WCMS quiz bowl team members sport this year’s purple shirts. Back row: Pranay Bodducherla, Jeremiah Choi, Rudra Kyatham, Adrish Bhattacharyya, Luke Ellsworth, Joshua Wu, Ryan Yarlagadda, Mason Wong, Lillian Arguelles, Coach Bruce Hansen. Front row: Srijan Roy, Rohith Gonuguntla, Colin Khasigian, Kavin Anreddy, Ahmed Nuh, Sabrina Hu, Jaren Mohle. Not pictured: Churchill D member Ethan Minton.

CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - Quiz bowl may not be a well-known middle school competition, but it’s a big deal at Winston Churchill Middle School.

Quiz bowl is a trivia game involving two teams answering questions across a variety of categories such as math, history, pop culture, literature, art, current events, and more. The game is unique due to the use of the “buzzer system,” where toss-ups (questions) can be interrupted by a student buzzing as soon as they know the answer, for the opportunity to “power” (earn more points on said question). If a team member answers the toss-up question correctly, the team then gets to answer a three-part bonus question as a group.

WCMS was the first school in Sacramento to start a quiz bowl team in 2015, and now, in 2023, there are 18 teams of four players each at WCMS alone. Of those 18 teams, four of them — Churchill A, Churchill B, Churchill C, and Churchill D) — qualified for the Middle School National Championship Tournament held in May 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

Although WCMS has a history with this game, this year has been particularly exciting, as more teams have qualified for the national championship than ever before.

Churchill Quiz Bowl Coach Bruce Hansen attributes this success to the volume of talented seventh-graders that entered the program as sixth-graders last year, who make up the bulk of the nationals qualifying teams this year.

“They are a very competitive group of kids. We have few very good eighth-graders, but we have a seventh-grade engine that’s really driving most of those players,” said Hansen.

Churchill C team Ryan Yarlagadda, Pranay Bodducherla, Rohith Gonuguntla and Jaren Mohle work toward an answer while the Churchill D team, Luke Ellsworth, Ahmed Nuh and Colin Khasigian wait to hit the buzzer in the background.

Churchill players are preparing for nationals with frequent practice at school, weekend practices at people’s houses, as well as using their own study techniques for hours during their free time. Many players like to focus on specific subjects, or “specialties”, to make their team as well-rounded and have as much overall knowledge as possible. Sixth-grader Ahmed Nuh on Churchill D likes to use at-home study time to hone in on his best subjects.

“I practice on QB Reader, which is basically just an online quiz bowl player where you can play with your friends,” said Nuh. “And I also like to watch YouTube videos about subjects like history, science, and geography.”

Seventh-grade Churchill C member Ryan Yarlagadda spoke about how quiz bowl helped boost his confidence in his day-to-day life at school.

“It makes me a much more confident person when I’m speaking,” said Yarlagadda. “Because in quiz bowl, you’re supposed to be confident with your answers. And if it’s wrong, it’s all right. You can get back up, try again.”

As spring semester is usually the off-season for local quiz bowl tournaments, Churchill teams will be working hard through the coming months in practice and preparation for the Middle School National Championship Tournament.

Seventh-grade Churchill A Captain Kavin Anreddy feels especially hopeful about their odds.