2009 was indeed a banner year for Apostolic Bible Quizzing. In only its second year of existence the ABQ program hosted 25 junior and senior regional tournaments throughout the United States.  Hundreds of Apostolic children and teens from across the nation reaped the great benefits that bible quizzing has offered throughout the last four decades. A heart-felt “THANK YOU!” is due to all the churches and pastors who have faithfully supported this ministry.

The 2009 season culminated in the ABQ National Tournament, July 20-24.  Held in conjunction with the national PEAK conference, the ABQNT was certainly a resounding success. The 118 quizzers from 23 senior and 19 junior teams represented a remarkable turnout for our second national tournament. Hosted in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the tournament could scarcely have had a better venue for dual-session quizzing than the mirror-image north and south banquet halls at the beautiful SpiritBank Event Center.

 

Monday morning, July 20th marked the start of the senior tournament (quizzers aged 12-18) with registration/orientation. After teams had confirmed their quizzing line-ups there was a time of worship and song followed by the draw which determines the order of quizzes.

 

Manteca, CA started off the tournament with a bang by earning a double gold medal ceremony in the first quiz. A quizzer is awarded this honor by scoring 120 or more points in a single quiz, and for a team to have TWO quizzers earn a gold medal is rare indeed.

 

This, of course, was not the only amazing feat performed in this tournament, as scarcely a quiz passed without either a team or quizzer distinguishing themselves in some way. One such occurrence was the unbelievable quiz between Columbus, IN (our eventual tournament champion) and Lake Charles, LA 1. Bethany Streeval from Columbus correctly answered questions 2 through 8 and then question 12 to quiz out (a quizzer is allowed eight correctly-answered questions with a bonus ten points for quizzing out). This put Columbus ahead 155 to 0. Then an incredible thing began to happen: Elle Simmons from Lake Charles, apparently disapproving of the direction the quiz was headed, hit and correctly answered questions 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 (remember, this was against the soon-to-be national champions)! This brought the score to 160 for Lake Charles to Columbus’ 155 with both teams needing the last 30-point question to win the game. Elle, still on fire, hit and by a hair’s breadth missed the last question giving Columbus the win by a 10-point margin. This amazing game will long be remembered by the appreciative audience. This was just one of many “highlight” moments of the ABQNT week.

 

Round 1 of the tournament ended with Buford, GA (our eventual third-place finisher) victorious in room 1 and Columbus, IN the winner in room 2. These teams met head-to-head and Columbus emerged as the champions of round 1.

 

Round 2 then commenced, characterized by quality quizzing resulting in multiple gold, silver and bronze medal ceremonies for a variety of teams. In room 2, Buford, GA 2’s captain, Benjamin Copeland, won a PLATINUM medal! This amazing feat is seldom accomplished and requires a quizzer to score 160 points and have a perfect quiz with zero misses. Room 1 saw Alto, TX’s entry into the top four, while room 2 produced Manteca, CA. In the resulting quiz between these two teams, Manteca won one of the closest quizzes of the entire tournament (margin of victory: 5 points)! This slated them to quiz Buford, GA, where once again, Manteca found a way to win earning the right to quiz in the championship against undefeated Columbus, IN.

 

The first championship quiz, witnessed by a standing-room only crowd, was marked by an extraordinary effort by Manteca and perhaps a bit of rust from Columbus who had been waiting two days for a team to emerge from round 2. However, the second quiz told the tale as Columbus rallied with Caleb Streeval leading the way, quizzing out on question 19 to clinch the quiz and the championship. It was indeed a great way to end a great tournament.

 

The Senior ABQNT was concluded with a beautiful awards banquet. The delicious dinner was complimented by testimonies from last-year quizzers, an entertaining slideshow, hilarious skits, and of course the senior awards ceremony. The top four teams in order were: Columbus, IN; Manteca, CA; Buford, GA; and Alto, TX. Amazingly, there was a tie for highest scorer between the same two quizzers who also tied at the 2008 ABQNT: Caleb Streeval (Columbus, IN) and Andrea, Grindle (Alto, TX). The next six highest scorers were as follows: 2nd-Santino Simental (Manteca, CA) with 95.0 pts/quiz; 3rd-Benjamin Copeland (Buford, GA 2) with 102.5 pts/quiz; 4th-Lacey Coker (Tomball, TX/Oakdale, LA) with 98.75 pts/quiz; 5th-Chris Elliott (Concord, CA) with 84.0 pts/quiz; 6th-Joseph Castro (Concord, CA) with 79.0 pts/quiz and 7th-Brooke Williams (Calhoun, LA) with 73.0 pts/quiz.

 

The senior quizzer of the year was Jordan Copeland (Buford, GA) who received a $2,100 missions scholarship courtesy of the WPF Women’s Ministry Department, Global Missions Department and the Youth Department. The runner-up quizzer of the year was Santino Simental (Manteca, CA).  The coach of the year was Bro. Streeval (Columbus, IN); the runner-up coach of the year went jointly to Bro and Sis Hodge from Lake Isabella, CA.  Our Intermediate awards were as follows: Intermediate team award, Calhoun, LA; Intermediate quizzer of the year, Benjamin Copeland (Buford, GA) and runner-up Intermediate quizzer of the year, Hannah Cassaday (Vandalia, MO).

 

Immediately following the senior national tournament began the junior national tournament (quizzers up to 12 years of age).

 

One might think that this tournament consisting of younger quizzers would be less exciting . . . that would be incorrect! From the opening question to the closing award ceremony, there was never a dull moment. Here are just a few highlights of the Junior ABQNT:

 

In Quiz 1, Clark Copeland from Buford, GA, set a high standard for the rest of the tournament by winning a gold medal with 110 points. Quiz 4, an overtime nail-biter, was finally sealed on question 17—junior quizzes typically have 15 questions—by Megan Daley (Lake Charles, LA), earning her a gold medal.

 

The quizzing became increasingly exciting, finally culminating in the round 1 championship between Carmi, IL and Durham, NC with Durham emerging undefeated.

 

The junior round 2 also proved to be competitive as the remaining teams vied for the top 4 spots. In the end, there remained only Calhoun, LA; Buford, GA; Carmi, IL; and Durham, NC. Buford defeated Calhoun, but Carmi, captained by Andrew Giles, prevailed over Buford to challenge Durham in the championship quiz. Against the odds, the North-Central regional champion from Illinois defeated Durham TWICE to become the 2009 Junior North American Champions!

 

That night, at the beginning of the evening service of PEAK, the junior awards were presented in front of approximately 3,800 enthusiastic young people.

 

The top 4 teams in order were Carmi, IL (7-1); Durham, NC (4-2); Buford, GA (6-2); and Calhoun, LA (3-2). 

The All-Tournament Team was as follows: 1st-Hannah Monk (Calhoun, LA) with 87.0 pts/quiz; 2nd-Allen Mullinax (Durham, NC) with 86.0 pts/quiz; 3rd-Andrew Giles (Carmi, IL) with 81.875 pts/quiz; 4th-Joel Heavrin (Evansville, IN) with 77.5 pts/quiz; 5th-Andrew Dam-Michelson (Bakersfield, CA) with 69.0 pts/quiz; 6th-Clark Copeland (Buford, GA) with 65.0 pts/quiz; and 7th-Austin Goodman (Sacramento, CA) with 59.0 pts/quiz. 

 

The Junior Quizzer of the Year was Andrew Giles (Carmi, IL); the runner-up was Allen Mullinax (Durham, NC). The Coaches of the Year were Bro. and Sis. Cremeans (Durham, NC); the runner-up Coach of the Year was Mary Woessner (Edinburg, IN). The Junior New Team Merit went to the brand-new team from Memphis, TN.