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Ella Wells, a student from Happy Valley High School, will compete in the National Academic Quiz Tournament’s Individual Player National Championship Tournament Sunday, April 7, in Rosemont, Ill. Wells will compete in a 260-player field.

Thirty-two states, the District of Columbia, and South Korea will be represented in the sixth championship of its kind. 

This quiz bowl event is extraordinary in that it is an individual competition, without the support of teammates. Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of students.  Quiz bowl teams use buzzers and answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture. Quiz bowl matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.

The competition day will begin with seeding rounds to determine position for qualification. After five seeding rounds, the top players will compete in an elimination round to determine the overall winner. In addition, players who perform well in specific academic categories will also be honored for their performance.

The Individual Player National Championship Tournament was first held in 2018, and the 2020 championships were not held due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This year’s tournament will be contested after Saturday’s Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, where top college teams from the U.S. and Canada will compete for the title.  

Tournament results will be updated throughout the day at http://www.naqt.com/go/stats/14705 so everyone can follow along and see how the students fare.

Ella’s coaches at Happy Valley High are Shannon Lawson and Alex Payne.