The top single player competition for quiz bowl, National Academic Quiz Tournaments' Individual Player National Championship Tournament will be held Sunday, April 11, in Rosemont, Illinois. Ten students from the Houston area – including four from the Katy area -- will compete in a 300-player field. Thirty-two states, and the District of Columbia will be represented in the eighth championship of its kind.
The local students who will be competing are:
Samin Asif (Seven Lakes High School. Katy)
Jake Giem (James E. Taylor High School. Katy)
Nelson Ma (Jordan High School. Fulshear)
Zacharia Ibrahim (Cinco Ranch High School, Katy)

Evan Boswell (St. John's School. Houston)

Jacob Higgs (Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School. Houston)
Alex Ewart (Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School, Houston)
Khang Le (Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School, Houston)
Aditya Mandke (Spring Branch Academic Institute, Houston)
Trey Smalling (Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School, Houston)

This quiz bowl event is extraordinary in that it is an individual competition, without the support of teammates, organizers said. Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers and answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture. Quiz bowl 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. The competition day will begin with seeding rounds to determine position for qualification. After five seeding rounds, the top players will compete in an elimination round to determine the overall winner. In addition, players who perform well in specific academic categories will also be honored for their performance. The Individual Player National Championship Tournament was first held in 2018, and the 2020 championships were not held due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This year's tournament will be contested after Saturday's Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, where top college teams from the US and Canada will compete for the title. Tournament results will be updated throughout the day at http://www.naqt.com/go/stats/17105 so everyone can follow along and see how the students fare.

ABOUT NAQT National Academic Quiz Tournaments, founded in 1996, organizes the premier middle school, high school, and college quiz bowl championships in North America. In addition to its national championships, NAQT provides questions to invitational tournaments, league championships, and television shows throughout the year. NAQT operates out of the Twin Cities and Kansas City, but its members mentor coaches, host tournaments, volunteer their services, and share their expertise across the United States.