(4-20-26) With its championship win at the Mercer County High School Scholastic League, the quiz bowl team from Parkway High School in Rockford proved themselves worthy to play on a national stage.  On Friday, April 24, the team will represent their school in a 154-team national competition:  National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Small School National Championship Tournament.

Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students.  Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture.  The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas.  Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.

This will be Parkway’s first time attending the Small School National Championship Tournament.  In 2025 and 2024 they qualified but were not able to attend.

The SSNCT is the only quiz bowl national championship pitting small schools against each other.  It has one division containing non-selective public schools with 500 or fewer students in their top three grades, and another division for other schools with 350 or fewer students in their top three grades.  Parkway may face familiar foes in Rosemont, as Indian Lake (from Lewistown), Pandora-Gilboa, and Paulding will also be attending.

The team comes in with some nationals experience: Colin Ketchum played the 2026 Individual Player National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago).

The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, will consist of Charles Bennett, Freya Blount, Kara Fullenkamp, Logan Fullenkamp, Nicole Heitkamp, Trevor Heitkamp, Colin Ketchum, Wyatt Pancake, and Caleb Poe.  The team will be coached by Maggie Houts and Anita Morton.

Tournament results will be updated throughout the three days of competition at https://www.naqt.com/go/stats/17101 so everyone can follow along and see how the team does.  You can also follow #ssnct on Instagram.