By Taylor Kelley
News Editor
Mira Costa’s Parent Teacher Association (PTSA) hosted its annual Scholar Quiz Tournament alongside Study Hut from March 18 to 26. “Team Malik” reinforced its dominance, winning the Mira Costa Scholar Quiz Tournament for the second year in a row.
The final quiz round took place Tuesday during second period, and began with a speech from principal, Dr. Karina Gerger thanking parents, PTSA, teachers, students, and all of this years’ helpers. Gerger also announced the MBUSD board members in attendance, and then mayor Joseph Franklin to introduce the players in the finals. Officials for the match were Dr. Gerger as the host and flag judge, Dr. John Bowes as the reader, and PTSA volunteers Stacy Myrose, Bonnie Darrow, and Amy Bindler as scorers.
“This is actually my first year on the amazing scholar quiz committee but I’ve been volunteering for Scholar Quiz for years,” said Darrow. “I was also on the MBMS Scholar Quiz committee for six years. I love the way everyone rallies around the scholar quiz; Study Hut for sponsoring and participating, all the many parent, teacher, and community volunteers and the Costa staff.”
According to English Teacher and Scholar Quiz reader Nicole Wachell, The Scholar Quiz Tournament allows students to apply information from a wide range of subjects to the game and impress their peers with the breadth of their knowledge. The structure of the game also makes for fast-paced competition where the balance of power can rapidly change, according to Wachell.
“I absolutely love reading for Scholar Quiz, and I felt honored to be tapped to read in the semi-finals,” said Wachell. “There is a bit of pressure to read quickly and get through as much content as possible while getting everything right for the teams, but that doesn’t bother me because it’s a joy to be involved in the process. It’s especially fun to read when I know students who are competing on the teams because I take a lot of pride in my students and love watching them excel.”
“Team Malik” is made up of seniors Devan Malik, Akash Mishra, Caden Coons, and Kieth Daniels. They took on “Team H. Long” composed of seniors Hudson Long, Dylan Hughes, and Declan Owen, and junior Cameron Hughes in the finals.
“Obviously the final, [my team] knew the matchup would be difficult and I’d be lying if I said I expected to win, but I kept it close,” said Long. “Especially because of our low seeding, we had a lot of hard matches before that, and none of them were easily won, like against team ‘O’Neill’ or ‘Greenburg.’”
The first point of the match went to “Team Malik” by Mishra. The topic of the first lightning round was “gems,” where the first point was won by Long for the green team. At halftime, the score was 100-80 with a four question lead by “Team Malik.”
“I knew the answer to the first question was between Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria but I wasn’t 100% sure which one,” said Mishra. “I took a shot on Elizabeth and it ended up being the right answer.”
In the second half, between toss up questions and lighting rounds, both teams were neck and neck. In the end, “Team Malik” took the victory with a score of 205-155. According to Malik, the team does not do a lot of preparation, just one or two study sessions with practice questions throughout the competition.
“[The team] gets together at someone’s house and runs practice questions for an hour or so,” said Malik. “This particular team has been together for two years. I’m really proud of how all the guys did this year and I couldn’t ask for a better team. We’ve all improved so much and I couldn’t have done it without every one of them.”
Daniels and Malik have been on the same team since 6th grade and Mishra joined the two in 10th grade. According to Daniels, Coons was an addition to the team during 11th grade, and he gave them the boost they needed to win back-to-back titles. According to Coons, he is very grateful his team is all of his good friends.
“It has been awesome getting close with my teammates and being able to win back-to-back with these guys,” said Mishra. “We are bummed Scholar Quiz is over for us but we’re super happy we could end it on a high note.”
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