By Lisa Carolin
Chelsea High School junior Evan Sing has made the most of social distancing.
He’s used the opportunity to compete in Buzzword, a web-based academic competition and an individual, self-paced race against the clock with quiz bowl questions and subject matter.
Sing will be competing in the Individual Player National Championship Tournament’s High School Division online on April 11.
The contest will be hosted by the National Association of Quiz Tournaments (NAQT), the preeminent national organization for high school quiz bowl.
“Each week players compete online,” said Sing. “Questions are ‘tiered’, meaning that the question is in paragraph form, beginning with more difficult clues and ending on simpler ones. The earlier you buzz, the more points are at stake, but also the more risk.”
Sing, who also plays on a Chelsea High School team that is preparing for a state championship in April, says topics include history, literature, science and pop culture. His favorite categories are history and geography.
He was a National Geographic Geography Bee champion when he attended Beach Middle School.
Sing says that participating in Buzzword has kept his quiz bowl knowledge sharp.
“Scores are calculated by taking the five best personal results out of the eight rounds, and I ended up placing 16th nationally,” said Sing, who was the fifth-best player in the Geography category in the High School Division.
There is a negative side to remote participation, especially for the CHS team.
“The online aspect of it this year is definitely a bummer, especially when we are zooming in from a distance,” said Sing. “The cohesion of the team suffers a bit. Fortunately, however, we have been able to play tournaments remotely together in person with our team, with respect of course to social-distancing and mask-wearing measures. This has allowed us to continue the great chemistry we have as a team.”
Sing says that his areas of interest with quiz bowl continue to expand and now include world events as well as history, language, and culture. How might his quiz bowl skills factor into a career choice?
“Some careers I’ve considered include working in the State Department or possibly as a linguist.,” said Sing. “If all goes well (that is to say, COVID-permitting), I’ll be traveling to Nice this summer for a six-week language program, and I’m considering going to university in France after high school to pursue my interests in language and world affairs.”
