Photos by Erin Seccia

Donned in red cardigan sweaters, the Kings Academic Quiz Team hosted their senior night last Friday, February 10th, taking on the visiting Turpin Spartans from Forest Hills.Turpin came into the match with a 4-6 record, making for an intriguing matchup with 3-7 Kings.

In the first match, the Knights were looking sharp, answering question after question correctly. Kings ended up taking the first match with a score of 60-44.

After a short break for the Junior Varsity match, the Varsity teams went back to the buzzers for their second leg of the double-header.

The second match was much closer than the first, the two sides trading points back and forth until Kings finally pulled away. The match ended with a 59-51 score in favor of Kings.

Kings improved their record to 5-7, and moved up to fourth place in the Eastern Cincinnati Conference standings.

For the seniors, the match against Turpin was their last on Kings’ campus.

Academic Quiz Team is certainly not your traditional high school sport, so the players receive a very unique experience.

“Since the Quiz Team is a smaller sports team at the high school, we carpool to away matches, during our time in the car, we like to listen to funny historical parody songs to ‘get in the zone’,” said senior captain, Jackson Hacker.

Jackson is the lone four-year participant on this year’s Academic Quiz Team. He participated on the JV level for two years before being called up to Varsity as a Junior.

“I tried out for the team my Freshman year… mostly because I wanted to find a new outlet for my competitive spirit because I couldn’t play sports due to an ACL injury,” Hacker told the Knight Times.

Head coach Jonathan Bitzer spoke highly of this year’s senior class.

“They set a really good example. They understand the importance of being able to keep things humorous, but also knowing the time and place to be serious, ” said coach Bitzer.

Mr. Bitzer, an English teacher at Kings High School, is in his third season as head coach of the Academic Quiz Team. 

“My favorite part of the season is getting to know the team, not as students, not as quiz team members, but as human beings.”

The red sweaters continue their campaign next Wednesday in the ECC tournament. The matches will start at 4pm. All tournament action will take place at Turpin high school.