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With its strong finish at the East Tennessee Regional Quizbowl Tournament, the quiz bowl team from Happy Valley High School in Elizabethton proved themselves worthy to play on a national stage. On Friday, April 25, the team will represent their school in a 148-team national competition: National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Small School National Championship Tournament.

Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture. The 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.

Happy Valley has attended the Small School National Championship Tournament three times before. Most recently, in 2024, they finished 4-6.

The SSNCT is the only quiz bowl national championship pitting small schools against each other. It has one division containing non-selective public schools with 500 or fewer students in their top three grades, and another division for other schools with 350 or fewer students in their top three grades.

The team comes in with some nationals experience: Tyler Bailey, Elisha Jones, Colton Pemberton and Mackenzie Skeans played the 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago).

The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, will consist of Tyler Bailey, Haylee Freeman, Blake Gillan, Elisha Jones, Colton Pemberton, Jeneva Powell and Mackenzie Skeans. The team will be coached by Shannon Lawson and Alex Payne.

Tournament results will be updated throughout the three days of competition at http://www.naqt.com/go/stats/16001 so everyone can follow along and see how the team does. You can also follow #ssnct on Instagram.