Difference between revisions of "Fisher Catholic"

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{{Highschoolteam|Name = William V. Fisher Catholic H.S. (OH)
 
{{Highschoolteam|Name = William V. Fisher Catholic H.S. (OH)
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|image = fisherlogo.jpg
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|file:https://www.qbwiki.com/w/images/7/7d/524B1E1F-4E8D-4CF0-9FFD-89DC25D275CD.png
 
|citystate = Lancaster, OH
 
|citystate = Lancaster, OH
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|currentcoach = Lynn Stevenson  
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|currentcoach = Lynn Stevenson and Michael Sedlack
 
|state = OAC: 2004, 2006; NAQT: 2006  
 
|state = OAC: 2004, 2006; NAQT: 2006  
 
|nats = N/A
 
|nats = N/A
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|nats appearances = PACE: 2004, 2014, 2015, 2017 <br> HSNCT: 2003, 2007-2017
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|size = 166
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|status = Active
 
| }}
 
| }}
  
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'''William V. Fisher Catholic High School''' is a small private school located in Lancaster, Ohio. Its quizbowl team was founded in the 1980's by Lynn Stevenson, who has been its one and only head coach.
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'''William V. Fisher Catholic High School''' is a small Catholic high school located in Lancaster, Ohio. Its quizbowl team was founded in the 1980's by Lynn Stevenson, who has been its one and only head coach.
  
 
== History ==
 
== History ==
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Fisher Catholic's quiz bowl team was founded in the 1980's by teacher Lynn Stevenson, social studies and English teacher at the school. Among the early years of the quiz bowl team featured Michael Sedlack, a pupil of Stevenson's whose own passion for academic competition inspired him to help out coach Stevenson with the team after he graduated, such as driving the team to competition, serving as a moderator to subsidize the team's fees and even teaching the team basic quiz bowl stuff and preparing them for competition. Currently, coach Sedlack helps the team learn basic stuff in science, since the students do not learn enough of the basics in their own science classes (for instance, Avogadro's Number is not introduced until May in sophomore Chemistry).  
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Fisher Catholic's quiz bowl team was founded in the 1980's by teacher Lynn Stevenson, social studies and English teacher at the school. An apocryphal story regarding the founding of the team surrounds an instance where Stevenson found lying on the floor a flyer for Ohio University's "Bobcat Buzz-In" addressed to the school. Enraged at first that there was even a flyer laying on the floor, Stevenson took it upon herself to start a team.  
  
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Fisher Catholic has long been an area powerhouse in the Columbus area and often features competitive squads at the state level. Unlike most schools, Fisher Catholic has a very small student population, with less then 225 students comprising the student body in grades 9-12, and they are often one of the smallest schools at HSNCT. Despite this, Fisher Catholic has won the OAC title in both 2004 and 2006 for the entire state of Ohio, regardless of school size, and won an NAQT state title in 2006 in Division II.  
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Fisher Catholic has long been an area powerhouse in Central Ohio and often features competitive squads at the regional, state, and national level. In addition to playing many events in Ohio, the program also has a tradition of going to tournaments in Pittsburgh, PA and many schools in West Virginia. Unlike most schools, Fisher Catholic has a very small student population, with an enrollment of 166 students in grades 9-12 as of the 2015-2016 academic calendar year; as such, they are often one of the smallest schools at HSNCT, a national tournament they have proudly attended for twelve years (including every iteration since 2007.)
  
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However, in spite of their success at the local, regional and state levels, recently the team's performance had been lackluster in the 2009 and 2010 seasons as a result of zero motivation to get better, exhibiting poor performances at local tournaments.
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The program is notable for surviving, and staying competitive in the face of, the 'Great Recession.' The school had an enrollment of 317 students in grades 9-12 in 2007, before seeing that number plunge to 225 in 2011 and before plunging even further down to 166 in 2016. The school's enrollment decline largely lays in the fact that the City of Lancaster has an atrocious economy that, somehow, managed to get worse during the financial crisis of 2008.  
  
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== 2010-2011 ==
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Unlike many quiz bowl programs, almost all of Fisher's players also double (in some cases, triple) up on varsity sports during the school calendar year. Despite this, Fisher Catholic has won the OAC title in both 2004 and 2006 for the entire state of Ohio, regardless of school size, and won an NAQT state title in 2006 in Division II for schools in the bottom half of Ohio's enrollment (2006 was the only year the Division II title was awarded for the NAQT State competition.) It also lays claims to countless appearances in the championship brackets for the NAQT State Championship, as well as a plethora of final four appearances at OAC State finals.  
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It was in this year that the Fisher Catholic quiz bowl team saw the addition of four promising young freshmen at the beginning of the year; Tom Moore, Austin Reid, Eric Gundelfinger and Corey Kennedy. Initially, within two weeks of the first practice, freshman Austin Reid had broken into the team's "top five" with his deep knowledge of antiquity, Jewish things, current events and Geography, all of which made him valuable in NAQT events. Tom Moore, who had strong knowledge in history, sports, some random stuff, hadn't broken through to the other side until December, where his desire to get better had quickly made him the #2 player on the team. During that timeframe, the team went to the Tippecanoe Academic Challenge XV on an A-set with a line-up featuring Moore, Reid, sophomore Cawood Boone and junior Kyle Ventura. While Tom hadn't grasped the canon and didn't know anything about getting better, he led the team in scoring with a heavily unimpressive statline of 1-13-1 over seven games, but Austin Reid's performance was quite impressive after having powered three straight questions on Detroit Catholic Central's A team. Even though the team would win their first two games against local schools Bellefontaine and Greenville, they'd then prepare to get smacked by a Joe Nutter-led Walnut Hills squad, Olmsted Falls A, Danville, DCC and Celina High School. After that experience, Tom had seen that it sucked to suck, and then inspired himself to work to where he would be on the other side of that beatdown.
 
  
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The team failed to win either of the two local leagues they competed in (where they held a long streak of winning both), and were sent to OAC Regionals on a wild card to the East Central regional held in Steubenville.  
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Fisher tied for ninth at 2014 National History Bee and Bowl final competition in Washington, D.C.  
  
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The senior corps, who grew to hate Tom Moore because he actually answered questions, lost all motivation to even do anything, and are regarded as a bunch of losers. The team would go on to get bounced in the third round of OAC regionals, finish HSNCT at 4-6, by way of winning their last two games. During the course of the year, the team would later add freshman Luke Schmelzer and sophomores Ethan Novena and Grant Smith.
 
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== 2011-2012 ==
 
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With the addition of freshman Brandon Shull, who had deep knowledge in history, science, and some literature even before joining the quizbowl team, Fisher Catholic was on the rebound. The first tossup/bonus tournament the team attended that season was the Tippecanoe Academic Challenge XVI held at Tippecanoe High School. Even though Brandon wasn't their, Fisher Catholic's varsity squad, led by Moore, finished tied for third along with a Sam Blizzard led Northmont High School, and behind Walnut Hills and Sycamore. This time, the team had been on the other side of the beatdowns handed to them last year, even though the only opponent that beat the team last year that they played this year was Celina, Fisher beat the squad 385-80, a year after Celina had just pantsed the team 250-120. Tom had earned the team some enmity from the Celina squad after he had called them on conferring on a tossup very late in the game.
 
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The team would later go on to enjoy relative success by top bracket finishes at every tossup/bonus tournament they attended that year, in addition to a second place finish at Northmont's pyramidal OAC. The squad would go on to win the Southeast Ohio regional undefeated, and finished third in their bracket at OAC states, giving them a finish of tied for fifth in the state. After winning their round 15 game, Fisher would advance into the playoff stage of HSNCT for the first time in the program's history. Interestingly enough, 97% of the tossup conversion of the team came from the sophomores and freshman that made the trip to Atlanta.
 
  
 
== Notable Alumni ==
 
== Notable Alumni ==
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*Michael Sedlack - current assistant coach
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*Michael Sedlack - current coach
 +
*Bill Bender, senior writer at ''Sporting News''
 
*Ben Thimmes
 
*Ben Thimmes
 
*Sarah Hickman
 
*Sarah Hickman
 
*Leo Guinan
 
*Leo Guinan
 +
*Coert Wotruba
 +
*Jill Guinan
 
*Kyle Rainier
 
*Kyle Rainier
 +
*Chase Turner
 
*Christine Kennedy
 
*Christine Kennedy
 
*[[Steven Wellstead]]
 
*[[Steven Wellstead]]
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*Alexis Preskar
 
*Alexis Preskar
 
*Matthew Ford
 
*Matthew Ford
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*Thomas "Tam" Moore
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==Current Members ==
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*Brandon "Scrub Lord" Shull
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*Robert "Grant" Smith (Class of 2013)
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*Eric Gundelfinger
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*Ethan  Novena (Class of 2013)
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*Luke Schmelzer
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*Cawood  Boone (Class of 2013)
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*Austin Reid
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*Clayton Walters (Class of 2013)
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*Andrew Smith
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*Kathleen Sylvester (Class of 2013)
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*Luke "Sicktastic" Skelton
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*Tom Moore (Class of 2014)
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*[[Hunter Wotruba]]
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*Luke Schmelzer (Class of 2014)
 
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*Austin Reid (Class of 2014)
 
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*Eric Gundelfinger (Class of 2014)
 
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*Chris Heaney (Class of 2014)
 
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*Corey  Kennedy (Class of 2014)
 
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*Bryon Moorman (Class of 2014)
 
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*Brandon  Shull (Class of 2015)
 
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*McKinley  Walton (Class of 2015)
 
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*Andrew Smith (Class of 2015)
 
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*Allie McCrady (Class of 2015)
 
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*Gillian Baker (Class of 2016)
 
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*Sarah Theller (Class of 2016)
 
  
 
[[Category:Ohio high school teams]]
 
[[Category:Ohio high school teams]]
 
[[Category:High school teams]]
 
[[Category:High school teams]]
 
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]
 
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]
 +
[[Category:Fisher Catholic]]

Latest revision as of 23:26, 6 June 2024

William V. Fisher Catholic H.S. (OH)
Location:
Lancaster, OH
Coaches Lynn Stevenson and Michael Sedlack
State Championships OAC: 2004, 2006; NAQT: 2006
National Championships N/A
National Appearances PACE: 2004, 2014, 2015, 2017
HSNCT: 2003, 2007-2017
Program Status Active
School Size 166
NAQT Page link

William V. Fisher Catholic High School is a small Catholic high school located in Lancaster, Ohio. Its quizbowl team was founded in the 1980's by Lynn Stevenson, who has been its one and only head coach.

History

Fisher Catholic's quiz bowl team was founded in the 1980's by teacher Lynn Stevenson, social studies and English teacher at the school. An apocryphal story regarding the founding of the team surrounds an instance where Stevenson found lying on the floor a flyer for Ohio University's "Bobcat Buzz-In" addressed to the school. Enraged at first that there was even a flyer laying on the floor, Stevenson took it upon herself to start a team.

Fisher Catholic has long been an area powerhouse in Central Ohio and often features competitive squads at the regional, state, and national level. In addition to playing many events in Ohio, the program also has a tradition of going to tournaments in Pittsburgh, PA and many schools in West Virginia. Unlike most schools, Fisher Catholic has a very small student population, with an enrollment of 166 students in grades 9-12 as of the 2015-2016 academic calendar year; as such, they are often one of the smallest schools at HSNCT, a national tournament they have proudly attended for twelve years (including every iteration since 2007.)

The program is notable for surviving, and staying competitive in the face of, the 'Great Recession.' The school had an enrollment of 317 students in grades 9-12 in 2007, before seeing that number plunge to 225 in 2011 and before plunging even further down to 166 in 2016. The school's enrollment decline largely lays in the fact that the City of Lancaster has an atrocious economy that, somehow, managed to get worse during the financial crisis of 2008.

Unlike many quiz bowl programs, almost all of Fisher's players also double (in some cases, triple) up on varsity sports during the school calendar year. Despite this, Fisher Catholic has won the OAC title in both 2004 and 2006 for the entire state of Ohio, regardless of school size, and won an NAQT state title in 2006 in Division II for schools in the bottom half of Ohio's enrollment (2006 was the only year the Division II title was awarded for the NAQT State competition.) It also lays claims to countless appearances in the championship brackets for the NAQT State Championship, as well as a plethora of final four appearances at OAC State finals.

Fisher tied for ninth at 2014 National History Bee and Bowl final competition in Washington, D.C.


Notable Alumni

  • Michael Sedlack - current coach
  • Bill Bender, senior writer at Sporting News
  • Ben Thimmes
  • Sarah Hickman
  • Leo Guinan
  • Coert Wotruba
  • Jill Guinan
  • Kyle Rainier
  • Chase Turner
  • Christine Kennedy
  • Steven Wellstead
  • Jacob Snider
  • Madellyn Kennedy
  • Alexis Preskar
  • Matthew Ford
  • Thomas "Tam" Moore
  • Brandon "Scrub Lord" Shull
  • Eric Gundelfinger
  • Luke Schmelzer
  • Austin Reid
  • Andrew Smith
  • Luke "Sicktastic" Skelton
  • Hunter Wotruba
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