Dougherty Valley


Dougherty Valley
Location: San Ramon, CA
Coaches	none
National Appearances	HSNCT: 2014, 2015, 2016
Program Status	Active
School Size	2330
NAQT Page	link

Dougherty Valley is a public high school in San Ramon, California. They have not played a tournament since 2019.

2012 - 2013 Season

Quiz Bowl unofficially began at Dougherty Valley High School in 2013. The first and only participation of students from the school in the 2012-2013 season can be traced back to Cal Cup 3 (Feb. 10) in the 2012-2013 season with seniors Andrew Chen, Grace Pan, Benjamin Tong, and Eric Wang. They placed 3th in the upper JV bracket.

2013 - 2014 Season

Only a few months later, Quiz Bowl officially arrived at Dougherty Valley High School, with the establishment of the Dougherty Valley High School Quiz Bowl Club by Sui Feng Xu and Cody Zeng in the summer of 2013. The school school attended its very first tournament, Amador Valley Novice, on October 26. The team finished 1st, finishing just short of sweeping the competition with a record of 9-1, an optimistic start. Players Eric Chen and Samuel Zhang contributed greatly to the success of DVHS in their first few tournaments, placing 5th in JV at both California Cup 1 (Nov. 9) and 2 (Nov. 23).

An approximate break from December to February saw the team slip in performance, with California Cup 3 (Feb 1) being the worst performance so far, placing 2nd in the 2nd JV bracket (10th overall JV ). In addition, there seemed to be a shift of power from Samuel Zhang to Cody Zeng, with Cody replacing Samuel as the second highest scorer on the team; Eric still firmly held onto first place. With renewed vigor and determination after the lackluster performance and the desire to attend the NAQT High School National Tournament, the team competed in the NAQT Northern California State Championship (Mar. 15), sadly suffering a crushing defeat from Mira Loma to prevent them from getting a chance to prove themselves worthy of going Nationals. Fortunately, with the numerous Wildcard submissions and an impressive performance at Berkeley Novice (Apr. 19; JV 3rd overall with a PPB of 22.48 on an A set), the team was finally able to just barely clinch a spot in the NAQT HSNCT. Even as one of the underdogs, they placed 174th out of 272 schools, with a record of 4-5 and PPB of 16.00, a PPB worthy of a school higher on the list, indicating that luck was simply not with them at the tournament. However, this last tournament of the season was just the end of a new beginning, with team members Eric Chen, Bibhav Poudel, Sui Feng Xu, Samuel Zhang, and Cody Zeng ready to improve for the upcoming 2014-2015 season.

2014 - 2015 Season

The 2014 - 2015 started off strong, with promising prospects even before the team went to their first tournament of the season. After a summer of intense studying, Eric Chen came back as strong as ever, bulking up particularly in History and Music. The first tournament, California Cup 1 (Nov. 1) was a huge success, as even playing in the Varsity bracket as opposed to the JV bracket the previous season, the team still managed to place 3rd with a PPB of 22.66. This placed them 32rd in the nation according to [hsqbrank.com], despite playing Bellarmine (8th in nation) and Saratoga (22nd in nation). This huge jump from unranked to 32nd in the nation will provide motivation to do even better in the upcoming California Cup 2 (Nov. 22).