Students and their families are invited to support UC High’s Academic League Team as they compete in the semifinals next Wednesday, continuing an undefeated season that has placed them in contention for the 2025 San Diego County Championship and a spot in the national tournament.
Senior Arjan Singh expressed his excitement about this season’s success. “Our season is going the best it probably ever has been and will be for who knows how long. Our team is full of talented people this year, and as a result, we are undefeated going into the playoffs,” said Singh. He joined after watching the annual Senior Versus Staff game last year. “I actually knew some of the answers and realized I could probably get into it the following season,” he said. Singh’s favorite moment came early in the year. He said, “My favorite memory was the second practice I went to. I answered a question about riddles in literature before the main literature person on our team.”
Singh also spoke about how the Academic League has influenced his academic focus. “You never know when something you learn about in class might show up. I’ve had countless topics from bio, chem, and even classes like AP Gov show up,” said Singh. For students thinking about joining, Singh said, “Give it a try. There’s never harm in trying. If you don’t want to go to matches, you can always just go to the practices at lunch and try your luck at some questions there.”
Singh emphasized that persistence is key. “Don’t be discouraged if you don’t start getting a bunch of questions immediately. These questions are about the most random things possible [so] put in the work and learn new stuff [because] something you know can show up,” said Singh.
Academic League Coach and Teacher Phil Huszar described the competition as team Jeopardy. “It’s a team of five versus a team of five using trivia, and you try to answer as many correctly as you can,” he said. Huszar emphasized the importance of having a team made up students with strong individual subject strengths. “We’ve been lucky this year that we had a diverse group with diverse interests,” he said, naming top contributors across disciplines. “We have David Deutsch, who is physics, math, and chemistry. Then we have Nick Powers, who is social science and humanities, and VT, who is all about literature. Then we have Ronnie, who is in geography and politics,” said Huszar.
Huszar also explained that teamwork is more important than having one team member with broad expertise. “Because there are five players, we don’t need one person who knows everything,” he said. “None of their skills really overlap, and we had the advantage of having these individuals who know the subject extremely well. They can complement each other to make us as successful as we’ve been,” said Huszar.
“We had a transfer student from Francis Parker who has been reluctant to participate in matches because she is nervous about her ability to do well,” he explained. “We put her in for the last five minutes, and it came down to the last question, and she won it for us,” said Huszar.
The team has also qualified for the NAQT (National Academic Quiz Tournament) National Tournament in Atlanta this May. “Although it’s not directly associated with the school, we’ve done that on [our] own time,” Huzsar said. “They put together a team that is going to go to Atlanta in May and compete for the National Championships,” said Huszar.
Outside of school, Huszar is an avid trivia competitor himself. “I’m a big trivia person. I’ve got a group of my friends that meet for pub trivia,” he said. “We’ve gone to the finals the last couple of years.” Huszar also said that this year’s varsity team has been extra driven. “Our team is aggressive and ruthless this year. No mercy, just ravenous as far as learning and destroying our opponents,” he said.