History was made for Providence Academy’s quiz bowl team earlier this month. On January 15th, the Providence A quiz bowl team clinched a spot at Nationals in Chicago, Illinois later this year.
“I’m so excited that we qualified for Nationals. It was our goal this year, and Team A pulled it off quite gracefully,” said Quiz Bowl Coach Kevin Keiser. The path to Chicago was not so easy however. Providence competed against twelve different teams, ranging from all different sized high schools. Their toughest competition was against the huge high schools, such as Wayzata and Edina, where they battle both of their A-Teams was hand-to-hand. Although they lost to those two teams, the PA team ended up going 8-4 with wins over Breck B, Wayzata F, Edina B, Wayzata D, Edina C, Robbinsdale Armstrong A, Wayzata E, and Breck A. With those wins, and only loses against top-ranked teams, Providence A clinched a Nationals berth.
Each quiz bowl team consists of six players. Providence A featured three seniors, a junior, and two Sophomores. Seniors, AJ Adducci, Morgan Flottmeier, and Jack Schneider lead the Providence A team. Junior, Reed Trende and sophomores, Marty Partoll and Ryan Heaney round out the National bound team. Senior Jack Schneider was very happy to see results after a good season. “I’m very excited [about nationals]. It’s nice to see all of your hard work pay off”, said Jack. Coach Keiser applauded the veteran leadership on Providence A. “For one, the players have experience and they have honed their team strategy… all the little tricks that only experience can teach and that are hard to notice, but have become part of each player’s skill. The players who have been in it a while have all learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses, too, allowing us to create some teams that work very smoothly,” he said.
This year, Coach Keiser has noticed a huge difference in the quiz bowl program. Ultimately, he thinks this difference is what helped them reach nationals this year. “The biggest thing is the enthusiasm. I coached Quiz Bowl for a year at another school, and there were a few students whose enthusiasm was comparable, but fewer students shared that enthusiasm, and in general, that enthusiasm didn’t translate into as much hard work as I have seen transpire among the Providence players.” Coach Keiser also notices the work that his players put in outside the classroom. “I am especially gratified when I hear that our players were playing ProtoBowl to practice, on their own initiative”, he said.
Lastly, Coach Keiser credits a lot of the success of the quiz bowl program to its leaders: AJ Adducci, Morgan Flottmeier, and Jack Schneider. “Our club leaders certainly deserve most of the credit. They drummed up a lot of enthusiasm, I’m guessing by word of mouth”, he remarked. “We have had so many people that I added another team to our division league tournament when another school dropped out and opened a spot, and even then I could probably have used another spot” he continued. Coach Keiser appreciated the time and effort that those three seniors put in, and believes they will leave the program in good hands.