After weeks of competition, the UC High Academic League completes their season with mixed results and is already in preparation for their next season.

   According to Academic League Head Coach Phil Huszar, “Academic League is a team-based competition which is much like Jeopardy but on a team level. Questions are asked from a variety of subjects — pretty much any subject you can think of — from math to science and history, pop culture, pretty much everything. The objective is to get the question right the fastest.”

   The exact name of the game that they play is called the “Quiz Bowl.” According to the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) website, “The defining feature of Quiz Bowl is the use of a ‘buzzer system’ that allows players to interrupt the reading of a question when they know the answer” (naqt.com).

   That element adds a dimension of confidence, anticipation, and rapid recall to a game about facts. Certain “tossup” questions are answered individually, but doing so earns one’s team a chance at a three-part “bonus” question. Bonus questions are worth more points and allow collaboration, but are generally more difficult (naqt.com).

   “We compete with other schools within the District and outside of the District.. Our particular League includes schools like La Jolla High School, Francis Parker, Scripps Ranch High School, Mira Mesa, and some others,” explained Huszar.

   The UC High Academic League also accommodates students of every grade and skill level. “I’m the coach of the Varsity Team, Mr. Pores is the coach of the JV Team, and Mr. Patterson — this being his second year with us — is the coach of the Novice Team, which is geared towards ninth and tenth graders,” said Huszar.

   This year’s season has provided mixed results for the team. “This season was a little bit of a ‘down-year’. We went 1 and 6 for varsity. Our JV, however, was 4 and 3 and they lost two really close matches,” Huszar explained.

  “Since I’ve been head coach, our best varsity record is 4 and 3;  but that was four  years ago. Normally, we would win 2 or 3 matches out of the seven that we played,” Huszar clarified.    

   According to Junior Varsity Team Captain Mark Alfred, “I’ve been in Academic League for three years now… [and] it’s been great. We all work together very well and it’s always fun practicing and competing with the team.”

   According to Huszar, “We are always looking for people that are interested in trivia, people that feel like they know a lot and would like to share that knowledge. If they have a particular subject that they’d like to learn more about… we do have practices where we basically pick a subject, look up topics related to that subject, and try to learn as much as we can about that particular event or person or concept. So if you like trivia in general, or like interesting things, then perhaps next year, you’d like to be a part of that.”