Going into the State tournament, senior Quiz Bowl co-captain Truman Fillbrandt said he is bracing himself for a tougher competition, despite increased confidence in his own team’s performance.

“I’m cautiously excited,” Fillbrandt said. “I’d say we did pretty well in the tournaments, but now we’re getting to just the harder teams so it’s a bit of a tighter playing field.”

The Quiz Bowl team is preparing to head to the State competition, which takes place Feb. 17 at Burnsville High School. Quiz Bowl will enter a team of four players to compete against 15 other schools in a single-elimination tournament. 

According to science teacher and Quiz Bowl advisor Peter Dangerfield, the team is preparing for the State competition the same way they prepare for other competitions — rigorous overview of varying trivia questions.

“You just hear those questions, hear those things, get those facts down and then hopefully something triggers when you’re at State and you can kind of pick up on it and get it a little bit quicker than the other team,” Dangerfield said.

Teamwork is key to Quiz Bowl, according to sophomore Silas Cowell, who said bonus rounds depend on the team working together to find the best answer.

“If there’s just one person guessing, they might just say something totally wrong and like somebody on the team knows what it is,” Cowell said. “It’s good to communicate together so we can get the questions correct.”

Although the stakes for competition are high, Fillbrandt said practices are low-key due to the relaxed nature of the team.

“We banter quite a lot,” Fillbrandt said. “That’s probably over half of practice is not actually answering questions — just laughing at each other doing stuff like that.”

Cowell said they appreciate the open and accepting environment of Quiz Bowl, as it serves as a place where all sorts of gifts and niche interests are celebrated.

“(It’s) a space where being a nerd is not an insult,” Cowell said.

According to Dangerfield, welcoming all walks of life into Quiz Bowl not only diversifies the environment of the team, but increases the strength of the club going into competitions like State.

“Say you really love art,” Dangerfield said. “There’s a spot for you here because we can put you on a team with someone who loves literature and someone who loves science and someone who loves math and the four of you can create a really good, good squad.”