Quiz Meet #1 @ Meridian Friends

Today was our first quiz meet of the 2007-2008 season. These kids have all been studying the book of Galatians for the last 5 weeks on their own as well as on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. It's been a lot of fun being their coach because they have all chosen to do this and I'm pretty sure they even enjoy it. That just makes my job an easy one. There are a total of 6 quizzers from BFC but for this first meet, one of them had a previous engagement, so I had to re-think my teams. I had originally put them in two teams of three- one middle school team and one high school team- and that seemed to be working fine. Since Zach is in 9th grade, he has to quiz on a high school team. The rest of the kids are in 8th grade, except for Corrie who is in 6th. I struggled with how to best place these kids right up until a few days before the meet and then followed Kristin's advice to have one high school team and put Corrie on a middle school team with Meridian. I talked to the kids and parents about it and it seemed like the way to go. Corrie didn't hesitate to try something new and Meridian was thrilled to have her. I assured the 8th graders that they shouldn't have any problem taking on other high school teams because they are so well prepared. The very first team we had to face consisted of three "men" who towered over all of our kids. It was like David facing the Giant. Fortunately, the other team had great sportsmanship and really set my kids at ease. I felt kind of bad when we beat them 190-160.

It was a great way to start the meet. By round three I was starting to regret my decision to put the kids in the high school division. We lost round two by only 10 points, but were beaten pretty badly in round three- 180-250. For some reason I didn't expect this division to be so much more competitive than the middle school division. By lunch time, we had won 4 rounds and lost 4 rounds. The kids still felt pretty good about how they were doing and they had a lot to be proud of. We had 45 minutes for lunch which gave us time to unwind and have fun. Jered had a slew of girls following him around so when a friendly game of arm wrestling started. . .

. . . It wasn't long before everyone took sides and jumped into the fray:

Right after lunch, everyone met in the sanctuary for the verse-off. Before the meet, the kids are all given the same list of about 25 verses to memorize. During the verse-off, they have the chance to compete against each other as they narrow it down to the one person who knows the most. Zach was nervous but pretty confident since he had memorized all 25 of the verses.

There were 15 high-schoolers who came up to the platform to recite verses one at a time. A person was eliminated when they could not say the verse and it was passed on to the next person. Zach did great and made it to the final seven people. He then confused 2 verses and was eliminated. After a little more time, the last six people all tied for first place!! These high schoolers really know their stuff!!

Quizzing started up again after the verse-off and things were looking up. I think it helped that we had an audience. Shawn and Katrina and Elsie came to watch as well as Kristin and Megan and Rob's mom and dad. We won the next 7 rounds in a row!

Casey and Charlene came to watch, too!! We all really enjoyed having the support of friends and family:

Gloria was thrilled to see Talli and spent some time hanging with the Newberg team. She and Elsie became their "mascots" for a couple of rounds:

By the final round, our record was 12 wins, 6 losses. I told the kids they probably made the top 6 but whatever they placed, they had plenty to be proud of. They were amazing!!! We had to wait until after dinner for the awards ceremony and we were all a little nervous with anticipation:

Zach "quizzed out" (quizzing out is answering 4 correct answers worth 20 points apiece. 10 bonus points are awarded if you answer 4 correct without any errors) every round except for one, so we knew he would probably place in the top seven for the individual scores. He tied with 2 other quizzers for 4th place!!!

Certificates are awarded to the top three teams. Since Gary works in Quiz Central where the scores are tallied, I already had a pretty good idea of where we stood. It was fun to see the looks on the kids' faces when they were called up for 3rd place in the high school division!!!!!

They totally earned this!!!

At every meet, the hosting church plans an evening activity. Meridian Friends rented several inflatables for the kids to jump around on and in to release the stresses of the day. Here's Andrew on the bungee:

Wheeeeeee. . .

Zach and Andrew took a turn at Sumo Wrestling. It was quite a process getting them into their fat suits:

Zach:

The match between "Andrew the Avenger" and "Zach the Zealous":

It took more time getting them in and out of the suits than the actual wrestling match!!

It was so worth it, though!!

We all had fun with the joust:

Jered and Alyssa R.

Gloria and Maddie:

Rob and Zach:

Me and Jered:

It was so nice to for the kids to be able to hang out with Talli:





I'm very proud to be the coach of this team!!!! They were just amazing!! Kudos to Corrie, too, who quizzed with a Meridian Friend's middle school team and even quizzed out a few times!! I didn't have the chance to watch her quiz, but I heard she did a great job. I appreciate her willingness and her attitude about quizzing with another team. They were lucky to have her!! Good job, Corrie!!!

Look how they've changed!! This picture was taken during Zach's second year of quizzing and Andrew, Jered and Alyssa's first year of quizzing. We miss Steph, Corrie and Ashlie!!!