The question was asked in Startup your week. “Are the majority of quizzers contemporary or conservative (or something like that)” Jesse stated that the teams from Georgia and Florida were more contemporary than the rest.
That, basically, is true. I was a member of “the 2003 Athens team… free-spirited team,…won Nationals!”
I can’t speak for the attitude from the rest of the world, but I can reflect the spirit of my team. We had a lot of fun. Some times too much fun (just ask Mr Bamford). But we treated major Bible Quiz tournaments as if they were the Super Bowl. Yes, from the surface, the leather and flashy ties and football games between quizzes may have come across as apathetic. But the truth was that at the heart of the matter we were dedicated to winning.
(Hopefully Brant will not read this before he posts it, but these examples are true and necessary to the article). One Saturday night in September, I walked to the back of the auditorium at Hampton Park Baptist Church in Greenville (the monthly PQA meet). There was Brant, sitting alone on a bench trying to hide the fact that he was crying. Yeah, he was on the basketball team. Yes, he was a junior in high school. Yes, we made fun of him. But the disappointment was horrible.
Later that year, I had to miss a month of PQA. A stupid decision of mine that I thought would not matter.
As it turned out, Mr Bamford used our personal PQA stats to determine who would be on team 1 at the New Year’s Classic that year. I was tied for 5th and not quite good enough statistically to make the first team.
The second team that day was horrible. We lost the first two quizzes. It was appropriate to stay and cheer the others, but I sped home in anger.
I later learned that there are more important things than showing your disappointment in such a manner. We all learned.
Apparently learned enough to win Nationals the next year.
So through the facade, there was a team that handled Bible Quiz with respect and well.. almost with mystique.
I can see both sides-as if I am in the middle looking both ways.
I can understand why some teams wear matching suits, hardly ever break a smile, and would never “behave” in the manner of some others.
I also can see why teams (usually from Florida or Georgia, and a touch of California) bring their skate boards, wear clothes that have safety pins holding them together, and seem to have little care for anything important.
The fact of the matter is that both style of kids are quizzing in our main stream tournaments. YES, you do have to follow the rules of each tournament you go to. Your clothes, your behavior, your attitude and anything else may be judged by the authority of any tournament. But the fact is that there are many great quizzers who are considerably different from the others.
If the quizzer’s attitude is correct and he has respect for Bible Quiz in general and wants to win, then his being either contemporary or conservative won’t factor into the greatness of the quizzer.