Students and teachers alike filled into the little theater, crammed in the rows of seats and some even standing in the back to watch the students versus teachers knowledge bowl tournament May 25. 

The teachers who participated were history teacher Michael Gianelli, choir teacher Kevin Downey and english teachers Karin Childress and Tina Perez, all demonstrating their knowledge against the student knowledge bowl team consisting of junior Alexander Cenzano, senior James Rose, senior Quinlan Vasquez, sophomore Michale Ramirez and more. Andrew Coates, the knowledge bowl advisor, was the host of the tournament who posed questions to both teams.

“It wasn’t [exactly] like our competitions, but the layout is similar,” Vasquez said. 

The tournament lasted two rounds, teachers and students switching for the second. Two types of questions that could be asked for the event, the toss up, which went to whoever answered first, and the bonus question which only went to the team that answered correctly. 

If a team were to answer the toss up question incorrectly the other team would have the opportunity to steal. The tournament started off with students in the lead, having answered the toss up question first and having answered the bonus question correctly. 

“[The competition] was fun,” Vasquez said. “I probably enjoyed our actual competitions more but it was fun.”

As the students and teachers continued to go back and forth answering questions, the sound of their buzzers and cheers from students were heard throughout the school’s little theater. 

“I was happy to see a full audience, that students actually cared to come and give their time to be here,” Gianelli said. “So that was nice to see, the students support.”

But when students answered the toss up question incorrectly, it allowed teachers to steal, or answered the bonus question wrong it led to teachers getting ahead with a score of 100-80 as the round finished. Teachers and students swapped places, with Cenzano as the only student from round one who continued into round two. 

Students were able to catch up and take the lead by ten points once they reached the fourth question of the second round. By the sixth question the students were 50 points ahead, hitting their buzzers as quickly as possible to answer first.

With only minutes left until lunch would end the final score did not look good for the teachers. Gianelli was able to hit his buzzer for two questions, which helped the teachers catch up, but with two questions left students were still in the lead.

“I knew most of the answers but I was nervous,” Gianelli said. “I wanted to hear the full question but I was too late [hitting the buzzer], so my nervousness cost me.” 

Down to the last two questions, Downey answered question nine incorrectly, students stole and Ramirez answered correctly but was not correct for the bonus question. At the last question Ramirez was able to answer first and correctly, when the bonus question came students were able to give the correct answer. When lunch ended, so did the tournament which had students taking the win with a final score of 230-190.

“I wanted to win, I’m very competitive but I’m happy to see the students are very knowledgeable and it was a good competition,” Gianelli said.