By Breanna Richardson
This was the first of seven monthly tournaments in the FQA South league, located in Central Florida. Our season finally commenced after a long summer hiatus. It may have only been a small tournament, but the majority of the quizzers were ecstatic about a new season of quizzing. The excitement was evident that morning when all the quizzers were hanging around talking with people they hadn’t seen all summer and meeting the many new people to Bible quizzing. The most exciting thing is that the FQA South is definitely growing, especially in the realm of the RAMS (Rookie And Middle School) division. Because this tournament was so early in August and because schools aren’t in session, many teams were unable to make it, including, The Master’s Academy and North Alliance. In the high school division we had four teams. And in the RAMS division we had three new teams that had never quizzed before.
High School Teams:
Open Door – Like always Open Door has assembled two, equal teams with good quizzers. This is great, that they can have a lot of good quizzers, as opposed to just one or two great quizzers. Some may say, it would be advantageous for them to put their best good quizzers on one team and make one great team. But more importantly, I think that this team needs some quizzers to distinguish themselves from the rest and do what it takes to be a great quizzer. For example, their highest quizzer was second grader, Grace D’Amico, who finished as the third highest quizzer of the day. The inside scoop is that she may not make it to all the tournaments, so in my opinion, this team needs someone to step up and lead this team, and I definitely think that they have enough good quizzers, to make this become reality.
FBCCF – Though without a coach or Annabelle and Abigail Carbonell, FBCCF was able to produce two great teams. William Santiago led team number one to a wonderful day of quizzing, by achieving second highest quizzer of the day. Though they were able to pull off many high wins, this team lacked the stability and someone to unite them as a team causing them some rough times throughout the day. FBCCF 2, my team, (which I am slightly biased towards) was the best team I feel I have quizzed with in a monthly tournament. This was a team that depended on each other to do well and had the confidence to do it. But we certainly didn’t lack problems. We struggled continually with errors. This provided us with several close calls and even some losses in the Round Robin.
At the end of the Round Robin, the Open Door teams were seeded third and fourth, with FBCCF filling in the top two. The first round in the single elimination rounds was between FBCCF 2 and Open Door 1. FBCCF made some errors and the deciding factor came down to the last couple of questions. But FBCCF was able to slide by with a high win. In the second elimination round, FBCCF 1 and Open Door faced off. FBCCF had a bad quiz, and at the end of question 19 they were down by 10 points. Luckily for Open Door, Alex D’Amico jumped up and answered correctly, thereby eliminating FBCCF. In the Championship quiz, FBCCF 2 against Open Door 2, FBCCF had a 40-point lead over Open Door at question 10. FBCCF managed to hold that lead throughout the rest of the quiz, and were able to win the first FQA South tournament of the season.
RAMS:
Calvary Baptist – Calvary is a new ministry to Bible quizzing, although it is comprised of people that have quizzed before for various other ministries. Calvary 1’s top quizzers were: Scott Kennedy, who was a star quizzer for Open Door’s elementary team last year, and Brittany Austin, who quizzed with FBCCF two years ago. The second team starred Joshua Austin, David Terrell, Kelsie and Deven Davies. Joshua Austin also quizzed with FBCCF two years ago. This team did well all morning and was able to secure them as the highest seeded team.
FBCCF – This was the first year FBCCF had a team in the RAMS division. Most of the quizzers are new to quizzing including Mary Jones and Katelyn Rinaudo, both of whom I believe will take this team far in the future. But for this first month they were able to snag Paige Warren and Mark Jones off the elementary team. Both of them helped, encouraged, and gave this team a great boost in this tournament.
All three of these teams were equally matched and were great competition for one another. In the Semi-Finals with FBCCF and Calvary 1, Paige Warren and Mark Jones both quizzed out, bestowing FBCCF with running start not to mention the high win. In the finals, FBCCF had a rougher start with Paige quizzing out backward within the first ten questions. The rest of the team pulled together and by the end of question 19 they followed Calvary by 10 points. Mark Jones quizzed out at question 20, awarding FBCCF Middle School the honor of winning the first FQA RAMS event of this school year.