Montgomery (San Diego)

Montgomery High School
Location: San Diego, CA
Club Presidents	Andrew Barboza
Coaches	Michael Gray
Program Status	Active
School Size	Unknown
NAQT Page	link

Montgomery High School is a Public high school located on the southern suburbs of Otay Mesa West in San Diego, CA. The Montgomery Quiz Bowl Team (MOHQB) is a member of the SoCal QB circuit and the Metro Conference Academic League.

Metro Conference Academic League

MOHQB belongs to, and is a key player in the Metro Conference Academic League, actively competing and supporting the values it installs to its member players.

History

Early Montgomery (2011-2020)

Montgomery Quiz Bowl Team c. 2019

The Academic League team at Montgomery High School can be traced all the way back to 2011 as NAQT records show. However, not much is known or recorded during those times except that the team managed to secure a sufficient win to enter the League Tournaments in 2012 and in 2015. It would take until 2018 that the first discovered records of an administration would be recorded but even then not much would be known under the Jorge administration other than the team was formally known as Montgomery High Academics. Another batch of early records show that Sarah Mansfield presided as coach during the early and classical periods of the MOH Academics Team and as it progressed the identity of the team would be the one of a Coach-Led Administration and a Presidential advisor to aid her, Mansfield incorporated Decathlon alongside Academic League stating that whoever takes Academic League can greatly benefit from taking Decathlon and this precedent would survive for as long as the presence of an Academic League team was at Montgomery.

Torres Dictatorship (2021-2023)

During 2022, Daniel Torres began to usher in a period of Authoritarianism (using the Mansfield form of governance to his advantage) throughout the academic league team. His reign, brought in a form of governance similar to the one already established to which only him and Coach Mansfield made the decisions during that time. On paper, there was a Cabinet to abide ASB customs but Torres made all the decisions for the team. A stagnant performance and social isolation followed the team during this time only achieving the dreaded "2 win" mark and noting more. The mere simple introduction of creating a social media account would prove to be the fatal spark to the "Late Torres Renaissance" coupled also alongside the Decathlon team scoring 2nd place in the whole league MOH would begin to achieve a feeling of pride and hope it once never thought it could acquire this confidence allowed the team to be an active center for diplomacy and thanks to this new connections began to emerge which brought in new ideas and brand new ways of doing quiz bowl. The old Classical and Torres ways of Academic League would begin to slowly be a thing of the past and as the words of Torres put it "I regretted not meeting you guys much sooner" no other school would prove to be as much influence to the Montgomery way of life than to the sophisticated development of Olympian High School, new ideas like a new student-led form of governance and much more complex study material would forever leave a mark on Montgomery which would be even more evident as to the fact that MOH Academia was now the new name of the team and a greater focus on innovation was rooted and implanted into the team.

Aztec Revolution & Industrialization (2023-Present)

After the graduation of Daniel Torres, Coach Mansfield announced that she would retire and leave Academic League to Band Director Michael Gray and she would preside over Decathlon thus enfold defuncting the old Montgomery tradition of having Academic League alongside Decathlon and splitting MOH Academia. This period was also accompanied with the resignation of the short lived President Hannah Ting during the start of the 23-24 school year. The Academic League fraction with the power vacuum that Ting left naturally made it so her cabinet assumed complete power until brand new elections were to be held the cabinet established brand new reforms like the rapid switch from a Strong Coach Team to a Olympian styled Student-Led Democracy (the one that was greatly idealized during the Late Torres Renaissance), New study methods and new study material were rapidly implemented to replace the old "bulk packet" studying of the past and lastly the MOH Academia would now be turned into the Montgomery Quiz Bowl Team. The transfer of Mansfield to Gray gave a period of stabilization enough to create an electoral environment and Andrew Barboza was to fill the presidential role. Barboza maintained the same cabinet as Ting and under the new administration increased contact with outside schools have accelerated even more then during the Late Torres Renaissance, the reformed method of studying and new team conduct has allowed MOHQB to improve both socially and academically its rank among the Metro Conference and also managing to beat its "2 win" mark. Unfortunately, this wouldn't last forever as circumstances would point MOHQB was now in a much different environment than it once dealt with this made it achieve a period of skepticism and alliance building rather than its open diplomacy it once admired and practiced. Montgomery founded itself in an increasingly polarized league with the Democratic and Boulton ideals at a constant battle with each other. The open renunciation of its Torres-Boulton past and the Boulton Ideology led it to fall out with other teams socially in the league and it currently still remains as one of the few successful Quiz Bowl teams that practices a Student-Led Government.

Montgomery Quiz Bowl Varsity Team c. 2023

Current Players

• Nathaniel De Los Santos
• Antonio Mendoza
• Andrew Barboza
• Venjamin Mata
• Alyssa Rivera
• Janis Portillo
• Cynthia Acuna
• Jeremy Carballo Ramirez
• Luciana Gray
• Paul
• Bella Steele

Internal Functions

MOHQB evolved out of the now defunct MOH Academia in which both the MOH Academic League (Quiz Bowl) Team and the MOH Decathlon Team were incorporated under one umbrella organization. MOHQB operates solely on the Quiz Bowl Team under a Student-Led Cabinet, with Coach Gray resuming an advisory role. The cabinet assumes a diversified administration with treasurer being responsible for fundraising and the monetary status of the team, secretary being responsible for practices and team bonding, vice president acting out as a diplomat with other schools and acting as the spokesperson for the team also filling out presidential roles when the president is not there and lastly the president (also know as the tlatoani) assumes all the traditional responsibilities of a president with keeping the team relevant and up to date with ASB and NAQT standards. As of writing, this the team has its Headquarters in the Band Room and houses official home games at the library.

Team Culture

Montgomery Quiz Bowl Team Promotional Banner c. 2023

The MOHQB has always never shied away from being an innovator of the unknown, its one of the first teams to create and sport an official flag for its team. Outside intellectual ideas have gained ground and flourished in Montgomery, most significantly the Olympian School of Thought has been greatly influential to the development of the team. The implementation in mass of Olympian study methods and form of governance has given Montgomery a unique tint to its affairs. There is a quiz bowl practice every single Tuesday-Thursday to help out current and new members exercise their knowledge on topics with a simulated game but personal studying on topics that interest them is MOHQB's main way of having people retain information that will be useful for them to compete in tournaments. The Aztec war god "Huitzilopochtli" is the unofficial mascot for the MOHQB team representing the values of competitiveness and skill that the team always strides for. The MOHQB is also the pioneer of the "trading card" aesthetic in which individual cards showing teammates, different teams, and other things are shown as a promotional theme.

Notable People Directory

• Daniel Torres
• Andrew Barboza

Notable Quotes

• "The Knowledge Tlatoani's of Otay Mesa West." (Antonio Mendoza)
• "what's your sign? what time were you born." (Nathaniel De Los Santos)
• "meow" (Venjamin Mata)
• "You can meow. If we win" (Andrew Barboza)