WEST IRON COUNTY High School defeated Houghton 270-260 in the High School Bowl Championship on April 13 in Marquette. Representing West Iron County, seated from left, are players Abigail Farley, Jayden McWethy, team captain Rachel Fanous and Rocky Farley. Standing is coach Joel VanLanen. Players for Houghton are, seated from left, Brad Burns, Jack Mueller, team captain Tyler Gregersen and Peter Rudnicki. Standing is coach Rebecca Keyes with alternate Bodin Rudnicki. High School Bowl host Jim Koski is standing at left. (Submitted photo)

IRON RIVER — Fresh off their first win in the Upper Peninsula High School Bowl tournament, the West Iron County High School team is heading to a national competition.

The team was to leave today for the National Academic Quiz Tournament Small School National Championship this weekend at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, Ill.

They qualified for nationals by taking first place in a NAQT tournament at Northern Michigan University on March 20. They also competed in the national tournament last year.

The team has been under the direction of coach Joel VanLanen since 1999. He is a science teacher at the school.

This was the team’s first win in the WNMU-TV High School Bowl competition, he said. Thirty-eight schools from the U.P. and northern Wisconsin participate in the tournament, which is celebrating 45 years.

With their 270-260 win April 13, they denied Houghton what would have been the school’s 10th championship, VanLanen said.

“We’ve won other tournaments but this is the first time we’ve won the TV one. We came really close before,” VanLanen said. “We almost didn’t win; we were behind. Houghton’s always tough.”

Their road to the championship began with a win over Westwood in their first match; and in the “Sweet 16” round they defeated Manistique. They advanced through the next two rounds over Ironwood and Lake Linden-Hubbell to earn a spot in the championship game.

The team consists of senior Rachel Fanous, who has three years on the team and also serves as captain; and juniors Abigail Farley, Rocky Farley and Jayden McWethy. They have all been on the team two years.

For all of the team members, winning the High School Bowl has been their favorite moment and they’ve all enjoyed the friendships they’ve made on the team and through being on the team.

“It honestly felt so surreal. Time seemed to slow down, and a massive weight seemed to lift off my shoulders,” McWethy said of winning.

“We had never won before and that was an amazing feeling,” Rocky Farley said.

“It was a fun experience and really helped us grow as a team,” his sister Abigail added.

According to Fanous, playing the teams in the local circuit has been the best part. “Every single tournament, there’s someone with an absolutely insanely early guess, and they’re correct. It’s cool to see teams like Houghton, Gwinn and Jeffers improve — and fun, if a bit stressful, to compete with them.”

In addition to High School Bowl and the tournament in Marquette, West Iron County also compete in a NAQT tournament at Michigan Tech called the Blizzard Bowl, in the fall and the spring. This year they took first place in both. Another favorite tournament is one in March at Gogebic College. Multiple teams can go to that one, VanLanen said

When he first started coaching, Gogebic and High School Bowl were the only tournaments in the region, he noted.

They start studying for competitions in the fall, VanLanen said. The team from the previous year just meets in his room during lunch on the first day of school.

They use NAQT’s You Gotta Know, which are basically lists of information, such as famous tennis players, for example. He also has many books with questions.

“We watch old public TV programs. Eventually they recycle — not the same questions, but the answer to the question might be part of the question next time,” he said. They practice by pausing the shows after the question and answering the questions before revealing the answer.

A lot more information is available now compared with when he started, he noted.

“In 1999, there was internet and there were things online, but it was limited. Now with all the information we have online, we can even watch previously broadcast shows that go back quite a ways,” VanLanen said.

Team members have different strengths, he said. “I usually have them pick which ones they want to study because those are the ones they’ll want to study more, and then there’s always some … ‘you know what, someone is going to have to pick this one’ categories.”

Those are usually the topics they don’t like, such as capitals in the Middle East or southeast Asia, which he said often come up in geography questions.

“It sounds like they know students don’t like those areas of study,” he added. “The names are hard to pronounce.”

Everyone seems to like capitals of South America and Europe, though.

Some years they have too many students try out for the team; other years, like this year, there are not enough. They didn’t have an alternate this year.

Rocky said he learned about it in sixth grade and couldn’t wait to join. “When I was able, I jumped on the opportunity,” he said.

Abigail learned about it from her brother. “He kept telling me I should try it out and I ended up joining after a few months,” she said.

McWethy was skeptical at first but said “my mom encouraged me to join because she was in Quiz Bowl when she was a highschooler.”

VanLanen believes Quiz Bowl provides a boost for students in subjects while in school and can be an asset for college.

He had a student apply to University of Michigan, and Quiz Bowl helped with honors program test.

“With Quiz Bowl, you learn so many different topics. It really helps them to score well on it,” VanLanen said.

“Quiz Bowl is one of the few extracurriculars where you have an opportunity to follow a passion in anything and get rewarded,” Fanous said. “Players continuously learn more and get to cultivate an inquisitive mindset for the world around them.”

VanLanen said, “I like to see the students develop and grow, and I like when students come back and tell me they’ve used this knowledge somewhere.”