Darin Clayton

Darin Clayton
Current college	Harrisburg High (2019-Present)
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT

Darin Clayton is a high school quiz bowl player for the Harrisburg Bulldogs in Missouri. Becoming captain of the Bulldogs in his freshman season, Darin quickly took the Lewis and Clark Conference by storm. In his sophomore season, Darin took home top honors by being named the Lewis and Clark Conference 1st team Captain. That same season, Darin was also named to the All District 2nd Team. Darin would later repeat his 1st Team Captain selection and add an All-Tournament 1st Team Captain award in his junior season and a third All-Conference 1st Team Captain and All-Tournament 1st Team in his senior year. Darin is known for his strong knowledge of pop culture, sports, and social sciences, in addition to a large amount of knowledge in literature and fine arts. His methods of gaining knowledge have been described as 'unorthodox' and 'insane'. As of this writing, Darin is leading Harrisburg in a way that has not been seen in years and establishing a winning culture at HHS.

Freshman Year; Rocky Start

Darin began his freshman year at Harrisburg High school in the fall of 2019. He was highly anticipated because of his ability at Harrisburg Middle School. In practice, Darin quickly proved himself and was named Captain before the first match. Darin had inherited a team that was very young and inexperienced. In the three years preceding Darin's arrival, Harrisburg had a combined record of 4-36 and the entire starting lineup had elected to forego quiz bowl before Darin had arrived. During this season, Harrisburg struggled, but improved. Their record stood at 6-12, but COVID struck before districts could be played. Darin had not won any awards this season, but had shown potential and the future was bright.

Sophomore Year; Breakout Season

Darin came into his sophomore year with a sense of vengeance. Before the season had started, the rest of the team from the previous season had not returned, forcing the Bulldogs to find a new team. Five fellow sophomores joined the team, many of whom had played in middle school. The Bulldogs also gained a new coach in Gwendolyn Weathers, Phd. The season had started slow, with three straight non conference losses. However, the Bulldogs did not let this scare them. They began conference play very strong and finished strong as well. The Bulldogs ended up 5-3 in conference play, but the team went 1-2 in the conference tournament and missed out on the afternoon. Despite the disappointment on the day, Darin was named the Lewis and Clark Conference All Conference 1st Team Captain, thanks to his dominant performances. The team also struggled in the District tournament, but Darin was named to the All District 2nd Team. Overall, the Harrisburg Bulldogs went 9-10 on the season, showing improvement and a bright future.

Junior Year; Built Different

In Darin's junior year, Harrisburg gained some highly needed new blood onto the team. 5 new freshman and the return of a junior and senior marked a bright future for the Bulldogs. The team's chemistry began to soar and everybody began to answer more questions, including Darin. Darin elevated his already high level of play to become something of legend. The team's success continued until the conference tournament, when the team would ultimately meet their conference demise. Due to weather events, Harrisburg was not able to play Schuyler County, causing Harrisburg to enter the tournament 7-0 as the 1 seed. The team blasted through their first two games, and Darin won his second consecutive All-Conference 1st Team Captain selection and first All-Tournament 1st Team Captain selection, which was the first to be given out by the conference. As the semifinals began, Harrisburg faced Schuyler County and lost for the first time in conference play. This was mostly due to an abundance of science-related questions, Harrisburg's worst subject. Harrisburg lost in the semifinals, but their season was not yet over. Harrisburg entered the district tournament at Westran, but quickly found an irregularity. Columbia Independent School was included in the district, despite the clear difference in funding and education of the school. In addition to a controversy regarding CIS's elegibility, CIS quickly became the talk of the tournament. Harrisburg won their first match, but lost to Westran in a close matchup in their second match and lost to CIS in the last match. During the intermission, Darin was awarded his first All-District 1st Team Captain selection. Harrisburg went on to play CIS again in the semifinals as the 4th and final seed, which ended in the same result. It should be noted the CIS eventually won the entire state tournament. Harrisburg's season ended with only 6 losses, with four coming to private schools and 4 coming in tournament play.

Senior Year; Redemption

Darin's senior season got off to a rocky start with a loss at Father Tolton that put the Bulldogs' record at 1-1. However, the tide quickly turned for Harrisburg, as they would go on to win their next seven match ups. At this point, the Bulldogs' only other loss was a tight matchup with Salisbury, with the game coming down to the last question. The first event of redemption was when Harrisburg finally took down Father Tolton at home, a feat that had not been accomplished in at least the last 4 years. The Bulldogs' would continue their redemption tour with a win against Schuyler County that pushed Harrisburg's record to 5-1 in conference play and also earned Darin an interview with Kyle Hill of KRES radio. Harrisburg also won their second consecutive regular season Lewis and Clark Conference Championship, with this one having completed a full conference schedule. Harrisburg entered the Lewis and Clark tournament as the 1 seed, gaining a bye in the first of the three round robin matches. Harrisburg would go onto defeat Fayette and Scotland County in the morning, gaining the Bulldogs a 3 seed due to point averages in the morning. This led to a rematch with Schuyler County, which Harrisburg lost, mostly due to an abundance of science questions, Harrisburg's largest weakness. At the tournament, Darin won his third consecutive All-Conference 1st Team Captain award and another All-Tournament 1st Team selection as well. After the conference tournament, Harrisburg took part in the OMAR tournament in Moberly. Harrisburg A, which Darin led, ultimately finished 10th out of 24 teams. This tournament was mainly used as a warmup for the impending District tournament in Alma. On April 15, the Harrisburg team ventured to Santa Fe High School to take part in the Class 2 District 6 tournament. In the morning prelims, Harrisburg went 3-0 with dominant wins over New Franklin, Sturgeon, and Santa Fe. Darin averaged 90 points in the morning, securing him 1st place among individual scorers. Harrisburg received the 1 seed for the afternoon rounds, setting up a rematch with the 4th seeded Salisbury Panthers. The Bulldogs would lead wire to wire to secure a win. The final would also feature a rematch for Harrisburg, this time with the Westran Hornets. In a dominant win, Darin took control early to secure a 150 point win for the Bulldogs. The District final was also notable for a very strong team performance from the Bulldogs, in which everyone contributed massively for the win. This set Harrisburg up for a quarterfinals match with Weaubleau, a team that Harrisburg had not ever reportedly faced prior to that matchup. After a drive of over two hours, the Bulldogs arrived at Weaubleau for the match. In the first game, Weaubleau won by a hefty amount. In the second match, Harrisburg seemed to be poised for a comeback, but Weaubleau barely edged out Harrisburg to end Darin Clayton's high school quiz bowl career. Weaubleau would go on to win the MSHSAA Class 2 scholar bowl championship, marking the second consecutive Harrisburg season that was ended by the eventual state champion. Even though the Bulldogs lost this match, Darin was not disappointed, as his main goal was to win a district title plaque that would forever stand in the Harrisburg High School Commons.

Style of Play

Darin's style of play can be described as "high-risk, high-reward". Darin has described his main method of play as "Waiting until I am reasonably certain of my answer, then striking". This method often pays off because of Darin's buzzer speed, which he has perfected over his six years of quizbowl experience. The high-risk element comes into play because Darin is not always entirely sure of his answer and buzzes in too early, but Darin has substantially cut back on this in recent years. Darin's high tempo strategy also finds it way into bonuses, as Darin will often pass on bonuses extremely quickly if nobody on the team seems to be onto an answer. This proves especially valuable in bonuses that involve computation, as it cuts down on the available work time for other teams, usually by more than 7 seconds. This style is comparable to Loyola Marymount's basketball strategy in the late 1980's to early 1990's, with quick, high-tempo play often outweighing the negatives of potentially missing a question.

Awards

3 time Lewis and Clark All-Conference First Team Captain (2021-2023)
Lewis and Clark All-Tournament First Team Captain (2022)
Lewis and Clark All-Tournament First Team (2023)
2 time All-District First Team Captain (2022, 2023)
All-District Second Team (2021)