NAQT President Hentzel

Many people know about the Brain Bowls, like the one held on Valencia’s West Campus this week, some people even call them Quiz Bowls. Although they identify with many different names, there’s always one company behind the questions; the NAQT.
NAQT stands for National Academic Quiz Tournament, and they have been expanding the minds of collegiate and high school students via their Quiz Bowls since 1996. A big part of the emergence of the NAQT is their president, R. Robert Hentzel, and he was availible at the Valencia championships in Orlando this week to see the competitions and lead the administrative side of the operations.
The Voice had a chance to speak with Hentzel during breaks in the action about how he runs the ship at NAQT, and why Valencia was chosen as the location for the tourney this year.
“Valencia has had the premier community college team now for the better part of the decade,” said Hentzel. “Orlando is clearly a place that people want to visit around this time of year due to the climate, and Chris Borglum (Valencia’s Brain Bowl team captain) really knows how to run a program and commit staff and volunteers to the competitions. He has been invaluable.”
This tournament represented 24 teams, those that made it through the sectionals tournament which narrowed the field down from 50 teams. “We were only looking at 14 teams originally, but Chris (Borglum) knew he had the manpower to have a few more invitees,” remarked Hentzel.
“We have a lot of teams here, from as close as in town, obviously, to as far away as Allen County, Kansas. It is great to be able to get all of the students together to further education in a competitive manner.” When asked about who can field the best teams, Hentzel was split for a few reasons.
“Ivy league schools can field good teams, but realistically, good teams can be found anywhere, either in two or four year colleges. You would be surprised how well some teams perform, especially when pitted against a tougher team. It isn’t always knowledge that makes a winner, speed and balance is a huge part of perservering as well.”
Hentzel has been growing the program for many years, seeking to add not just teams, but states full of teams to the bill, trying to expand the competitions as much as possible. Even though many states are represented, NAQT has only begun what they have set out to accomplish, and that is for every school, large or small, to have a quiz team to compete with. “We definitely want to get more, really as many people and schools as possible involved; from the smaller ones all the way up to the Harvards and Yales. Diversity plays an interesting role in the competitions as well.”
Hentzel thinks that continued exposure is a great way to get other schools interested in fielding a team, whether they have one, two, or 40 people availible to compete. Seeing tournaments and attending them, and word of mouth has helped the NAQT grow to what it is now, and there’s much more room to expand. The big part of the quizzes of course, are the questions themselves, which are formulated in-house and follow a basic format. Think of it as like when you play the NTN quiz games at the bar, where you get hints and the clock ticks down; same concept. “Questions start out with subtle, difficult hints then get easier as the question is read, hence speed and recognition are key to success in the tournaments. The questions then finish with a much easier hint that puts the question in a much easier state to understand, giving contestants a last chance to get some valuable points, and then get to the bonuses.”
Hentzel works hard to make sure everything runs smoothly, and at trying to develop the NAQT until it is a household name, and widely recognized program. “If we can just keep getting a few more teams a year, we can really bring the Brain Bowl to as many audiences as will grant it.” It is a cheap way to get your school’s name out there, and another way to contribute to the competition that makes college great. The way it seems to be growing everyday, under the caring and stoic arms of president Hentzel, it won’t be long before his dream eventually reaches reality. Until then, you can keep cheering on your local Brain Bowlers here at Valencia.