Fisher Catholic

William V. Fisher Catholic H.S. (OH)
Location: Lancaster, OH
Coaches	Lynn Stevenson
State Championships	OAC: 2004, 2006; NAQT: 2006
National Championships	N/A
Program Status	Unknown
School Size	Unknown
NAQT Page	link

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.

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. 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.

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 roughly 200 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.

2010-2011

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; Thomas Moore, Austin Reid, Eric Gundelfinger and Corey Kennedy.

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.

The senior corps, who grew to hate 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.

2011-2012

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 there, 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.

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.

2012-2013

It was in 2012-2013 that the friendly, but then-notable Fisher v. Sycamore H.S. rivalry occurred. This "rivalry" is notable in that several tournaments throughout the course of that season were highlighted by matches between F.C. and Sycamore, including the Tippecanoe Academic Challenge, the Northmont Academic Challenge Tournament, and the 2013 Ohio NAQT State Championship. In the latter, Sycamore was placed in a preliminary bracket with Fisher and lost to F.C. However, in an odd situation that resulted from several afternoon upsets and no perfect records, Sycamore beat what had been regarded as the two top teams in the State of Ohio, Northmont and Solon. However, Fisher would end up beating Sycamore again in the afternoon portion to knock Sycamore to three losses (Olmsted Falls had also beaten them) to knock SHS out of the state championship. Despite the upsets, this is regarded by members of both squads as an intense, but respectable and fun rivalry.

The team would notably win the 2013 Northmont Academic Challenge Tournament as well as the 2013 Bridgeport (WV) Invitational. The 2013 HSNCT slate Fisher played is somewhat-notable for how abnormally tough the Saturday portion of the schedule was. Of the ten squads F.C. had played, eight of them would go on to play on Sunday and the other two (including top-25 ranked Metuchen (NJ) St. Joe's)would end up 5-5. Fisher would begin morning play by defeating southern power University School of Nashville (which coincidentally was coached at the time by a former coach of Lancaster (OH) High School's Quiz Bowl team)and noted small school power Macomb (IL). With a record of 5-2, Fisher needed one more win to get in for Sunday but would fall to Richard Montgomery (MD), Solon (OH), and Kealing MS (TX) all of whom ended up advancing to Saturday.

It was in this year also that captain Tom Moore got snubbed from a spot on the state of Ohio's NASAT squad (selections made by Ohio State's quiz bowl team) due to political reasons.

2013-2014

It was in this year that Fisher finished as OAC state runner-up before running into the Sam Blizzard buzzsaw in the finals, had an incredibly successful year, and topped it all off by having a kick-ass time representing the state of Ohio at Disney World. However, both Moore and Shull were selected to the State of Ohio NASAT Squad, which was in time-conflict with the NTAE tournament held in Orlando, FL. The decision to play with their classmates and friends they went to school with in Florida as opposed to making the 30-minute drive to Columbus was scrutinized by several HSQB posters from outside the state of Ohio. Fisher had won SAGACITY in Pittsburgh as well as the Sunday portion of the Solon Two-Day Tournament.

Notable Alumni

• Michael Sedlack - current assistant coach
• Ben Thimmes
• Sarah Hickman
• Leo Guinan
• Kyle Rainier
• Christine Kennedy
• Steven Wellstead
• Jacob Snider
• Madellyn Kennedy
• Alexis Preskar
• Matthew Ford
• Thomas Moore

Current Members

• Brandon Shull (Class of 2015)
• Andrew Smith (Class of 2015)
• Luke Skelton (Class of 2015)
• Gillian Baker (Class of 2016)
• John Fernow (Class of 2016)
• Carter Corcoran (Class of 2017)
• Brock Conrad (Class of 2017)
• Hunter Wotruba (Class of 2017)
• Darrin Miller (Class of 2017)