THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511010248
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 04W EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
The contestants take their seats at their tables, faces eager, eyes staring at nothing in particular as their brains kick into high gear. The moderator begins firing questions from a podium nearby. Rapidly. Demanding answers and getting them.
``Located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea is what capital city of Algeria, which is also the country's largest?'' he asks.
``Algiers,'' comes the answer from one confident contestant.
``That's correct.''
It's like a low-tech version of the popular television game show ``Jeopardy.''
But it's for high school students, and the questions are based on material they've probably had in class.
This week was the season opener for Chesapeake Challenge, a combination brain tease and sport.
Teams of sharp students from each of the five city high schools compete in weekly half-hour question-and-answer games, complete with lighted buzzers and an audience. Eventually, the teams will compete in a citywide tournament and some regional competitions.
The teams aren't huge, and audience members typically are made up of teachers, benched students and just a few parents.
``We don't wear uniforms. There's not a stadium where games are played, so it doesn't have the kind of exposure that other activities do,'' said Charles N. Conover, the Great Bridge Challenge team's coach. ``But it's something we've been sustaining for a while, and it's something that is appropriate in school.''
This week, Great Bridge High, four-time winner of the citywide Challenge tournament, faced off against Deep Creek High.
Contestants grip the wands that control their buzzers, anxious to be the first to signal the judges that they know the correct responses to the relentless questions.
The Great Bridge team is dominating, answering many of the moderator's queries before he even finishes asking.
By the end of round three, the score is 190 points for Great Bridge, 110 for Deep Creek.
The four students on the firing line for each team shake off the tension as halftime is called. They gather to decompress.
``They're good,'' says Deep Creek coach Debra J. Akers, about the Great Bridge contenders, to her somewhat dispirited team. ``I mean, they always are. You guys aren't doing too bad.''
Two more rounds will decide the outcome, and set the tone for the season.
Students don't express profound reasons for getting involved with the quiz teams.
``For me, it was just sort of an activity I could get interested in,'' said Douglas E. Heimburger, 16, a senior. ``It's been sort of a learning experience, and at the same time, it's been fun.
``It gives us a way to participate in an interschool activity other than sports,'' he said.
Generally, Conover said, the teams do not attract large numbers of students. There's usually a small group of kids in each school who are highly devoted to the group.
``A lot of kids are wary about seeming to be too smart,'' Conover said. ``Kids feel they need to apologize for knowing the right answers. I'm not sure our culture is very academically oriented.''
But teachers say the Challenge teams provide a way for students to exercise their intellectual muscle.
``When I was in school, there wasn't much besides sports,'' said Akers, who said she was more of a brainy type than an athlete when she was growing up.
``It gives them another outlet, a chance to have an identity, a name, other than being one of 30 kids in a class,'' she said.
The Challenge teams traditionally have attracted more males than females.
Suzanne E. Bohnker, 17, a senior and captain of the Great Bridge team, says that may be because girls don't know about the activity. Or maybe girls are more reluctant to show off their mental skills.
That's not a problem for Bohnker, who relishes her position as one of her team's top performers.
``It gives you a chance to show how smart you are,'' she said. ``And beat out the boys.''
Things don't look good for the Deep Creek crew.
Great Bridge answers all but one of its questions correctly.
Deep Creek passes on four of eight questions, and gets one wrong.
The Great Bridge team picks up on a couple of the questions Deep Creek failed to answer, rocketing ahead in points.
The result of the fourth round: Deep Creek, 110 points; Great Bridge, 350.
Akers has had a bit of an uphill battle preparing for this season. She lost all of her upperclassmen, seasoned Challenge players, last spring.
She began right away recruiting new kids and training them. Only four of her 16 team members are juniors or seniors; only two of those have previously competed in the quiz games.
``We've been practicing since April, believe it or not,'' she said.
``They're learning,'' she said. ``A lot of the questions they don't know, because they haven't had the material yet.''
Many of the questions, prepared for such purposes by a couple of college professors, are based on material in U.S. history, government and literature classes not offered until high schoolers' junior and senior years.
But preparation for Challenge competition is tough no matter what the conditions.
Conover simply drills his students with questions from old games.
Akers does that, plus this year has begun having her kids pick specialties and develop their own questions to pose to the group. That helps them learn trivia.
An important part of practicing for Challenge games is learning not to be hesitant - to offer answers or punch buzzers quickly.
``I've been trying to develop attack speed,'' Conover said. ``Most of the kids know the answer. It's just a matter of hitting the button.''
Deep Creek's fate is sealed.
The final round, the lightening round, is dominated by Great Bridge.
The score at game's end: Great Bridge, 630; Deep Creek, 130.
James P. DeMarco, 15, a sophomore at Deep Creek, isn't too discouraged by his team's performance.
``We could've done a lot worse,'' he says. ``I guess it's just the questions we had today weren't ones we would normally know the answers to.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
The Great Bridge team shares a lighter moment in the competition.
Three members of the Great Bridge team are, from left: Doug
Heimburger, team captain Suzanne Bahnker, and Troy Grundy Jr.
by CNB