Montgomery (San Diego)
| Montgomery High School | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location: San Diego, CA | |
| Club Presidents | Andrew Barboza |
| Coaches | Michael Gray |
| Program Status | Active |
| School Size | Unknown |
| NAQT Page | link |
Montgomery High School is a Public high school located on the southern suburbs of Otay Mesa West in San Diego, CA. The Montgomery Quiz Bowl Team (MOHQB) is a member of the SoCal QB circuit and the Metro Conference Academic League.
Metro Conference Academic League
MOHQB belongs to and is a key player in the Metro Conference Academic League, actively competing and supporting the values it installs to its member players.
History
Early Montgomery (2011-2020)
The Academic League team at Montgomery High School can be traced all the way back to 2011 as NAQT records show. However, not much is known or recorded during those times except that the team managed to secure a sufficient win to enter the League Tournaments in 2012 and in 2015. It would take until 2018 that the first discovered records of an administration would be recorded but even then not much would be known under the Jorge administration other than the team was formally known as Montgomery High Academics. Another batch of early records show that Sarah Mansfield presided as coach during the early and classical periods of the MOH Academics Team and as it progressed the identity of the team would be the one of a Coach-Led Administration and a Presidential advisor to aid her, Mansfield incorporated Decathlon alongside Academic League stating that whoever takes Academic League can greatly benefit from taking Decathlon and this precedent would survive for as long as the presence of an Academic League team was at Montgomery. During 2020, The Montgomery Academic League would experience the effects of the Covid Pandemic the team would participate in an online video call Quiz Bowl match where each member was allowed to mute and unmute each self when buzzing in or they could type in their answers in the chat to score points.
Torres Dictatorship (2020-2023)
Once the transition to in door learning began at Montgomery High School the previous seniors that kept Quiz Bowl afloat graduated and the club was left with very few people, few seniors meant a smaller varsity team and this allowed for other teams to completely dominate over Montgomery. Members Sean Talamantes and Daniel Torres began to implement a recruitment reform in mass to avoid this ongoing fate and this allowed for Academic League to survive for the next year. Daniel Torres began to usher in a period of Authoritarianism (using the Mansfield form of governance to his advantage) throughout the academic league team. His reign, brought in a form of governance similar to the one already established to which only him and Coach Mansfield made the decisions during that time. On paper, there was a Cabinet to abide ASB customs but Torres made all the decisions for the team. A stagnant performance and social isolation followed the team during this time only achieving the dreaded "2 win" mark and noting more. The mere simple introduction of creating a social media account would prove to be the fatal spark to the "Late Torres Renaissance" coupled also alongside the Decathlon team scoring 2nd place in the whole league MOH would begin to achieve a feeling of pride and hope it once never thought it could acquire this confidence allowed the team to be an active center for diplomacy and thanks to this new connections began to emerge which brought in new ideas and brand new ways of doing quiz bowl. The old Classical and Torres ways of Academic League would begin to slowly be a thing of the past. One of the ideas that particularly flourished were the new introductions of study methods and new systems of governance a Student-Led Government and the other study mechanics of Olympian High School ended up peaking the interest of Montgomery.
Aztec Revolution & Industrialization (2023-Present)
After the graduation of Daniel Torres, Coach Mansfield announced that she would retire and leave Academic League to Band Director Michael Gray and she would preside over Decathlon thus enfold defuncting the old Montgomery tradition of having Academic League alongside Decathlon and splitting MOH Academia. This period was also accompanied with the resignation of the short lived President Hannah Ting during the start of the 23-24 school year. The Academic League fraction with the power vacuum that Ting left naturally made it so her cabinet assumed complete power until brand new elections were to be held the cabinet established brand new reforms like the rapid switch from a Strong Coach Team to a Olympian styled Student-Led Democracy (the one that was greatly idealized during the Late Torres Renaissance), New study methods and new study material were rapidly implemented to replace the old "bulk packet" studying of the past and lastly the MOH Academia would now be turned into the Montgomery Quiz Bowl Team. The transfer of Mansfield to Gray gave a period of stabilization enough to create an electoral environment and Andrew Barboza was to fill the presidential role. Barboza maintained the same cabinet as Ting and under the new administration increased contact with outside schools have accelerated even more then during the Late Torres Renaissance, the reformed method of studying and new team conduct has allowed MOHQB to improve both socially and academically its rank among the Metro Conference and also managing to beat its "2 win" mark. Unfortunately, this wouldn't last forever as circumstances would point MOHQB was now in a much different environment than it once dealt with this made it achieve a period of skepticism and alliance building rather than its open diplomacy it once admired and practiced. Montgomery founded itself in an increasingly polarized league with the Democratic and Boulton ideals at a constant battle with each other. The open renunciation of its Torres-Boulton past and the Boulton Ideology led it to fall out with other teams socially in the league and it currently still remains as one of the few successful Quiz Bowl teams that practices a Student-Led Government.
Current Players
- Nathaniel De Los Santos
- Antonio Mendoza
- Andrew Barboza
- Venjamin Mata
- Alyssa Rivera
- Janis Portillo
- Cyn Duque
- Jeremy Carballo Ramirez
- Luciana Gray
- Paul Jimenez
- James Santiago
- Bella Steele
Internal Functions
The Montgomery Quiz Bowl Team operates under a Student-Led Cabinet with Coach Gray assuming an advisory position within the MOHQB political structure. The Cabinet goes in order by President (assumes the traditional roles of a president like keeping up with school ASB and NAQT standards), Vice President (assumes a diplomatic position interacting with other schools and also acting on presidential roles when needed), Secretary (assumes an administrative role over checking practices and if study methods are being given), Treasurer (assumes the monetary responsibilities of the team) with Varsity and JV captains also retaining some powers to influence team conducts. The MOHQB study mechanics are separated based by subject and go by History, Literature, Science, Math and everything else is fitted into the humanities (social sciences) section. While The MOHQB governance is very structural it maintains a "each according to his needs" mentality where every single member isn't required to attend every practice or study their material all the time. Strictness is not a value found under the MOHQB structure. Official Home Games are hosted at the Library and the Quiz Bowl team has it's headquarters in the Band Room.
Team Culture
The MOHQB has always never shied away from being an innovator of the unknown. Its one of the first teams to create and sport a flag for its team. The Official MOHQB Logo is an academic shield with laurels adorning each side and with 4 individual sections inside the shield highlighting subjects like Literature and Science the other two are both of the mascots the team has. The Aztec war god "Huitzilopochtli" (bottom right of the shield) is the mascot for the MOHQB team representing the values of competitiveness and skill that the team always strides for. Monty The Aztec (upper left of the shield) is the second mascot and also the official school mascot of Montgomery its not uncommon to see both of the mascots being used interchangeably. MOHQB is also the pioneer of trying on various new aesthetic touches to its outside image the "trading card" aesthetic in which individual cards showing teammates, different teams, and other Quiz Bowl things are shown as a promotional theme.
Notable People
Notable Quotes
- "The Knowledge Tlatoani's of Otay Mesa West." (Antonio Mendoza)
- "what's your sign? what time were you born." (Nathaniel De Los Santos)
- "meow" (Venjamin Mata)
- "You can meow. If we win" (Andrew Barboza)