“John Crittenden resigned from this position after President –” The sound of a buzzer and a light signals to the Quiz Bowl participants that senior Grace Salzeider has an answer to the question.

“Attorney general,” Salzeider answers, securing another win for Mercy’s team.

During its recent meet at Novi High School, Mercy’s Quiz Bowl team won both games in which it participated. However, many of Quiz Bowl’s members attribute these wins to their unofficial team captain, Salzeider, who stepped up as a leader after realizing the need.

“I felt that some people weren’t taking [Quiz Bowl] seriously enough and were just there to put it on their college application,” Salzeider said. “One day at practice, I made a Google doc and told everyone on the team to research a topic for next week and write a question on it similar to how they are asked during meets.”

The practice of each team member researching a topic, adding questions regarding that topic and hearing them read aloud by Salzeider, has turned into a weekly occurrence during Quiz Bowl meetings.

Little did Salzeider know at that time, this practice was pivotal in making her a Quiz Bowl leader. Not only did Salzeider fine-tune the practices, but she also enforced an attendance policy at meetings and meets.

Together, these changes seem to have made an improvement as seen in the last meet in which Mercy competed against Franklin High School and Stevenson High School.

“I really just wanted to make Quiz Bowl everything I hoped it would be,” Salzeider said. “I think everyone else has benefited from the changes I made, and I hope they will keep it up next year.”

Salzeider believes her love for Quiz Bowl stems from her thirst for knowledge.

“You can never know everything,” Salzeider said. “You might think you know everything, but something will come up in Quiz Bowl that will prove you wrong.”

For Salzeider, a unique benefit Quiz Bowl offers is the relationships formed on the team.

“The meets are my favorite part of Quiz Bowl. I’ve been playing with [junior] Ana [Warner] and [senior] Jordyn [Kreucher] for both years, so there is a bonding you get,” she said. “I’m really good friends with Jordyn and Ana now because of Quiz Bowl.”

Salzeider went on to say that anyone willing to work can join Quiz Bowl.

“You don’t have to be super smart or a genius to be a part of Quiz Bowl,” she said. “Really anyone can do it. You just have to be willing to learn and put in the work. If you do that, you will excel on the team.”