Beta Club Quizbowl

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The Beta Club is an honor/service organization for American primary and secondary school students, which is primarily active in the greater Southeast, though it has state chapters as far north as Illinois and as far west as Texas. It is roughly analogous to the more universal National Honor Society. Since at least 1985, the Beta Club has sponsored a high school quizbowl championship at its annual national conventions, and in 1999 middle school and elementary school divisions were added. Prior to the rise of "good quizbowl", some prominent teams such as Dorman often made sure that all of their players were Beta Club members and made a concerted effort to win this tournament, especially if they had become disenchanted with the NAC and wanted a less ethically fraught opportunity to play terrible questions. Ever since the availability of superior alternatives, this has become less common, though nationally prominent quizbowl team Dunbar still participates.

Oh no! Beta!

Individual states have the option to obtain questions for their state conventions from wherever they choose. Each year, a set for state conventions in each of the three Beta age divisions (in those states that choose to use it), as well as a set for the national convention in each age division, is written by Bryce Avery. Avery provides written tests of 50 multiple-choice questions for each division. The top teams then advance to a 4-round quizbowl tournament, where each round has 20 tossups and 20 2-part bonuses, per Beta's request.

There is no apparent central repository of information on who won the tournament prior to 2009, who the previous question supplier was, or even exactly when the event started.

Results from 2009 on (in the form of a list of the top 4-5 teams only) are maintained at the Beta website. Prior results can be found elsewhere for most years.

The junior division includes both middle school students and 9th graders (including from districts where high school begins at 9th grade), so teams entirely representing the 9th grade of a high school sometimes compete alongside middle school teams.

Known info (high school):

Year Champion Second Third Fourth Location
1985 Irmo
1986
1987
1988 Irmo
1989 Dorman Loretto
1990
1991 Orlando, FL
1992 Dorman Irmo Orlando, FL
1993
1994
1995 Orlando, FL
1996 Russell Gadsden Dorman Richmond Senior St. Louis, MO
1997 Dorman Richmond Senior Miller Byng New Orleans, LA
1998 Nashville, TN
1999 duPont Manual Ezell-Harding Parkview Newton Myrtle Beach, SC
2000 Southside Richmond Senior Baton Rouge Magnet Pendleton Heights Dallas, TX
2001 Dunbar Richmond Senior Conway Greenwood Cincinnati, OH
2002 Russell Ezell-Harding Dorman Pioneer Kissimmee, FL
2003 Dunbar Dorman Parkview Morristown West Nashville, TN
2004 Dunbar Cutter Morning Star Johnson Central Richmond Senior Atlanta, GA
2005 Dunbar Dorman Russell Newberry New Orleans, LA
2006 Russell Warner Robins Ezell-Harding South Lamar Greensboro, NC
2007 Dorman Parkview (AR) Parkview (GA) Russell (KY) Nashville, TN
2008 Dunbar Morrilton Myrtle Beach, SC
2009 Dorman Dunbar Arab Nettleton Orlando, FL
2010 Dunbar Morrilton Arab Highland Tech Louisville, KY
2011 Dunbar DeBakey Ezell-Harding St. Thomas More Nashville, TN
2012 Dunbar Watson Chapel Arab New Kent Greensboro, NC
2013 Dunbar Ezell-Harding Northshore Chisum Mobile, AL
2014 Dunbar Twin Rivers Watson Chapel Plainview Richmond, VA
2015 Ezell-Harding New Kent Bellaire Hickory Nashville, TN
2016
2017
2018 Eastside Thayer Chase Portageville Savannah, GA
2019 Norfolk Academic Guild Mountain View Eastside Conway Oklahoma City, OK
2020 Eastside Northview Baton Rouge Magnet Central Lafourche Fort Worth, TX
2021 Elizabethtown Fairfield Central Fargo-Gage Alexander Central Orlando, FL
2022 Central Hardin Southwestern Randolh Hertford County Hancock Nashville, TN
2023 Louisville, KY

Middle school

Year Champion Second Third Fourth
1999 Arab Junior High Moultrie Webb Bridge Jackson Heights
2000 Webb Bridge Arab Junior High Moultrie Gladden
2001 Sacred Heart Rosa Scott Union Grove E.O. Coffman
2002 Rosa Scott Indian Trails Sacred Heart Caldwell
2003 Haynes Bridge Cullman Sacred Heart Northside
2004 Haynes Bridge Drakes Creek Lone Oak Arnall
2005 Haynes Bridge Webb Bridge Greenwood Hart County
2006 Webb Bridge Haynes Bridge Greenwood River Trail
2007 Webb Bridge E.O. Coffman F.T. Burns Destin
2008 Cullman Arab Junior High
2009 Destin Muhlenberg North Arab (9th grade) Arab Junior High
2010 Meyzeek Wren Glasgow Muhlenberg North
2011 Meyzeek River Trail Arab Junior High North Oldham
2012 Nandua Glasgow Sacred Heart Royal Spring
2013 River Trail Paul Breaux Lee Nash Central
2014 River Trail North Buncombe Central Magnet Sterling
2015 Sterling Hunter MS Concordia Christian Day Ivy Preparatory
2016 Sterling Russellville Fountain Lake
2017 Emerald Coast
2018 Charles Townes Collierville Prattville Bowling Green
2019 Edmonson County Prattville Casey County Maiden
2020 Bowling Green Guntersville Brandon East Hardin
2021 Bowling Green Guntersville Brandon East Hardin
2022 St. Mary's Catholic Bowling Green East Hardin Clarkton C-4
2023

Elementary school division - to be added

Links