Arguably the most dominant team in Louisiana the past few years doesn’t compete on a football field, basketball court, or baseball/softball diamond.
The players don’t throw, dribble, or hit a ball. Instead, they pound a buzzer with lightning-quick speed, answering questions like:
“What is the smallest number of consecutive counterclockwise rotations of 60-degrees that will return any shape to its original orientation?”
“What French fashion designer is know for his women’s shoes with lacquered red soles?
“What Irish scientist lends his name to the curl theorem?
Feeling a bit under-educated?
The Caddo Magnet High School Quiz Bowl team is coming off their most impressive season since the program began in the late 1980’s. This past school year, the “A” team was 36-0 against in-state competition, and finished 8th in the nation out of 320 schools that made the national tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. Since January of 2022, the “A” team has won 137 straight matches versus Louisiana opponents.
The “B” team was hardly what you would consider a group of backups. Those four students went 21-5 this year versus in-state teams (including a loss to the Magnet “A” team).
“This particular group of kids has been a perfect storm,” said Co-Coach Amanda Lawrence. “We had one incredible generalist, and a series of other players who have worked around what he knew, and have played Quiz Bowl together for so long. They really created something special.”
That “incredible generalist” was senior Johnny Zheng. In 2024 as a sophomore, Zheng finished second out of 260 competitors at the individual player national championship.
“It’s always humbling to know there’s always someone who knows more than you,” Zheng said. “Even if you study really hard, there are going to be other people who are studying even harder. It gave me the drive to put extra effort into Quiz Bowl. When playing against other teams that have the same amount of knowledge as us, it’s nice to see the effort pay off when you answer the questions really early.”
The Caddo Magnet team has been on what professional sports teams would call a “heater”. Since January of 2022, the “A” team has won 137 straight single matches against Louisiana opponents, and 17 straight in-state tournaments. But along the way, their coaches knew racking up wins against inferior competition would not adequately prepare the team for bigger competitions. That’s why Caddo Magnet traveled to tournaments in Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia.
“If we were going to have a real shot at nationals, they had to know how to lose, or at least come from behind,” Lawrence said.
“In Oklahoma”, Co-Coach Andrew Medlin added, “they got to play against college teams, which was a really great experience. In some cases, to do well, and in some cases, to be really far behind.”
As with any team activity, culture is important. Coaches can set the tone, but players have to do the heavy lifting.
“I think one of the things about a Quiz Bowl program that people don’t understand when they’re starting to do one is that you have to have an established way of doing things,” Medlin said. “Our kids built that for themselves over the last four years. They’re all friends. They pushed each other. They talked about what they are studying. They studied together. They wrote questions together. They lived Quiz Bowl the last three or four years.”
The 2026-27 Caddo Magnet squad will look a lot different. Of the eight players who went to nationals this past year, six were seniors.
“We have a crop of really talented freshmen. We’re not going to be talking about winning nationals next year, but we will be talking about making the playoffs. We’re telling the freshmen who will be sophomores, and the incoming freshmen, that it’s going to be a really exciting time.”
As for Zheng, he’s preparing to attend Yale University and study either biology or economics. Zheng hopes to be on the college quiz bowl team, with an eye on a bigger prize.
“I would like to be on Jeopardy!. I’m a bit shy, but I think it would be a nice experience…On the more academic side of things, like history, science, and literature, I think I could probably do better than the average contestant. But when it comes to pop culture – TV shows, movies, famous actresses – I’m probably not as well-versed. I think it would be a mixed bad.”
Still, I will take “Johnny” for $1,000.
