By Rohit Shenoy ‘28
Last year, the Bellarmine quiz bowl team traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for the High School National Championship Tournament, finishing 33rd out of 336 teams. This incredible accomplishment was spearheaded by Captain Vayun Krishna ‘25, who was the 17th highest scorer among 1500+ players. But with the quiz bowl team undoubtedly losing its star player, Bellarmine’s future needs reevaluation.
But thankfully, it seems like Bellarmine will continue to succeed. With the team under the leadership of Aidan Okyar ‘26, the plan is to build depth through ingraining study habits and hierarchy early on. For the first year in the Bellarmine quiz bowl team’s history, the main team will be composed of underclassmen.
To understand how the foundation of the Bellarmine quiz bowl team developed, The Bell Online asked former captain Vayun Krishna ‘25 a couple of questions. They also asked how to sustain it.
What first got you into quiz bowl, and what kept you passionate about it over the years?
I always had a passion for trivia but never had a real outlet. I did science bowl in middle school but wasn’t very good at it, so I thought joining quiz bowl at Bellarmine would be interesting. At my first tournament with the Bellarmine novice team, I performed pretty well, and I realized that this was an activity I could be good at. But what really kept me coming back was how welcoming the people were. Whether it was coaches like Mr. Fleitas and Mr. Flowers, or upperclassman players like Richard Lin (class of ’23), everyone was willing to help me and everyone genuinely loved the activity. Despite the fact that it was a competitive activity, anyone of any skill could join quiz bowl. Other than that, I just find it really exciting to just learn about things I find interesting in various topics.
Looking back, what are you most proud of from your quiz bowl career?
I’m most proud of the studying and work I put into quiz bowl my junior and senior years, becoming our team’s captain and first scorer. After our top player (Richard) graduated, it was up to me to cover a massive amount of categories, and up to that point, I was certainly not the strongest player – in categories like literature, which Richard was great at, I often just tuned out the question because I expected him to get it. Becoming the first scorer was an incredibly daunting task, but I devoted time nearly every day to study – being the first player on a quiz bowl team is often something that comes with a lot of pressure to know a large quantity of information, and I sometimes struggled with that. But with enough effort, I was able to become a player that the rest of my team could rely on, and place highly at the Individual Player National Championship this year.
Do you have any advice for the quiz bowl team in the future?
Have fun and lean on each other! Quiz bowl involves a lot of studying, and it’s really easy to do if you actually enjoy the category you’re learning about. And make sure you guys trust each other and rely on each other – it’s much better to become an excellent team if each person is studying a category they really care about instead of just one person studying everything.
Vayun’s message to the new roster is clear: it’s essential that Bellarmine’s quiz bowl team specialize and put in as much effort as they can early on. If each underclassman takes their own lane–whether it be literature, history, science, or any other category, Bellarmine becomes much harder to beat. And although Bellarmine has been known for successful teams led by a star player, it seems that this year, that philosophy will have to change.
Club President Aidan Okyar plans to put these changes into action. He explains, “I want to foster growth within our team, especially amongst our huge underclassman population; I see a lot of potential in them and hope to use the experience I’ve gained from competing on the national level for years to support them.”
Importantly, these changes are already yielding results. At the TQBA Online Jamboree in September, the Bells achieved third-place, led by top scorers Arjun Singampalli ‘29 and Thiyagesh Venkatesan ‘29.
And considering that Vayun, now a freshman at Georgetown University, is still helping the Bellarmine quiz bowl team through hosting practices and providing advice, the team is only looking upwards.
Students interested in joining can attend meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays in C‑004 or contact club advisor Mr. Flowers.