Quiz Bowl Nationals: Northbrook's St. Norbert's School Advances

NORTHBROOK, IL — Last month, the St. Norbert School’s Quiz Bowl Team won the Loyola Middle School Invitational Tournament. SNS’s top spot earned them a ticket to the Middle School National Championship Tournament.

The Crusaders followed this victory up with a strong seventh-place finish out of the 25 teams in the Northwestern University Tournament on March 6. The Middle School National Championship is the premier middle school event, usually held in a major city. This multi-day affair features the top quiz bowl teams from across the country. With so many competitive sports on hold due to the pandemic, Quiz Bowl lends itself fairly easily to an online format.

"This year’s tournaments are unlike any other. Teams compete via Zoom – so students not only need to have the knowledge base, quick recall, and gaming skills of a normal competition, they also need to navigate the technology and a plethora of additional rules in place to ensure fair play," said Kevin Davis-Crowder, the team’s coach and middle school teacher at SNS, in a release. “We have enough interest to field multiple teams this year, which shows you how much these kids miss competing in general, and both teams are doing extremely well. They are easy to coach, a lot of fun, and pretty darn bright. With a lot of 6 th graders already getting into it, St. Norbert should be successful for some time to come.”

Martin Sarmiento, eighth-grader at SNS and captain of the A Team, was the top scorer among all
players at Loyola, and the second highest individual scorer overall at Northwestern.

“It feels like a great accomplishment, as there were so many incredibly intelligent students participating," Sarmiento said. "St. Norbert Quiz Bowl is a great way to learn something new, make new friendships, and, of course, get very good at trivia.”