Owensboro High School’s Academic Team placed among the top 60 teams in the country in a recent national quiz bowl, and Coach Adam Pryor believes the team has the chance to return and finish even higher next year.
This was the Academic Team’s first contest in the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence National Scholastic Championship (PACE NSC), featuring teams from across the nation.
The OHS team brought together recent graduate Beckett Gilmore and rising seniors Kaden Blankenship, Landon Block, and Orion Brey.
Pryor said the team finished the tournament with a 9-7 record, placing them at 57th overall. After a good start, Pryor said they finished Saturday at 1-4, with two close games decided by toss-ups. Still, Pryor believes the team could’ve placed better had they had better draws.
“There were some teams that are top in the nation, and I’m not going to say that we were top in the nation or anything, but of the 72 teams that were there, we were in that top half. I would think it was just some unfortunate close games,” Pryor said.
He noted that the format of the quiz bowl contests differs from the Governor’s Cup they are used to at the state level. The national competition required different studying techniques and more preparation.
“I don’t know how they do it, honestly. They just put in a lot of work outside of school to be able to prepare for these things,” Pryor said.
Even though the team didn’t place as highly as they’d have liked, Pryor said the seniors are still motivated to return next year and are already planning for the season ahead.
“They’ve already started talking about some of their goals, what they want to do, and what they want to accomplish next year,” he said. “So when we come back in August, we’re going to hit the ground running and start looking for tournaments to go to so that we can hopefully qualify and get back to nationals.”
