State’s “Girls’ Only” High School Quiz Bowl Held at the Seward Civic Center-Sponsored by GFWC

October 15, 2014

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The annual “Girl’s Only” High School Quiz Bowl was held at the Seward Civic Center on Wednesday, October 15, 2014, featuring an all day, general knowledge quiz bowl competition for area teams composed of high school girls.  The event is annually sponsored by the GFWC Nebraska Federation of Women’s Clubs, Inc. (NFWC), in an effort to acquaint more high school girls to the competitive quiz bowl format competition in a setting that may offer less intimidation, than the traditional quiz bowl setting, which includes both girls and boys teams in competition.  The NFWC holds membership with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, Inc. (GFWC) under the theme of promoting volunteerism.  The GFWC Seward Woman’s Club members served as the hosts for the event.

Teams of four girl’s, sponsored by area high schools,  were quizzed against other teams of four in twenty minute rounds featuring 40 toss up and 40 bonus questions.  Points were awarded the teams that knew the answer and responded first.  The girls were required to “buzz” in, using timer device to determine who would answer the question.

The contest was divided into two divisions, Big School and Small School, based on the NSAA school enrollment.  Trophies and medals were awarded to the first place team and trophies were also presented to the runner-up team.  A round robin series of matches opened the tourney in the morning to determine placement.  Placement for the afternoon single elimination tourney was determined from the number of wins and points generated in the morning rounds.

Seward High had two teams in the tourney, competing in the large school division.  The Seward Gold Girls Only Quiz Bowl team included Kristi Einspahr, Angel Roth, Ruth Roebke, Rene Roebke, Madison Sloup and Kelsey Sloup.  The Seward Blue Girls Only Quiz Bowl team included Rebecca Couch, Caitlin Gaffney, Hailey Brown, Savannah Dodson, Faith Davidson and Kayleah Moravec .  The teams were sponsored by the GFWC Seward Woman’s Club and GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club and the School District of Seward High Ability Learner (HAL) program. Clark Kolterman served as their coach.

Winning the Big School tourney was Elkhorn coached by Kim Johnson, with Gretna-coached by Georgia Tucker, placing as first runner-up.  Bellevue East High Team A, coached by David Bossman, was the third place team in the event, followed by Lincoln Northeast High—coached by Steve Eckman.  In the Small School division, placing first was Cross County of Stromsburg, coached by Johanna Nielsen, followed by East Butler High School as first runner-up, coached by Andrew Wood.  Placing third in the Small School division was Sandy Creek Team A, coached by Darrell Pernicek and fourth place was Logan Magnolia High from Logan, Iowa-coached by Katie Foreman.

There were 28 teams represented in two tourneys for the day.  Jean Kolterman, NFWC Fine Arts Chair served as the chair for the event. Joel Brase, Seward High Assistant Activities Director, was the Quiz Bowl Master, assisted by Clark Kolterman.  Reader volunteers included Bonnie Kruse and Myrna Swanson of Seward, David Bossman of Bellevue, Traci Sindelar of Howells/ Dodge, Shelia Lauby of Fillmore Central, Jake Wiese of Friend High, Kristy Lukert of Thayer Central, Andrew Wood of East Butler and Clark Kolterman of Seward.  Timer/runner volunteers included Jared Koranda, Andrew Cahoon, Trent Beckler, Clinton Bialas, Jared Hartman, Austin Van Der Slice and Kassandra Wray, all from Seward High School.

Schools participating in the event included Bellevue East High, Gretna, Lincoln Northeast, Lincoln High, Lincoln East, Bennington, Elkhorn, Elkhorn South, Seward, Sandy Creek, Cross County, Fullerton, Howell’s Dodge, Exeter Milligan, Fillmore Central, Friend, Kearney Catholic, Logan Magnolia, Osceola, Shelby-Rising City, and Thayer Central.