Strake Jesuit

Strake Jesuit College Preparatory
Location: Houston, TX
Coaches	Max Maier (2017-present)
State Championships	N/A
National Championships	N/A
National Appearances	HSNCT: 2006, 2016-2022 NSC: 2016-2022
Program Status	Active
School Size	1,200
NAQT Page	link

Strake Jesuit College Preparatory is a college-preparatory school for boys, grades 9–12 in Houston, Texas. The Quiz Bowl team participated in at least two editions of the NAC (1988, 1995), but the team's first known NAQT tournament was the 2006 HSNCT. For the next decade, the team stayed more or less active at the state level, then rejoined the national stage in 2016. Students from both private and public schools around the Houston area, including Annunciation Orthodox and St. Clare of Assisi, matriculate at Strake every fall.

History

Early years

The earliest quizbowl tournaments that Strake Jesuit was mentioned as competing in (ie: listed in field) were the 1988 NAC and the 1995 NAC. However, the first detailed stats of a Strake team came at the 2006 HSNCT, where the six-man team, led by Adam Perkins, went 5-5 and finished 71st out of 128 teams.

For the next several years, Strake participated in only TQBA tournaments, with unremarkable results. The low point of the era was the 2008 TQBA State Championship, where Strake finished 12th in a 12-team field, losing every game of the round robin to finish 0-11. Strake teams continued to earn decent places in JV divisions and perform with mediocrity in varsity tournaments.

In the 2012-2013 season, Strake earned its first-ever qualification for NAQT HSNCT with a 5th-place finish out of 27 teams at the TQBA Bayou City Invitational. However, they did not attend that season's HSNCT. In fact, after Bayou City, Strake played one more tournament (13th of 20 at the 2012 TQBA Houston Holiday Hoedown) and then did not participate in another recorded tournament until October 2015, a three-year hiatus.

But when it returned to TQBA, Strake, now coached by Chris Romero, who had joined the faculty as a math teacher, went on a tournament-playing frenzy, participating in no less than 10 tourneys during the 2015-2016 season, including a Louisiana tournament. In contrast, it had taken Strake 8 years to play its previous 10 tournaments.

Rise to Prominence

On March 5th, 2016, at the TQBA Bluebonnet Bowl, Strake Jesuit, represented by three freshmen and a senior, finished 3rd out of 27 teams and qualified for HSNCT. It was their first qualification since 2012. This time, however, Strake indeed registered for the tournament. After a 3rd of 10 finish at TQBA State, the team of 4 freshmen and a junior went to the 2016 HSNCT, compiling a 5-5 record and finishing 139th out of 272 teams, a result that mirrored the original team's finish ten years prior.

In 2017, the team, boasting the three now-sophomores of the HSNCT team (John Luke Broussard, Sean Doyle, and Josh Hew) as well as a new freshman (Robert Condron) finished 2nd of 16 at the TQBA Hornet Hullabaloo, 3rd of 26 at TQBA Kickoff, and 3rd of 19 at TQBA Alamo City. Coach Romero had left the school after one year but continued to coach the team on his own time. The extraordinarily young team had 9 HSNCT-qualifying finishes, including its first-ever tournament win (9-0 at the 2017 ESA Cade Cane Classic). Then, at the 2017 HSNCT, Strake, which was able to send two teams, saw its A-team, all sophomores or freshmen, go 7-3 in the prelims and finish 25th of 304, by far the best-ever HSNCT showing in program history.