Viburnum

Viburnum Blue Jays
Location: Viburnum, MO
Coaches	Owen Miller
Program Status	Unknown
School Size	Unknown
NAQT Page	link

Viburnum High School is a public high school located in Viburnum, Missouri. Its quizbowl team competes in the Gasconade Valley Conference and in Class 1 (Class 2 prior to 2009) of MSHSAA academic competition.

History

Viburnum's quizbowl team was founded sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The team saw some regional success, and is one of very few teams to have ever defeated perennial powerhouse Richland in district play. However, for years they were unable to break through and win a conference or district championship, losing a district championship game on the last question on a botched pronunciation and a conference championship against Belle when a Viburnum player's answer of "an actor" was not accepted on the question "What is the one-word definition of the word 'thespian?'"

The 2004 team, led by coach Craig Frutiger and team captain Matt Chadbourne, won the school's first conference and district championships, and advanced to the state championship game. However, a mistake on a simple computational math question cost them the game, as they were defeated by Richland 275-220.

The team had moderate success the next year, but has been in a downward spiral since. Their recent notoriety is due to an incident in 2006, when they attempted to attend the UMR Spring Tournament without signing up beforehand. It has since been revealed that this was due to confusion brought by a midseason coaching change. Viburnum has not attended a tournament outside of its conference since that day.