Quiz Bowl team earns bid to nationals

After winning a state Quiz Bowl title in March, these New Ellenton Middle school 8th-graders will travel to a national meet in Chicago May 6. From the left are Nick Clevenger, Zach Glave, Cameron Stephenson and Jared Stephens.

New Ellenton Middle School, with an enrollment a little more than 220, probably wasn't on the Quiz Bowl radar. Until now.

Four eighth-graders - Cameron Stephenson, Zach Glave, Nick Clevenger and Jared Stephens - are headed to Chicago with coach Bonnie McNeill next month for a national NAQT Quiz Bowl competition.

Last month they qualified for the tournament by winning a state championship - going unbeaten in 10 matches against five other teams, including Aiken Middle School, at Dorman High School in Spartanburg.

"We're such a small school," Clevenger said proudly, "that some of the teams had to look us up on a map."

In the 10 matches, Stephenson answered 68 toss-up questions correctly - good for 680 points and more than 300 points higher than anybody else in the tournament, McNeill said. Overall, they outscored their opponents 2,980 points to 1,660.

"These academic team kids are so much fun to be around," she said. "They are unique in their own ways and are finding out what they are truly capable of doing."

Earlier in the state meet, New Ellenton had handily defeated Dawkins Middle School - a feeder school of Dorman, an academic team powerhouse for years. McNeill said she warned her team members that Dawkins would put up a fight in the final match, and she was right.

The rules were significantly different at the state event. Teams earned 10 points for toss-up questions and got the chance at lucrative bonus questions. Unlike most other academic matches, however, if a team misses any of its bonus questions, the other squad gets a chance to answer them and earn points.

The round consists of 20 toss-up questions and the bonuses. After 19 questions, New Ellenton and Dawkins were tied 230-230. The moderator asked the last toss-up, and Clevenger answered it correctly in mid-question.

But the match wasn't over because of the format. Only when the New Ellenton players got the first two bonus questions right did they clinch the state title. Actually, they didn't know about the Chicago trip until McNeill announced it over the intercom to the entire school the following Monday as cheers erupted throughout the building.

McNeill is grateful to individual, business and church sponsors earlier this year that allowed the entire student body to go on a field trip to Atlanta. There were enough funds left afterward to make the May 6-9 Chicago trip possible with the additional assistance of Aiken Electric Cooperative and Verizon.

The boys also benefit from supportive parents and principal Elisa Sanders-Pee, who attended the state meet with them, McNeill said.

Each of the team members has specialties that include science, social studies, literature, math, religion and random bits of knowledge. Stephens is an unlikely fan of '50s and '60s rock and roll. Mostly, they just have fun.

"I get to hang out with my friends," Cameron Stephenson said. "I like the competition and get to learn a lot of things."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.