On Nov. 16, Cloverleaf High School’s 15th-annual Quiz Bowl competition was renamed the Andrew Geig Invitational Tournament in memory of the 2008 graduate and former player who passed away in September following a brave two-and-a-half year battle with cancer.
Andrew’s parents, Lynn and Brian Geig, were on hand as Colts Quiz Bowl team Head Coach Cameron Flint made the announcement in front of the more than 150 students and coaches from 20 area high schools who traveled to Cloverleaf for the tournament. Geig graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was a member of the first team Flint coached at Cloverleaf, the first team to qualify for regional playoffs, and the first team in many years to play on the Academic Challenge television show.
Quiz Bowl is a closely knit family, Flint told the crowd, and the friendships forged over the years between coaches and players are not forgotten. In fact, he added, most of the question readers for the Cloverleaf tournament are former Colts players – and even their spouses – who come back to volunteer at the event each year.
“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Geig for being here today, from the bottom of my heart,” Flint said. “Andrew was a great guy. He’ll really be missed. This will always be named in his honor.”
In addition, the Geigs have established two annual scholarships in their son’s name. One will go to a Cloverleaf senior planning to pursue an engineering-related degree at Ohio State. The second will go to a senior member of the Cloverleaf High School Quiz Bowl team. A portion of the proceeds from the tournament will go to support the scholarships each year.
In Quiz Bowl, teams of up to four students compete to answer questions in a wide range of academic subjects. After 10 rounds of play, Team A from Copley High School won the Large School Division of the Cloverleaf Andrew Geig Invitational Tournament with a record of 9-1 on the day. Archbishop Hoban was runner-up at 8-2. In the Small School Division, University School earned a first-place finish with a record of 10-0. Team A from host Cloverleaf High School was runner-up at 8-2.
Cloverleaf’s Quiz Bowl successes include 12 conference championships, 15 appearances in Ohio Academic Competition regionals, and six appearances in OAC state finals. The team has qualified for the National Academic Quiz Tournament multiple times – finishing 10th in the nation in NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament in 2018. Cloverleaf was the WEWS-TV “Academic Challenge” season champion in 2014.