Spring City's Top 4 Greatest Victories

On Sunday, January 16, 2022, something happened that, I must admit, I was never expecting to happen. On Sunday, January 16, 2022, a Stony Brook quiz team, consisting of 5 "sophomore quizzers" (quizzers in their second year) scored 155 points in their first 2 matches of the 2022 quizzing year. OK, I must confess that the Lord told me in a dream that the quiz team would score over 100 points in a quizmatch, but I simply dismissed that dream as wishful thinking, not prophetic. Even if I did believe the dream came from God as prophetic, I would have expected 1 quizmatch with exactly 100 points or just over 100 points, not 2 quizmatches of over 150 points. Not don't get me wrong, my disbelief did not come from a lack of faith in the Stony Brook quizzers. All 5 of them got the hang of quizzing by the end of their rookie year, and going into their sophomore year with clear expectations, they came prepared and ready. It's just that scoring over 150 points in a single quizmatch is a big deal for any team, regardless of how many years experience each quizzer has. As a matter of fact, in my 3 years quizzing with Ark Bible, I cannot recall at any point in time scoring over 150 points (I think I would have remembered that because it would have had an impact on me, as you will see), and in my 5 years quizzing with Spring City, only 4 quizmatches exceeded the 150 point mark. Therefore, in this post, I would like to reminisce over Spring City's greatest victories. Now I know a quizmatch called a "great victory" should be a quizmatch that has something like a close win, a comeback win or overcoming a strong and hard opponent, but those are all subjective. Thus, the most objective way to measure a "great victory" would be by the number of points, like a high score. Therefore, the primary determining factor for a "great victory" will be the total number of points scored in the quizmatch because season standings go by points (with that being said, tournament matches will not count, due to the fact tournaments go by wins, and most teams, including Spring City, practice a "mercy rule" by stopping after clinching the win). As a secondary determining factor to figure out any ties, the tiebreaker will go point differential to what the other team scored. And for the fun of it, to build up hype and suspension, let's countdown from 4th greatest victory to 1st greatest victory.

4) 2007 Season Week 3: Spring City - 155, Hopewell 1 - 10.

Spring City had not quizzed against Hopewell 1 since the 2006 season, and in that quizmatch, Spring City lost. In this quizmatch, Spring City would make up for it and then some. On February 4, 2007, on the third week of the quizzing season, Spring City would sit across from Hopewell 1 in Conestoga's sanctuary. I quizzed out on question 6. Tim quizzed out on question 10. Mike quizzed out on question 12. Sometime between my quiz out and Tim's quiz out, Christine got a buzzed in and answer correctly, giving up team bonus. After Mike's quiz out, Chelsea got a question right for another 10 points. Following that, Hopewell 1 throws another bonus in Spring City's direction, and since Mike remains in his seat, he gets the bonus correct. With 4 errors on Hopewell's side, Hopewell 1 was on the brink of either being shut out or losing with a negative score due to 1 more error. Fortunately for Hopewell 1, they did 1 question right, and they kept their errors to no more than 4, avoiding both possible worst case scenarios. Spring City won, 155-10. While the win had a big impact on Spring City, the loss had an even bigger impact on Hopewell 1. When Spring City had a rematch versus Hopewell 1 during the Invitational tournament, when Hopewell 1 entered the room, Hopewell 1's top quizzer, Bryant Burkhart asked, "So, is this the execution room?" It was. We won that match, too, 130-30.

3) 2007 Season Week 1: Spring City - 155, Blainsport - 0.

Blainsport had become quite the formidable foe for Spring City. Spring City had quizzed against Blainsport once in each of the past 2 seasons. Not only did Blainsport win both of those quizmatches by scoring over 100 points, the last match-up had Blainsport winning by a score differential of 100 points. Seriously, Blainsport had become quite the formidable opponent for Spring City. This 2007 Blainsport quiz team, however, looked quite different from the Blainsport team of the past 2 years. The quiz team only had 4 quizzers, 1 of which was a veteran and 3 of which were rookies. This did not necessarily mean automatic win for Spring City. Before quizzing Spring City, Blainsport had a quizmatch versus Paradise 3, which ended in a tie of 75 points each, and Blainsport was 1 away from team bonus. That may have been more of a reflection on Paradise 3 and less of a reflection on Blainsport. During the Spring City vs. Blainsport quizmatch, I quizzed out first, Tim quizzed out second, and Mike quizzed out third. After the three of us quizzed out, Christine got a buzz-in correct, giving Spring City team bonus. After the team bonus, rookie Chelsea, who is at her first quizmeet of her life, who is in her second quizmatch of her career, buzzes in and answer right for another 10 points. Chelsea would also get a bonus sent her way, but she didn't get it because she said houses instead of homes (I now found this ironic because that didn't fly in 2007, but I could see it working in 2022). Christine, after giving team bonus, would also get another question right. By the end of 15 questions, Spring City shut out Blainsport. That was my first time that my team scored over 150 points (at least to my recollection). As we shook hands, I felt weird. I didn't know what to say to them. I almost wanted to apologize. As the week went on, however, my feelings shifted. I had compared the 2005 & 2006 Spring City vs. Blainsport match-ups with the 2007 Spring City vs. Blainsport match-up, and an interesting stat emerged. If you add the scores of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 match-up, Spring City and Blainsport are tied at 240 points a piece! That is because, for each quizmatch individually, the winner has always scored over 100 points, and loser has always scored no more than 55 points. That tie of points would never be broken because, as far as I can remember, Spring City would never again quiz a quiz match versus Blainsport, in either the season, local tournament or Invitational tournament. Blainsport would have a bit of a slump for the next few years, even completely absent for the 2010 quizzing year, but they would bounce back by 2011 with 6th place finish in their league during the season, and then another bounce back in 2012, culminating in 2nd place finish in the Invitational tournament.

2) 2009 Season Week 4: Spring City - 170, Weaverland 1 - 10

Spring City did not start out the 2009 season as they did the past 2 years. In the past 2 years, Spring City would start out in 1st place, and they would spend the rest of their season hanging on, trying their best not to slide down in the standings too low, which usually resulted in a top 5 finish in their respective league. The 2009 season started out quite the opposite. In the 1st week, Spring City only scored 135 points, averaging 67.5 points per match, placing them 17th in the league. To put that in perspective, in the past 2 years, Spring City would score 135 in their first match alone! Then, to make matters worse, by the end of the 2nd week, the quiz team had 325 points, averaging 65 points per match, dropping the team to 21st league. Quarter-way through the season, out of the 5 quizmatches, only 1 exceeded over 100 points, and barely with 105 points. It may have been easy for Spring City and its fans to think the quiz team was past its prime, but Spring City would make up for those first 2 quizmeets in a single quizmatch, during week 4 of the season, versus Weaverland 1. Tim, Mike, Robert and I took the starting lineup. I quizzed out first. Tim quizzed out second, on literally the next question after I quizzed out. Mike quizzed out third. Robert quizzed out fourth. Yes, we had 4 quiz outs, with Robert being that 4th quiz out. It was his second quiz out of his career, and the first one of that year. Of course, for all 4 quiz outs, at least question was a correct buzz-in, so we naturally got team bonus for an additional 20 points. Since Chelsea and Alyssa weren't doing too hot, once Mike and Robert quizzed out, they got the opportunity to sit back, relax and watch the rest of the quizmatch play out. Robert looked really confused when the Weaverland 1 quizzer sitting across from him errored, and the quizmaster gave the bonus to him. While the bonus does not go towards his individual score, he did give the team another 10 points. Spring City won the quizmatch 170-10, due to 4 quiz outs, team bonus, and Robert giving the team an extra 10 points on a bonus. Thanks hugely to this giant win, Spring City would shoot up in the standings, which would eventually result in finishing the season 4th place in their respective league and 10th place overall in ACC.

1) 2008 Season Week  5: Spring City - 170, Emmanuel 2 - 0

At the beginning of every year, once I got the schedule, I had a habit of ranking all our opponents from hardest to easiest. When I got the scheduled in 2008, I thought that the quizmatch versus Emmanuel 2 would be the 2nd easiest (no, I don't remember who I picked to be the easiest). I believe I came to that conclusion because the Emmanuel 2 quiz team consisted of 4 rookie girls (they also carried a stuffed emu to fill in the seat if one of them quizzed out because the quiz team's full name was Emmanuel Mennonite Unworthy Servants, or E.M.U.S. for short). Turns out this quizmatch would become the easiest quizmatch of the year. First, I quizzed on on question 5. Second, Mike quizzed on question 7. Third, Tim quizzed out on question 10. Fourth, Bobby quizzed out following Tim. Yes, we had 4 quiz outs in this quizmatch. To make matters even sweeter, all 4 of those quiz outs were all on buzz ins, making it more impressive than the previously mentioned quizmatch versus Weaverland 1. Of course, that also gave Spring City team bonus. Speaking of which, on a related note, Spring City buzzed in on all 15 questions, also making it more impressive than the prior quizmatch versus Weaverland 1. For the remaining 3 questions that were not part of the 12 questions that went towards the 4 quiz outs, Chelsea got a buzz in correct, and Spring City committed 2 errors. Yes, Spring City errored twice, but Emmanuel 2 could not capitalize on it to take some points away from that quizmatch. They dropped both errors with incorrect bonuses. Therefore, Spring City won with a 170 point shutout due to 4 quiz outs, team bonus, and Chelsea giving 10 points extra. This humongous win would send Spring City up in the standings, which, by the end of the year, would result in Spring City finishing 4th in the league and 8th overall, making the 2008 Spring City team the best season performance that I have ever been part of.

Remembering and reminiscing over those quizmatches, I looked to see how Spring City did in those other quizmatches during the quizmeet. During the quizmeet with the Weaverland 1 quizmatch, Spring City also scored 145 points versus Maple Grove 2 the quizmatch after, but the quizmatch before, Spring City lost to Grace Point 1 55-75. Among those 3 quizmatches, Spring City averaged 123 points per match in that quizmeet. During the season opener of the 2007 season, before that quizmatch versus Blainsport, we scored 135 points versus Good Shepherd 2. Between 135 points versus Good Shepherd 2 and 155 points versus Blainsport, we averaged 145 points per match in that quizmeet, possibly and probably the highest quizmeet point average ever in my 5 years with Spring City and my 8 year quizzing career total. Still, looking back on these quizmeets, I never had a single quizmeet in which my quiz team scored over 150 points twice in the same quizmeet. While I admire Spring City's top 4 greatest victories, I also applaud Stony Brook for doing something the team I quizzed on while a quizzer could never do: score 150 or more points twice in a single quizmeet :)

My Spring City homies

I am ready for January. Why? It's the beginning of quizzing! Ever since quizzing ended with the secret sponser shing-ding-thing, I have only seen one or two quizzers, the most important quizzers, the ones on my team. Those guys are great. I know we said a lot of good things at the secret sponser reveal, but I want to say my own things now. Don't worry about public embarrassment. I'll do the same thing as I did last year. You have to guess who I am talking about.

You may have been the little one of the group, but you made a big influence. And even though your score was way different than the rest of the guys, you sure fit in with us. You quickly became one of the guys, with your grunting and moaning. And maybe you didn't enjoy it, but it was fun to see you as the demonstrated victim of some wrestling moves. And I hope you recovered from the neck whiplash you got on the invitational. I know you had some pressure on you, having two older brothers quiz at one time and having to do up to their par. But 20 points on the season is a good start, and I saw you really hard during the tournaments. Errors may sound bad, but errors are a sign of trying, so you made some good errors (what an oxymoron). The point is you tried.When you guessed, you had some of the best guesses, especially the right guesses. Seriously, who guesses Mesopotamia? I sometimes think you knew more than you think you did. Don't get too intimidate, remember your brother didn't do too well his first well, and that intimidated him so much he didn't quiz the next year. But look where he ended up. It would be great to have you back on the team. Now that the other two guys have girlfriends, I got no one to go ladying with except you. If you come back on the team next year, we'll go ladying together, and I'll get you a girl. And even better, I'll help you with your quizzing. Who knows, maybe next year we can higher than 292nd. Quizzing will be more fun with my right hand man! (Bryan "Lil' T" Tedor)

In the beginning of the year, I wasn't too sure if you were really into it. It actually seemed like your dad was more excited to quiz than you were. But that first right answer, those first 10 points, it couldn't have come at a better time. Do you not realize that without those points, we would have not been in first place that first week?! You came to help us many more times this year in quizzing. You got us team bonus, too! And as you scored more and more points, I could see how much more eager you were to study and get in a match. Sometimes you were just on fire! Just a little better, and you'll be starting material. That last question of the season, man, that was scary. You buzzed in early on the last question, the one for team bonus. It was so early that no one could guess it. But luckily you remember what we taught you, that Jesus was the all-else-fail answer, and you got it right. 40 points in a season is a good start for a rookie. Who knows what you could next year. If you have a go at it next year, who knows what you'll do? You could get anything from your first quiz out to reaching triple digits in the points. Maybe even be the 4th seat. It would be a lot of pressure to be needed for team bonus. You would have to score 5 times as many points as you did last year. But with more coaching and more studying, you can do it. You can do anything you put your mind to. All the hard work you did you deserved. (Chelsea "El Fuego" Mullins)

Third team's the charm, right? I'm gonna be 100% honest with how I felt about you. In the previous offseason, there you were, going around, gloating about how you were going to have your "super team", fully led and coached by you. To me, all it looked like you were stacking your team, and going anywhere at any cost to get it. I loathed you and wanted to beat you and your team into at a pulp. Then as I watched you go from Reading to Harvest to Zion to Hopewell, and I saw get shot down by every church because they wouldn't allow your dream team. And I laughed at you. I thought to myself, "Finally, the little punk is getting what he deserves." But when I heard that you couldn't get on a team by yourself, almost to the point my mind changed. I didn't hate you anymore, but pitied you. I hate to see good talent go to waste, and you are great talent. You seemed changed by your actions, and so I knew the perfect team for you to be on. I was so excitedly happy when I heard the Deitricks decided to let you on the team. I'm sure if it was because of the experiences in the other teams, but I saw a change in you. You were no longer that quizzer that wanted to exalt himself through his personal score. You were humble about how you were doing, but more focused on how this team was doing. You were such a benefit to this team, in more than just the 480 points you scored (which were helpful). You got everyone on board with quizzing, whether it be veteran or rookie. You weren't an enchanter, but more of an encourager. I think that the success of some of the rookies, and even some veterans, could be brought back to you. Not only did you provide encouragement, but you also put time into helping them practice. You took two big steps this year. You stepped up to lead an extra practice, and you stepped down to give a rookie quizzer a chance to get team bonus when we needed it. You showed coach-like qualities as still a quizzer. I can almost say I was envious of that. I wish I could motivate and help quizzers like you could. I understand you're dissappointed that our team didn't win any bling trophies, because that's what you were aimining. But look at what you did get. You finished 35th place on the top 60 quizzers list, and you won Spring City's first (and maybe only) Barnabas award. I know that they're only individual awards, one recognized by the league, the other only by a church, and that you really want your team to be recognized league wide by a trophy, but remember that the Lord has given you what you deserve, so accept those awards as part as His blessings to you. I pray that one day the Lord will recognize you through your team by giving your team an award. Lastly, I want to say that it was personally a blessing to me to have you on this team. As a said above, I started out this year with hard feelings towards you. By the end of the year, I felt at peace with you, and our relationship reconciled and restored. We were no longer arch rivals, but rather competitive teammates, which I enjoyed. I consider you a friend and a brother that I never had. I hope you see the same in me. (Tim "the encourager" Moss)

I guess the best way to start this is: uuuaaauyghhh. Not even sure that's how it's spelled, if it can be spelled. You're a man of many sound effects. So what you didn't finish as the top 60 like you did last year, you did finish in the top 100 (86th place to be exact). You did have the honor of being 1 of the 3 guys to be perfect quizzers for Spring City the first week. You performance was unpredictable as always, especially with your normal stupid answers, but you pulled through as usual. Sometimes you did scare us when you answered, like when you finished your answer at 28.5 seconds. Even though you had to take your annual baseball trip, you still performed pretty well. You also were able to grow out of your old title, "Mayor of Errorville." That is so good to see you error less, a definite improvement. Don't worry, I find a better one for next year. Truthfully, if you would have been there, I think you would have been in the top 60. But you're a lot of fun outside of a quizmatch, too. It was fun seeing you on that cart, especially on the snow. I still think some of my favorite memories of you are when we go ladying. Let's see, this year was the Argentinian and girl from Reading who thought you were cute. You had me fooled with the second one, when you actually thought you got one, but that didn't work out. I think that was it for this year. Well, you did finally find out what she (you know who) said about you, and we still didn't find Jojo, but it was all good. I guess next year will be different, then. I'll have to go ladying alone. But in these past 3 years, I have gotten to get to known you (or at least who I think you are) and have enjoyed you. I truly like you for who you are. So my advice for you: Don't change. I seriously mean it. Indubiately. (Michael "Mayor of Errorville" Schwager)

Wow. 6 whole years, two teams, and we were still together. I find that awesome. We've been through a lot together, but no matter what happened, we pulled out together. Thanks for everything you've done for me in this friendship. You got me out there a lot of times where I didn't want to be. I wanted to stay inside and practice, you pushed me outside during break time. You were able to talk to me and I to you without any barriers of any sort. I also found it helpful to eat with you so I didn't feel out of place with the little amount of food I ate. Thank you for sitting with me on the bus for all the Invitational trips, even though you kicked me out a few times. It may have been disappointing to only score 120 points this year compared to the 155 you scored last year, but if we added points for all the times we got team bonus, your score would be much more than that. I was 100% honest when I said you were the most dependable person for team bonus. It is so true. Because of that, I think you would be the most desireable quizzer that scores under 200 points. Any quiz team would want somebody that could get team bonus, despite few points. I also found it ironic how you were the team's top errorer at the end of week 1! We only had 2 errors, and they were both yours! It is a true sign you were a part of Spring City. I'm sorry we couldn't end your last year with a bang. That last match of the invitational, don't blame yourself for that. I am just as responsible. You did great these past two years. And I feel that possibly you may have also found a calm in these past 3 years compared to the calamity the 3 years before that. It was great to see you smile even though you may not want to for good reasons. It has been a honor to be with you on the same team for my whole career of quizzing. Thank you for six great years. (Christine "Money in da Bank" Dragan)

Thank you everyone on Spring City 2007. I hope you guys have realized the great accomplishments we acheived. We were on the top of League A for two straight weeks, and one of those weeks, we were the number one of all the ACC teams. We had three perfect quizzers for the first week of quizzing. We scored 1680 points, averaging 99 points. We finished in 5th place in our league, 8th place of all ACC in the season. We were undefeated in our group for the ACC Tournament and brought Spring City to the playoffs for the third time in the past four years. Spring City finished in 9th place in the invitational with four other teams. Our win-loss record of the season was 14-3, the ACC Tournament 6-0 in our group (6-1 with the 1 loss in the playoffs), and the invitational 5-2, totalling a 25-6 win-loss record. While the 2005 Spring City was better in the ACC Tournament, 2007 Spring City did better in both the season and the invitational. But forget about performance, Spring City was great is so many other ways. We came together as a time. We helped each other in studying as much as our coaches did. We sacrificed personal for the team. We were there for each other. This has got to be my favorite year of all quizzing. We were truly a team, we performed to the best of our ability and did well, and had fun doing it. God bless everyone on the team. Now with 3 months until the first quiz match of next year, I look foward to seeing everyone again.