Community Education

Gig Harbor Knowledge Bowl team wins state championship

The Gig Harbor High School Knowledge Bowl team won its first state championship on March 22.

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Gig Harbor competed against 14 teams in the Class 3A division of the Washington State Knowledge Bowl Tournament XLIII at Wenatchee High School. It was just the third time Gig Harbor qualified for the state tournament.

Keyna Houston, left, advisor and coach of Gig Harbor High School’s Knowledge Bowl team, is proud of the school’s first-ever state championship win. She stands with the team (from left) Mia Colombo, George Will, Benjamin White, Emma Sebring, Liam Bass and Henry Siegel, who competed with 14 other teams at Wenatchee High School on March 22. Photo courtesy of Keyna Houston

What is Knowledge Bowl?

Knowledge Bowl is an academic competition in which teams compete to answer questions on a variety of subjects. Each team gets a buzzer, and the first team to hit the buzzer gets 15 seconds (usually) to answer.

The team’s advisor and coach, Keyna Houston, said the key to the game is learning to trust yourself. First-year team members may not realize how much they know.

“The thing I try to reinforce is to go with your gut,” said Houston, the team’s advisor for six years and an English teacher at Gig Harbor. “Trust that sometimes you know things that are buried deep in your brain, and you won’t necessarily think about them until you get a question.”

Twelve students participated in the regular season. Six competed in the state tournament, chosen by Houston team president Emma Sebring.

Houston said Knowledge Bowl’s regular season is open to all students, and no one gets cut from the team. 

“It is really nice when kids have areas of expertise. We have a lot of kids who are insanely good at geography, a couple of science experts, a couple of math and English, and one who is an expert in planes and boats,” she said. “So, what we do is at practice we try to find out what we have, and where our holes are. For instance, oceanography is a big gap, so during practice we will write down questions that we get in practice that come up, and they will look up that information, and that leads to more information. So they aren’t necessarily an expert in it, but we try to cover that gap.”

Fourth-place finish last year

Sebring, the team president and captain of the six-member state tournament squad, joined as a freshman. A senior now, she helped write the constitution of the Knowledge Bowl group to get it officially recognized as an ASB-sanctioned club.

As a freshman, “I truly felt like I knew nothing compared to other, now-graduated players such as Alex Morgan, Samantha Brooke, and Ashley Brooke,” Sebring said.

During her high school career, she took on progressively more responsible leadership roles in the club. Sebring helped the team to a fourth-place finish at state in 2024.

“If I remember correctly, I believe we only lost one, maybe two matches that entire season,” Sebring said. “I feel like this was the year my confidence started growing, and I was much more sure of myself.”

She said she has learned much more than she expected.

“My time with Knowledge Bowl has been extremely beneficial in giving me the confidence to voice my thoughts, admit when I am wrong, and not dwell on my mistakes,” she said. “Not to mention, I have met and befriended so many amazing people who I would not have the privilege of knowing without Knowledge Bowl. The win, in general, feels like an amazing way to leave the team, because I am graduating this year and will not be back. I am sad to leave the team, but, ultimately, I am happy to leave them on this high note.”

Having fun and competing

Having fun is even more important than the seriousness of the competition, said Benjamin White, a junior. He met new people and learned new things due to his participation with the team. He said it has led him to books he would have otherwise not read, and taught him random facts about basically everything.

“There are occasional jokes or odd questions during rounds, and there’s time spent together in practice and competition that brings the team together,” White said. “The most important thing I’ve learned is teamwork. With only 15 seconds to respond to a question after buzzing in, everyone needs to work well together under pressure.”

The pressure was on at state when they tied with another team in the semifinals and needed a 10-question tiebreaker round to determine which team would advance.

“Luckily, the final round was less nerve-wracking,” he said. “Near the end, I was counting our points and the number of questions left, and realized that we were going to win. My main feeling was relief, and a bit of disbelief after how close the semifinal round was.”

George Will, also a junior, said the win this year was a great feeling.

“This year’s win, being the school’s first title, means to me that I’ve forever etched my name into the history books of Gig Harbor Knowledge Bowl,” he said. “The team accomplished something no other team before us has done, and man, the win itself felt amazing. You hear your team get called for first place, and it all hits you like a train, like you’re the best in the whole state.”