Captain

The captain is the nominal head of the quizbowl team during match play. While the functions of the captain have been largely eroded in the mainstream college game (many college teams do not even identify a captain anymore), most high school teams have at least one captain.

A "floating captain" occurs when a team switches captains between matches of a tournament or in the middle of a match, often due to substitution.

Duties of the Captain

The captain synthesizes the conferral of teammates on bonus questions and comes up with the consensus answer, which he/she then says to the moderator. (RULES NOTE: The NAQT, ACF, HSAPQ, and PACE official rules all require the moderator to accept the first answer that is unambiguously directed at the moderator, regardless of whether it came from the captain or not.) The captain can "designate" or "defer to" another player on his/her team to indicate to the moderator that another team member will be delivering the team's final answer.

The captain is usually the only non-coach allowed to call timeouts during timed games.

The captain presents formal protests when the coach is unable or unwilling to do so.

The captain may also be responsible for a number of team-specific administrative duties, such as running practices in the absence of a coach or directing a tournament run by the club.

In history bowl, the role/title of a captain is more nominal and less specialized; however, it is still generally considered important. Almost all high-ranking history bowl teams have designated 'captains', whether official or unofficial.