Manistee Quiz Bowl’s success attributed to district’s educators

The Chippewas finished the season second in the Lakes 8 Conference; the Division 2 standings, which is hosted by Lakes 8 but includes additional schools; and the year-end Lakes 8 tournament. In all three cases, Manistee fell short of rival Ludington, which Schlaff said is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow.

“We are for sure a threat to a lot of teams, and fierce contenders. We’re always neck and neck with Ludington,” she said. “There have been years where we’ve come out ahead, and other years they’ve come out ahead. They’re always good competition for us.”

In Quiz Bowl, teams of four go head to head to answer questions from all areas of knowledge, with players buzzing in to answer.

The team was captained by senior Solana Postma, whom Schlaff said leaves behind big shoes to fill.

“I think a lot of teams will be happy to see her go,” Schlaff said. “She is a fierce competitor and knows something about everything. We will really miss her next year.”

Postma is not the only senior on the squad, and Schlaff said she was grateful to each one for their hard work this season.

“We also have several other graduating seniors that were on the team: Maddie Fox, Addy Witkowski, Luke Kooy, Courtney Haag and Kylar Thomas,” Schlaff said. “Some of them were involved in skiing and other things and not able to compete as much as the rest of the team, but we were glad to have their contributions as well.”

Schlaff said Manistee competed in some exciting matches in the tournament, which took place on March 16 in Fremont. Postma’s quick thumb saved the day in a double-overtime match against Hart.

“Double overtime is whoever answers the first question correctly wins the whole thing. It’s really intense for the kids,” Schlaff said. “The moderator began reading the first question and Solana Postma buzzed in before she had even finished reading the question and answered it. It was a very close and exciting match.”

Schlaff said Manistee opted out of competing in the state tournament, which for the second year in a row was held virtually in order to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

“It’s been virtual and it’s kind of been voluntary — anybody that wants to sign up can,” she said. “We did it last year, but the kids didn’t really want to spend a whole Saturday doing it virtually again this year. It’s not nearly as much fun online as it is in person, so we chose not to participate in that.”

Schlaff said she hopes to see the state tournament return to in-person competition next season. And with a crop of young brainiacs on the team, and up-and-comers from the junior varsity squad, Manistee is poised to have another strong year.

“We have so many good competitors coming up, too — younger kids in lower grades. We have good representation,” Schlaff said. “We had two freshmen on the team this year: Hanna Konen and Oliver Holtgren — they’re going to be great contributors. We had Jack O’Donnell for the first time. Jack’s a sophomore, along with Vincent Wang and Nick Judkins.

“We have a lot of potential to be fierce competitors again next year,” Schlaff continued. “I’m looking forward to that.”

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