By SOOJUNG KI
Staff Writer
The UHS Deaf Academic Bowl (DAB) team will not be attending the 2018 National competition in Washington D.C. after losing the quarterfinals to Phoenix Day School for the Deaf in the Western Regional Division of the national Academic Bowl for Deaf and Hard of Hearing High School students sponsored by Gallaudet University.
A team of four students, junior Christian Blanco, senior Andrea Martinez, senior Chase Rettberg and junior Gerardo Reyes, alongside two alternates, freshmen Teck Ho and sophomore Joshua Soto, competed in the academic bowl.
“I think we have a strong team and our team has done very well so far,” Reyes said. “We’re giving up our lunch time, sitting with two coaches, Ms. Kay Anderson and Mr. Brendan Bonet, talking about different topics.”
The DAB is a trivia-structured annual event with participating schools from the West Coast area, including California, Washington, Hawaii, Utah and more.
“The match has three rounds,” Anderson said. “The first includes the buzzer system, where the student who hits the buzzer first gets the chance to answer the question, the second round is individual and the third is a team effort.”
The opening ceremony, including a practice round and a welcome dinner, was held on Friday, March 9, with all 20 teams that are participating in the event.
Events were held throughout the weekend and ended on Monday, March 12, at UHS, which was the host school.
“We have a committee of almost ten people and everyone has a separate role,” DHH Principal David Longo said. “I’m organizing the event, but Ms. Young is doing signs and coordinating photography. We have somebody coording all of our tech equipment and we have over 115 volunteers.”
The DAB has a variety of topics, from core subjects to popular culture and current events.
The UHS DHH team has been the champion of the Western Regional Division six times during its twenty years of participation in the Academic Bowl competition.
“I’m really proud of our team and I’m really excited about [next year],” Anderson said.