingly, that did not happen at all. Now I was a good boy and waited until November to say something (well, ok, maybe we talked about it during the church camping weekend in August, but they brought it up to me, not vice versa). I remember it was after church at a fellowship meal. Caleb, Kate and Lauren had withdrawn to a classroom away from the adults. At that time, I approached them about quizzing 2022. All of sudden they are throwing questions at me like what the quizzing material is on, what's the quizzing material breakdown, what's the first week's material, when's the first practice, when's the first quizmeet, when they are getting their quizbooks, etc. I almost lost my train of thought in the questions! After the questions had died down, I got back on track and asked, "So is that a yes?" Pretty much, they all almost said unanimously, "Yeah, we're in." Boy, that went easier than I thought! Even more impressive, they all told me that they had already begun looking at the material! Even better! Once I got home, I immediately opened my laptop and sent an e-mail out to Kaylee and Olivia saying, "The quiz team is getting back together! You in?" Olivia affirmed by that evening, and Kaylee said yes the following Monday morning. Indeed, the quiz team was back together!
Now I will confess that I did not do the best recruiting during the month of November to look for rookie quizzers. I merely gave our veterans the opportunity to invite friends. At first, by that method alone, it looked like Stony Brook would have enough for 2 teams! By the end of November, however, all other interest had fallen through, and all Stony Brook would have is the same 5 returning quizzers. I was quite OK with that, though. For me personally, the last time I had a repeat of the same exact team, it was my last 2 years as a quizzer. While that team did not win any championships, it had done the best it had ever done, and the Lord taught us some powerful lessons, so I was excited to see what the Lord would do with this 2022 Stony Brook quiz team.
The Stony Brook quiz team was registered on December 1. That following Saturday, I went to the quizzing coordinator's house to drop off the registration fee and pick up the quizbooks. I texted the quiz team when I got back to my home to let them know their quizbooks were available to pick up the next day. The enthusiasm they had to pick up the quizbooks! Since Kaylee had to work, Kaylee sent her mom to pick up the quiz book after church. Olivia actually came all the way to my home in the afternoon to pick up hers. I just loved the enthusiasm they had to begin studying and practicing.
I know I already blogged about this in full detail back in January (and you can click here on this parenthetical phrase to read about it!), but I have to testify about it again. At our first practice on the first Thursday of the year, it felt like the Stony Brook quiz team had fallen back into bad habits. Quizzers waited too long to buzz in, half of those buzz-ins would result in errors, and half of those errors ended up as missed bonuses. That first practice, however, was merely Stony Brook warming up after 9 months off of quizzing. By the last practice before the first quizmeet on Sunday, the quiz team had cleaned up, so well that the last practice match had 14 of 15 buzz-ins correct, and the only error resulted in a right bonus. It showed at the quizmeet. In the Stony Brook quiz team's first 2 quizmatches, Stony Brook scored 155 points, thanks to Olivia, Kate and Kaylee quizzing out, with either Caleb or Lauren coming in for team bonus. By the end of the first quizmeet, Stony Brook was 1st place in their League and 3rd place of all teams!
From my personal experience as a quizzer, I knew how a quizzing season could start off easy and get harder, so I also knew it was very possible that our strong start might be the highlight of the year, and maintaining that high would be the hardest thing to do. The illustration I kept giving the quizzers was the motivational poster of the cat hanging by the rope saying, "Hang in there!", just encouraging the quizzers to do their best to just maintain their average. Indeed, it felt like every week that became harder to do. This year Bible quizzing quizzed on Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah. Job wasn't that bad as previously thought, as evident in how well the Stony Brook quiz team did. Most of it was narrative, and the part that wasn't gave good imagery of 2 creatures that one could imagine in the head. Joshua and Nehemiah, which one would have thought would have been easier, actually turned out harder, as much of those 2 books had longs lists. While Jonah gave a nice break with a simple story, Zechariah gave a challenging close to the year with abstract visions. On top of that, it also seemed like Stony Brook's opponents became more difficult as the season progressed. In all honest, in a way it felt unfair to the quiz team. The difficult material and the hard opponents resulted in low scores, and that low score didn't reflect how much effort the team put into studying and practicing. Nevertheless, the team trudged on each week with the heavy burden that they could not reach the heights of that first week. More importantly, though, the team had good conversations about what they read for quizzing. At the end of every book, I, as their coach, would ask them, "What's the moral of the story?" and this team came up with some pretty good answers. Those answers clearly demonstrated that they comprehended the material, more than any quizzing question or score could display.
Because of the faithful study of the Word, even when the quiz team didn't perform too hot in the quizmatches, God rewarded the Stony Brook quiz team with a strong close to the season. While the results were not as spectacular as the first week, Stony Brook had their first quizmatch since the first week score in the triple digits, with 110 points. Because of that 110 point match, plus another 80 point match, Stony Brook went up in the standings, the first time they went up all year.
After 8 quizmeets and 21 quizmatches, Stony Brook finished with a record 8-12-1, or a .404 win percentage. Compared to last year (which is hard to do because last year's abbreviated year), in which Stony Brook finished with a .292 win percentage, this is a big improvement. Furthermore, this year, Stony Brook scored a total of 1460 points, which averaged 70 points per match. Compared to last year (which is hard to do because last year's abbreviated year), this too is a huge improvement, as Stony Brook averaged 61 points per match last year. In fact, last year, 70 point average was the highest Stony Brook was ever last year, and that was only for 1 week! Stony Brook's 1460 points finished Stony Brook 12th of 25 teams in League A and 24th of 49 teams overall. Another giant improvement from last year's 19th of 26 teams in League A and 37th of 51 teams overall.
While this was everybody's 2nd year in Bible quizzing (their sophomore year, if you will), this was also everyone's 1st year with tournaments (their rookie year, if you will). I have already blogged about both tournaments in full detail (and I would encourage you to read them if you haven't already), but let me quickly summarize them to refresh.
In regard to the local AMEC Tournament, the Stony Brook quiz team went in with only 3 quizzers: Olivia, Kaylee and Caleb. Stony Brook had a rough start, starting with a 2-match losing streak. The quiz team quickly bounced back with a 2-match winning streak. With a 2-2 record, the Stony Brook quiz team could make it to the playoffs with a win in the quizmatch versus Metzler, who also just so happened to be down to 3 quizzers. As long as Metzler didn't win, Stony Brook made it to the playoffs. In that quizmatch versus Metzler, Stony Brook took the lead and held the lead for most of the match. After 13 of the 15 questions, Stony Brook had the lead with just 2 questions remaining. As long as Metzler didn't get those last 2 questions correct, Stony Brook would win and qualify for the playoffs. The only thing that could not happen was for Metzler to get both question right. Unfortunately, it just so happen that Metzler would get those last 2 questions right, putting Metzler in the playoffs and putting Stony Brook out of the playoffs. Despite not making the playoffs, the quiz team nevertheless did very well for their first tournament. Their record of 2-3 is a win percentage of 0.400, which is roughly on par for how they did in the season, which is still better than last year's season. And remember, they did it with only 3 quizzers!
Regarding the Invitational Tournament, hosted by AMEC Quizzing, it felt like quite the opposite. The Stony Brook quiz team started out strong with a 3-match winning streak. That 3-match winning streak was followed by a 3-match losing streak, but that was kind of expected, due to quizzing 3 excellent quiz teams almost back-to-back-to-back. Stony Brook bounced back with a win versus Hopewell, which put the quiz team in good running for the championship playoffs. If Stony Brook won their last match against Blainsport 3, they qualified for the championship playoffs. The only thing that couldn't happen is for Blainsport 3 to win. The quizmatch between Stony Brook and Blainsport 3 bounced back and forth, and by the last question, Stony Brook was only losing by 5. As long as Stony Brook got the last question, either a buzz-in or bonus, Stony Brook won and entered the championship playoffs. The only thing that couldn't happen was for Blainsport 3 to get that last question. Unfortunately, it just so happened Blainsport 3 did get that last question. While Stony Brook fell out of the championship playoff bracket, the quiz team did fall into a consolation bracket. For their first quizmatch in the consolation bracket, versus Weaverland 3, Stony Brook took a strong lead in the quizmatch, but Weaverland 3 caught up quickly. After 13 questions, with 2 questions left, Weaverland 3 could only win with 2 separate quizzers each getting a buzz-in correct for team bonus. As long as Stony Brook got just 1 question right, or even if a question went by unanswered or wrong on both sides, Stony Brook won. The only thing that could not happen was for Weaverland 3 to have 2 different quizzers buzz in and answer correctly. Unfortunately, it just so happened a brand new Weaverland 3 quizzer buzzed in and answered correctly on question 14, and another brand new quizzer buzzed in and answered question 15 right, giving Weaverland 3 the team bonus and the win, knocking Stony Brook out of the tournament. Nevertheless, the Stony Brook quiz team didn't do too bad for their first Invitational tournament. Not including the playoff loss, in the round robin, Stony Brook finished 4-4, or a .500 win percentage, which was better than their .404 win percentage of the season or their .400 win percentage of the AMEC Tournament. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for the team because their finish in the tournament did not really reflect how well they did.
During one of our low points of the season, it became too easy for the quizzers to look down on themselves. It got so bad, at one point, I had to stop everything to remind the quizzers, "Your value to this team is not measured by the points on the standings. Some of you are good at encouraging, while others of you are good at motivating, and you all bring so much more than that." Now I would like to testify about how the quizzers contributed to the quiz team.
CALEB METZLER: As their quiz coach, as the closest thing the Stony Brook youth have to a youth leader, I tried to get to know the quizzers outside quizzing. Doing so, I learned a lot about the quizzers outside quizzing. I learned that Caleb is an excellent singer. Now I know Caleb's family and friends knew that, but I did not know that. I knew Caleb as that guy who plays cello, bass and the occasional drums, not as a singer. I got the opportunity to see Caleb sing at his high school production of Godspell, and boy, the boy can sing! Caleb did an excellent job playing John the Baptist in Godspell, which makes his quizzing even more impressive. Honestly, I thought Caleb would be the hardest to recruit to the team this year with all he had involved in life. I even had a whole "Caleb, a Stony Brook quiz team is not the same without you" speech prepared for him, so you can imagine I was pleasantly surprised when Caleb was one of them to say, "Yeah, I'm in." Caleb did have to miss a few practices and a couple quizmeets to make it work, and Caleb made it work. Caleb scored 80 points during the season. Now I have been on teams with quizzers who had less going on in their lives than Caleb, and they only score 10, 20, 30 or 40 points by the end of the quizzer year. Caleb had all those curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities on his plate, and he still managed to score 80 points by the end of the quizzing season. Furthermore, of those 8 correct questions, 3 of them contributed to to team bonus. Yes, 3/4 of our team bonuses came about because Caleb was there to contribute for team bonus. To make things ever sweeter, during the invitational tournament, Caleb finally got a quiz out on the year. Caleb, on behalf of the Holy Spirit, I want to thank for making time for the Word of God, for your church, and for the quiz team, despite your busy schedule. It has pleased God, and you made me happy, too. Caleb, thank you for being a part of this quiz team. You were truly a blessing to the team. It would not have been the same without you.
LAUREN KEENY: As last year (2021 Mark) concluded, I asked all the quizzers how their first year of quizzing felt. I will never forget Lauren remarking, "Now that the year is over, I finally feel like I know what I doing. I'll be ready for next year." Sure enough, Lauren kept to her word. From the very first practice, Laurent seemed ready. She scored her first points of the year at the first quizmatch of the year, and in the second quizmatch of the year, she contributed a correct buzz-in for team bonus! By the end of the year, Lauren scored 100 points, more than double what she scored last year! In fact, Lauren surpassed her previous year's record of 40 points by the second week of the season, so it wasn't merely due to a longer season that Lauren surpassed her personal record. Lauren came prepared, and it showed. My favorite memory of Lauren does not come from the season, however, but it comes from the invitational tournament, during a round robin match versus Hinkletown 2. 13 questions in, Stony Brook was winning. Unfortuntaely, Hinkletown 2 was 1 away from team bonus. Fortunately, Stony Brook was also 1 away from team bonus, and that 1 away was Lauren. Stony Brook did not need that team bonus, as long as Hinkletown 2 did not get team bonus. The only thing that could not happen was for Hinkletown 2 to get team bonus. On question 14, Hinkletown 2 got their team bonus. Now up to this point, you've heard me "as long as" and "the only thing that could not happen" enough to know where this is going, but thanks to Lauren, it didn't go that way. "Lauren" is all I had to say for her, and Lauren knew what that meant. On question 15, the quizmaster asked, "Who did not sin and charge..." and Lauren buzzed in! She thought about the answer for bit and said, "Job." She was right! That was team bonus, and that was the win, keeping up Stony Brook's win streak. Of course, like I said above, every quizzer has a bigger role than just points. More important than comprehending the knowledge of the Bible is being able apply what the Bible teaches. At the conclusion of every book, I would ask the quizzers, "What's the moral of the story of the book?" I will never forget Lauren's answer for the book of Job. I asked the quizzers, "What's the moral of the book of Job?" and Lauren said something along the lines of, "The book of Job taught me that our suffering may be only temporarily, and we can trust God to turn it around." Now that answer is worth more than any quizzing answer! As an introvert, I always appreciated the extroversion Lauren brings to the group, whether that be asking questions to keep the small talk going or telling stories to get the whole group laughing. Lauren, thank you for being a part of this quiz team. You were truly a blessing to the team. It would not have been the same without you.
KAYLEE SNYDER: Something I learned about Kaylee this year is that Kaylee is the quietest saxophone player ever. Apparently, she doesn't want to play too loud in fear of drawing too much attention to her. Sometimes I felt like she approached quizzing the same way. I could tell the gears were turning in Kaylee's mind, yet she refrained from buzzing in or answering in fear it would bring too much attention to her, for better or for worse. I'm glad Kaylee did not hold back for the first quizmeet of the year. For the first two quizmatches of the year, Kaylee quizzed out on both of them, including a correct buzz-in, thus contributing for team bonus. I'm glad Kaylee did not hold back for the second quizmeet of the year. By the quarter-way point of the season, Kaylee would surpass her personal record of 85 points. Now at this point I started to notice that the more reserved quizzing from Kaylee. At the beginning of the year, through the achievement points system I created for the quizzers (I gave them 6 accomplishments, in which they got a blue star for doing it once, a silver star for doing it twice and a gold star for doing it three times), I encouraged each quizzer to quiz out 3 times during a season quizmatch. Kaylee got her first 2 quiz outs during the first 2 quizmatches of the year; she just needed 1 more quiz out for her last gold star. I kept telling Kaylee that I believe that 3rd quiz out was in her, and I believed she could get it by the end of the season. She didn't believe it so easily. Her favorite saying to me was "That's all I got." I didn't believe it, but she did. Fortunately, I was right, and Kaylee was wrong. At the last quizmeet of the season, during the second-to-last quizmatch, Kaylee did that last quiz out of the season. In fact, she was the first one to quiz out that quizmatch. By the end of season, Kaylee scored 235 points, more than double what she scored last year. Again, this cannot be due to a mere longer season because Kaylee broke her personal record by the second quizmeet. 105 points of the 235 points were due her 3 quiz outs, triple the number of quiz outs she got last year. When all was said in done, Kaylee earned all 6 of her gold stars. All this is possible because Kaylee spoke up and answered those those questions. Therefore, Kaylee, I encourage you to speak up and be heard. Don't feel like you have to be the quietest and in the background. Actually, you have a lot to contribute to the world, as long as you speak up, let your voice be heard and tell the world. Kaylee, thank you for being part of this quiz team. You were truly a blessing to the team. It would not have been the same without you.
KATE METZLER: Kate has quite the talent for quizzing, in more than one way. Kate could tell you if the answer is on the left-hand-side of the quizbook page or the right-hand-side of the quizbook page, and she could tell you if the answer was on the top, middle or bottom of the page, even if she didn't know what the answer was! Kate also had the knack of remembering the first letter of the correct answer, but she sometimes could not recall the full right answer. For example, one time she said, "Job's sorrows" instead of "Job's suffering." As another example, she said that the Lord was in "contract" with Israel instead of God being in "covenant" with Israel. I also learned about Kate that Kate is quite the perfectionist. During the quizzing season, Kate buzzed in 17 times, and of those 17 times, she answered correctly 16 times. Yes, Kate only got 1 error the whole season, and go figure that 1 error came during the last quizmatch of the season. Ultimately, Kate's perfectionism paid off for Kate. By the end of the season, Kate scored 335 points, more than double of what she scored the previous year. Again, no one can say it was merely due to a longer season, as Kate surpassed her personal record by the fourth week of the season. Rougly half those points came from Kate's 5 quiz outs, another personal record. When all was said and done, Kate also earned all 6 of her gold stars. Kate's perfectionism was her best strength and worst weakness. On one hand, when Kate buzzed in, you knew Kate would get it correct. On the other hand, Kate wouldn't buzz in unless she absolutely knew the right answer, which could have deterred her. Sometimes in order to succeed in quizzing you have to take chances. Sometimes a quizzer has to buzz in when they think it's a good place to buzz in. Hopefully the quizzer can get the correct answer in 30 seconds, and if not, oh well. That's what separates the average quizzers from the above average quizzers. Kate, I can see you making that move from average quizzer to above average quizzer, but you have to take those risks. In fact, I believe that advice applies to all of life. Kate, sometimes life requires risks to reap the benefits. Of course, make sure those risks are legal, moral and safe, but if they are indeed legal, moral and safe, they are probably backed by God, and it's God way to bless you. If you're obedient to God's call, even if it may seem risky to you, God will bless you. Kate, thank you for being part of this quiz team. You were truly a blessing to the team. It would not have been the same without you.
OLIVIA FARAG: Something I learned about Olivia this year is that Olivia does not like gym class, but when Olivia's gym class plays a sport, Olivia becomes very competitive. Sometimes I could see Olivia brought that competitive nature to quizzing. Watching Olivia quiz, it sometimes became apparent that not quizzing out was not an option. The stats speak for themselves. Of the 21 quizmatches of the quizzing season, Olivia quizzed out 15 times, almost triple the amount of quiz outs she got last year. Of the 6 quizmatches Olivia did not quiz out, Olivia got 2 questions correct for 20 points in 5 of those quizmatches. That 1 quizmatch, Olivia still managed to get 1 question right for 10 points, and that was the quizmatch versus Slate Hill, the top team in our league. Thank you, Olivia, for making sure we got points out of that quizmatch. If you did the math, Olivia scored a grand total of 635 points, more than double what she scored last year. Again, no can claim it was due merely to a longer season, as Olivia broke her own personal record by week 4 of the season. Olivia's 635 points placed her 22nd place in the individual standings out of over 250 quizzers, and AMEC Bible Quizzing recognized Olivia as one of the Top 65 Bible Quizzers. When I was my team's top quizzer, my coaches described me as both an anchor or pillar to the team. I would use the same words to describe Olivia. Whenever any of the other quizzers on the team felt like they could not do it, Olivia proved it could be done by doing it herself. That alone is encouraging and motivating. Olivia, thank you for being part of this quiz team. You were truly a blessing to the team. It would not have been the same without you.
In closing, I would like to some people. Thank you to all secret sponsors. One of the highlights of every quizzing Sunday was "Look at what my secret sponsor got me! What did your secret sponsor get you?" Secret sponsors made quizzers happy, made me happy, and most importantly, made Jesus happy. Thank you to all who provided dinner for the quizzers on quizzing Sundays, whether you hosted, sponsored or donated. The quiz team found all those meals very delicious. Thank you to Jon & Ann Metzler and Shawn & Dawn Keeny for help transporting quizzers to and from the season quizmeets and the tournaments. Every year I forget to calculate transportation, and you have always made sure every quizzer got to and from the season quizmeets and tournaments safely. Since I just mentioned two pairs of the quizzers' parents, let me say thank you to all the quizzers' parents. Thank you for everything you did for your quizzing teen, from keeping them accountable to study to coming to cheer them on at the season quizmeets and tournaments. Speaking of coming to quizmeets, thank you to everybody in the congregation to came to the quizmeets to cheer on the quiz team as cheering fans. While the quizzers did appreciate their parents cheering them on, they did also appreciate more than just their parents cheering for them. Thank you to all the preachers of Stony Brook (Brenden, Jeff and Jim) for preaching on the material corresponding with the week on which we quizzed on that material. Not only did it prevent the quizzers from avoiding the temptation to read their quizbook instead of listening to the sermon, but your sermons also made the quizzing material relevant and applicable. Thank you to everyone who prayed for the quiz team. We always need those prayers, and we always appreciated these prayers. Most importantly, I would like to thank and praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for a fun, safe and successful quizzing year. As far I know, there were no coronavirus outbreaks in quizzing. Praise Jesus for health. Although quizzing almost crossed some icy and snowy Sunday nights, we made it back and forth from each quizmeet in one piece. I remember one day specifically: the Saturday of the invitational tournament. Meteorologists forecasted a cold and rainy Saturday, but it ended up being a warm and sunny Saturday, perfect for walking between buildings on a college campus. Praise Jesus for good weather! Finally, of course, Jesus gets the praise for every right answer, every quiz out, every team bonus, every point. In the words of Job, the Lord gave, the Lord took away; blessed be the name of the Lord!
