Undefeated quiz bowl team takes state title

SHELBY TOWNSHIP/STERLING HEIGHTS/UTICA — The Gene L. Klida Utica Academy for International Studies quiz bowl team, which is undefeated in Michigan competitions, won the Class B Michigan state championship in Lansing April 13.

The team was head and shoulders above its competition. After 11 wins, no losses and outscoring its opponents 5,670-800, the team walked away with the state title.

The GLK-UAIS quiz bowl team was ranked 34th in nation in February. When new Groger rankings came out the day after the championship, the team was ranked 40th in the nation.

 Senior Brendan Pawlicki and sophomore Ben Edmunds were named all-state and were easily the two strongest players at the event. Sophomore Daniel Buzdugan and freshmen Yousif Hadoo and Colin Mondoux also added valuable contributions to the victory.

Edmunds said he is proud to be a part of how far the team has come since he first joined.

“I have been involved for about a year in the team, but you can see how far we have come to be at this level. It says a lot about this team,” he said.

He said it was a great experience to play against the best players in the state. This weekend, the team will head to Chicago to compete in the Small Schools National Championship Tournament.

The team prior to the state championship had won two tournament championships and hosted its own tournament.

Pawlicki said the team has an outstanding group of advisers supporting it and the student body has been excited about the team’s success.

Pawlicki is the captain, a responsibility that includes organizing practices, creating quizzes outside of school and recommending resources.

“Sometimes it involves leading the team and boosting morale. The best way to describe (quiz bowl) is that it is like ‘Jeopardy!,’ but you can interrupt at any time. You don’t have to wait until the end of the question. And there is a whole variety of trivia questions. Categories from math and science to literature to history to fine arts and pop culture. There will be questions that contain a couple of sentences people will read through, and you can answer whenever,” he said.

Students use a “buzzer system” that lets them interrupt the reading of a question when they know the answer.

Edmunds said he likes quiz bowl because it helps him increase his knowledge of a wide variety of topics.

“I like to think of topics that come up and research them. We travel all over Michigan and had a tournament in Ohio. There are a lot of independent resources. You can practice outside of school anytime you want to. And there are other ways — for literature, I like to read a lot, so that is an easy way to prepare. For math and science, many things you learn at school (come up as questions). As a team, we meet every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour,” he said.

The team has been practicing twice a week together for the entire school year in addition to the time that team members have put in individually at home.

Pawlicki said that preparing for quiz bowl generated interest in topics he otherwise wouldn’t have cared about. After learning about opera, he became a volunteer at the Detroit Opera House.

“There are so many concepts I have learned about in chemistry, history and fine arts that I would not have known otherwise,” he said in a Utica Community Schools press release.

Adviser William Dobbie said the school’s quiz bowl team has been good for a long time, but this has been its most successful year.

“They are pretty much the high water mark in Michigan and always among the best nationally. These guys put in an incredible amount of work. I think that the success reflects the well-rounded nature (of) the courses that these kids take. Brendan is a brilliant math student, but he also excels at literature and the fine arts,” he said.

The team members are part of the International Baccalaureate Programme offered at the academy.