Starting a Community College Team

[Rory White]

Hello everyone. I am starting a quiz bowl team at my community college. I competed in NAQT style tournaments in high school and know that I am willing to do the work to perform well. However, I do not have a team assembled yet, and I worry about whether or not I can retain members in the club. I do not want to scare them away by telling them that they have to study for tournaments, but I know that we will not perform well without studying. Does anyone have any tips for retaining club members while also encouraging them to study? Thank you.

[Halinaxus]

I do not want to scare them away by telling them that they have to study for tournaments, but I know that we will not perform well without studying.

I wouldn't immediately jump to the assumption that it's not possible to perform well without studying, especially at the community college level. See if you can recruit people who already have knowledge bases (eg, history buffs or band/orchestra members), and then you can work together to cover your weak spots.

I'm not very familiar with the community college canon but my understanding is that it's mostly NAQT IS sets, which tend to be pretty accessible to newbies in general due to having shorter questions and a higher percentage of geo/ce/trash.

This is unrelated, but what area of the country are you from? There are a few hotspots for community college activity (mainly Kansas, Alabama, and Florida), and certain members of those communities active on these forums might be interested in adding your team to their contact lists!

[Rory White]

We are in East Tennessee. Thanks for the advice. Do you know where I can find IS sets? Also, what do you mean by ce/trash? Again, thank you.

[Halinaxus]

We are in East Tennessee. Thanks for the advice. Do you know where I can find IS sets? Also, what do you mean by ce/trash? Again, thank you.

You can view sample questions from one of NAQT's IS sets here. "CE" stands for current events, and "trash" is the quiz bowl community's somewhat joking term for pop culture questions (film, sports, music, etc.).

[Rory White]

Ok, thank you very much!

[ValenciaQBowl]

Hi, Rory!

I'm glad you're getting a team started at Pellissippi State, which I got to see a little bit at the SuMo summer tournament this past July.

You'll definitely want your new teammates to eventually study to get better, but you definitely don't have to lead with that. Start with what makes the game fun--hearing and answering questions. Find some easy packets on the archive (https://quizbowlpackets.com/) (and go for REAL easy when first cold-calling/asking people; consider using novice-level packets like SCOP Novice, from that link). Find your student activities office and ask them if they have any club interest fairs or events in early spring, as well as how to get set up as an official club.

If there are no official events, you can try some of the strategies below:

--What seems to draw the most people at Valencia every year (or at least used to) is the simplest effort: putting up flyers in classrooms and public spaces on bulletin boards emphasizing that we exist, when/where we practice, and that there’s a chance to travel (probably!). You may have to get permission (and/or a stamp) from student activities to put flyers up, so ask about that.

--If your college has an honors program, you can ask instructors if you'd be allowed to briefly address their class meetings and take 3-4 minutes to talk about the team and what the game is.

--You'll probably need to find a faculty sponsor; if so, you can ask them to send out a faculty-wide e-mail asking instructors to mention the team in classes (or again, to put up flyers in classrooms).

--Set up a table in some high-traffic space on campus--preferably with a buzzer--and see if you can entice folks over to ask them simple questions from the packets you find. You might find some people are intrigued by the questions they hear.

--When you do find some teammates, ask them to ask their own instructors if they can take 2-3 minutes at the beginning of class to talk about the team.

A lot of this will be easier when you get a faculty sponsor and some teammates and set up a practice. Once you have a set practice time, you can also see if your activities people will put something on their website about your team's existence.

Anyway, this is just off the top of my head. If it seems too difficult, move to Orlando and join Valencia's team! Then you don't have to do anything but play quiz bowl!

PS--For real, feel free to contact me if you have further questions: cborglum at valenciacollege dot edu.

[Rory White]

Those are amazing tips! I really like the idea of setting up a buzzer system on campus. I can definitely do that at an upcoming campus event (thankfully, there are a lot!). Thank you so much for such a thorough response!

[The Favourite]

Hey Rory! Great to see another community college pop up. I would definitely communicate with Chris, as he is 1) in your neck of the woods, and 2) the best of the best when it comes to Community College quiz bowl. One of the things that I found to be useful when founding a team as a player and then (now) as a coach is to recruit people who show an interest in being competitive. Former (or current) athletes go a long way in QB. Anyone can learn once they get those competitive juices flowing. Realize that competing right away may be possible at this level as well as most (but not all) community college players are new to the game as incoming freshmen and were just recruited in the same way you are recruiting.

Good luck, and I hope to see you at some tournaments!

[ValenciaQBowl]

An update, Rory: there's a dean at Pellissippi named Kane Barker (Natural and Behavioral Sciences) who helped out at SuMo this summer and seems to like quiz bowl. He might be a good contact for help in getting institutional support for a team (and maybe you could get him to be your faculty sponsor!).

And thanks, Tracey, for the kind words, which are of course true!

[Rory White]

That is an excellent idea! I will add him to my list of potential advisors. Thank you!

[GallatinGOAT2020]

Rory,

Being nearby, if you ever want to stop by UTK for a practice, feel free to do so. Maybe we could even set up some scrimmages between our two clubs.