Members of Lisgar’s quiz team pose with two of their trophies.
A group of students from Lisgar Collegiate are continuing their national winning streak after advancing to the final rounds of several Canadian quiz tournaments with further competition scheduled in the United States.
Lisgar teams placed both first and second in the Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament in November, eclipsing the competition from Colonel By Secondary School, Earl of March Secondary School and Nepean Secondary School.
The finals will see the team travel to Atlanta for the National Academic Quiz Tournament in March, one of only two Canadian teams to ever compete in the American contest.
The team will also travel to the University of Maryland to participate in the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence tournament in June, competing against the top 50 teams in the U.S.
With a strong gifted student program that makes up one third of the student population, Lisgar is one of Ottawa’s best-performing high schools. November saw the team take both the Canadian and International Title for PBS’s television quiz show Whiz Quiz.
“They have a very successful history in the last decade. The team was revived in the 1990s and yes, they’ve done an excellent job,” says Ruth Crabtree, mentor to the Lisgar team since 1999.
Under Crabtree’s guidance, the Lisgar team was the first Canadian school to travel to the United States to participate the in National Academic Quiz Tournament championships in 2006. In 2008, it captured the Reach for the Top national title.
“A big part of it is selecting the right combination of players and molding them into a team.” Crabtree says.
Crabtree says the group practices together at least three times a week in preparation for the upcoming tournaments. They train online and go through past questions, creating their own quiz material as preparation. The team members are all avid readers which benefits them during tournaments, Crabtree says.
“Some of them are definitely sponges, they just soak up information. That’s their strength and it serves them very well in this form of competition.” she says.
The Lisgar team consists of about 30 members and a core team of 10 to 12 students, ranging in age from 14 to 17. When at a tournament, Lisgar is represented by a squad of four or five players. Several members plan to continue taking part in similar tournaments through college.
According to Will Sanna, a senior player who has been on the team since Grade 9, competition nerves are more of an assistance then a hindrance.
‘‘They help you,” he says. “If you’re on edge then you’re more likely to press the buzzer quickly. I know a lot of people who will ignore the nerves and down a Red Bull so they’ll be even more nervous and jittery so they can buzz quicker. I just do it to have fun.”
Lisgar vice-principal Bruce Summers says that after the long-term success of Lisgar’s trivia teams, participation in the tournaments are an embraced tradition for the school community.