HC Buzzes into Hometown High Q

By: Michaela Catalano

Left to right: Justley Sharp, Matt Mlaker, Sophia Eastman

Members of the Homer-Center Quiz Bowl Team were selected to represent HC by competing on Hometown High Q. Matt Mlaker, Justley Sharp, and Sophia Eastman made their appearance in the competition on January 22 and it aired again on January 29.


Hometown High Q is an academic tournament sponsored by KDKA and William’s Insurance Company. 81 High Schools around the Pittsburgh area compete to be the champion at the end.


“I’m really happy that we are back in this competition.” Quiz Bowl Advisor Chris Yurky said. “We’ve competed a lot in the past and I hope that we can take another team next year.”


Homer-Center competed against Chartiers-Housten and Our Lady of The Sacred Heart High Schools in their competition. Homer-Center dominated the match, and came out with a total of 520 points and will advance to the next round in the tournament.


“Hometown High Q has shown us different questions that we typically don’t see in Quiz Bowl.” Justley Sharp added. “ In Quiz Bowl, we have longer questions to answer, and in Hometown HIgh Q these questions were short and straight to the point and we also got to work together, which we don’t typically do in Quiz Bowl.”


The winner of the tournament will receive a cash prize that benefits their school.


“ I really enjoyed competing on a different scale than Quiz Bowl.” Matt Mlaker included. ““Competing against schools from the Pittsburgh area was a lot different than competing against the schools from Indiana County and I feel like this has made me a better competitor.”


The next round of the competition will be recorded in March, and the team hopes to advance and be potential champions in the competition.


2/9/22