Get Out of Town!

This Thursday, James River will load up six teams and forty or so people in a big bus and head north, spending Friday in Chicago before heading to Elkhart, IN for the Michiana Quiz on Saturday. This is an annual event for us, and our quizzers look forward to it every year.

Trips are one of the coolest parts of Bible Quiz. Students love to get on the road, stay in a hotel, and meet new people. Over the years, I've had the chance to take many students on their first ever out-of-state trip, and the wonder on their faces at seeing new places and experiencing new things is unmatched. When we promote quizzing to our youth, we highlight the annual trip as a big reason to join.

For our A team, this is one of three out-of-state trips we'll go on this season, not including Nationals (should we qualify). But for our MSQ and B quizzers, this is the only trip they'll get to go on, so we try to make it special. We spend a day in Chicago, visiting Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), window shopping at the Watertower Place Mall, and eating Gino's East Pizza. The kids will have their cameras out and snapping away. It's a highlight of the year for all of them.

Now, I've been to Chicago more times than I can count, and northern Indiana in October isn't exactly a tourism hotspot (unless you're a Notre Dame fan). Given a choice between staying in a hotel or staying at home, I'll take my own bed. I'd be thrilled if we could hold every competition, including Nationals, in Springfield. Travel lost its luster for me long ago. So why do I think these tournaments are important?

For me, it's all about the quizzing. From a competitive perspective, I want to help my team win games and prepare for higher levels of competition. Tournaments are a supremely important part of reaching our goals. We get to play tough teams from other regions and measure ourselves against them. When we go to Michiana this weekend, we'll play a couple very difficult teams, and whether we win or lose those games, we'll learn something from them that will help us later on.

Tournaments also are a great motivator for my quizzers. Over the course of the season, we'll quiz at four league matches and five tournaments before we get to District Finals. Each of these serve as a checkpoint for us to know where we are on the material, how we are quizzing, and what we need to improve. A quizzer who is slacking a little will get motivated to work much harder to prepare for a tournament. I tell my quizzers that our church invests money to help us with our expenses on these trips. If we don't work hard and do our best, we are wasting their money and being poor stewards.

Another great benefit of traveling is the time spent building relationships with quizzers. Last year, I spent about three hours on the bus hanging out with a couple sixth graders telling stories, playing games, and passing the time on the road. This year, those two quizzers are on my team for the weekend, and the time that I spent with them is paying dividends. These quizzers aren't intimidated by me because they've gotten to know me. I have no idea who I'll connect with this year and how that connection will pay off in the future.

So we're hitting the road this week to head to Indiana. I know that several teams are coming to Michiana, and many others are going to Dallas for Gold Cup. The quizzing at both these tournaments should be excellent, and hopefully the experienced gained will pay off as the season continues.

If you're a new coach, I strongly encourage you to take your team on at least one trip this year. For information on what tournaments are available this year, click here. Good luck, and hopefully we'll see you somewhere. If you're at Elkhart, be sure to come say hi to me.