Yesterday afternoon, the Southeast Bible Quiz Association kicked off the 2018-2019 Bible quiz season with the first quiz meet of the year. The event took place at the Temple Baptist Academy campus in Powell, TN. It turned out to be a very exciting event. The field of teams included a team from Grace Christian Academy, Lakeview Baptist from Rhea County, Temple Baptist and two new teams from Ridgeview Baptist in Walland, TN. Since there were five teams participating, we decided to have three team quizzing in one room and two team quizzing in the other room. Grace Christian Academy had a team with only two quizzers this month so we made a slight rule change. The quizzers were allowed to get 6 correct answers to quiz out and 6 errors to error out.
This month, included some shocking blow out quizzes by the new teams from Ridgeview Baptist and it also featured some quiz matches of great importance that were tighter than the rusty lug nuts on a ’57 Chevy. In the first quiz round, Ridgeview 2 faced Lakeview Baptist and Grace Christian. This quiz match looked close for the first three questions when the score was tied at 20 points each, but then Ridgeview 2 took off and answered correctly on nine of the next ten questions in a row. They then Cruised to a 310 point victory as Lakeview Baptist and Grace Christian vied for the middle win. In the end, a new quizzer from Grace Christian named Sean Grace was the difference maker that allowed Grace Christian to win the middle by 20 points. In the other room, Ridgeview 1 completely dominated Temple after Temple got into early error trouble. In the end, Ridgeview 1 came away with a 310 to -10 victory. The second round was much closer as the veteran teams determined that Ridgeview Baptist was not your normal beginner team. Temple Baptist got off to a fast start in their quiz match against Lakeview Baptist and Ridgeview 1 as Kierstin Balka got the first four questions in a row correct. At that point, Josh Williams and Grace Williams for Ridgeview 1 took off as well as Juliann Jouben from Lakeview Baptist. After question 15, all three teams were tied at 100 points each. Blake Brewster from Ridgeview 1 then took control answering three of the next four questions correct and lead his team to victory. Going into question 20 Lakeview Baptist and Temple were tied at 110 points, at that point Kierstin Balka won the jump and quizzed out without error giving her team the middle win. In the two team room, Ridgeview 2 got out to an early lead, but Grace Christian kept fighting back. Going into the last question, Ridgeview 2 was leading 200 to 190. On question 20, Ridgeview 2 won the jump but answered incorrectly. Then Sean Grace was able to seal the win for Grace Christian with a correct answer on the rebound. In the final round, Ridgeview 2 took off to an early lead in their quiz match against Temple and Lakeview. Ben Brewster and Emily Williams were dominate and lead Ridgeview 2 to a 220 point victory. Lakeview Baptist won the middle win as Juliann Jouben and Jonathan Jouben, Sr got just enough correct answers for victory. In the two team room, Grace Christian got locked in a back and forth quiz match against Ridgeview 1. Sean Grace from Grace Christian quizzed out on question 15 giving his team a 20 point lead. Going into question 20 the score was Grace Christian 190 and Ridgeview 1 180. At that point, Scott Firebaugh won the jump and answered correctly to give his team the win of both the quiz match and the quiz meet as Grace Christian was awarded the Team of the Month trophy.
There were six different quizzers that quizzed out forward with six correct answers in a single quiz match and won a Quiz Out Achievement Ribbon. They are as follows:
- Sean Grace – Grace Christian Academy
- Kierstin Balka – Temple Baptist
- Scott Firebaugh – Grace Christian Academy
- Benjamin Brewster – Ridgeview 2
- Emily Williams – Ridgeview 2
- Blake Brewster – Ridgeview 1
The Quizzer of the Month award was hotly contested this month, however one quizzer rose above the others and quizzed out with 16 correct and only 5 errors. That was Benjamin Brewster from Ridgeview 2 and he was awarded the Quizzer of the month medal.
I am attaching the team results and individual results for your review. It is very encouraging to see the time that these quizzers and their parents have invested in God’s Word, and it is exciting to think about the way God will use it in their lives in the years to come.
In Christ and In His Word,
Mike Balka