CHARLEMONT — The Academy at Charlemont’s quiz bowl team is off to Chicago this weekend to compete in the Small School National Championship Tournament.

The team will be the only school from Massachusetts competing in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ annual championship for small high schools. Heading to the championship will be juniors Ivan Harder, Fallon Paxton and Lucas Tikkala-Cutler, as well as sophomore Coco Gamsey-Boudier.

The students will compete in a series of matches answering questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture.

“It’s a great way for students to meet kids from other schools in an academic environment. It’s competitive, but friendly,” said Neale Gay, the team’s coach and co-head of school for academics at The Academy at Charlemont. “Unlike sports, where you’re just rooting for one team to win, with the quiz bowl you’re rooting for all the students to succeed, and they’re all cheering each other on. It’s really a great way for students to prosper.”

The team earned the chance to compete in the national championship by taking fifth place overall in the 2024 Belmont Winter Tournament, held in December at Belmont Middle & High School. They competed against 29 schools and won six of 10 matches.

The Charlemont team also had one of the top-ranked students in the tournament. Out of 119 competitors, Harder took second place, earning 86.5 points per 20 tossups heard.

Per the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ rules, a tossup is a question that is read to both teams. Players can buzz in at any time if they believe they know the correct answer for 10 points (or 15 if they answer correctly while the question is still being read). They are not allowed to confer with their teammates, and wrong answers result in five points being deducted from their score.

“One of our competitors, Ivan Harder, regularly ranks in the top three in tournaments,” Gay said. “All of our competitors are incredible, but Ivan does things I could never imagine doing as a teenager. There’s something about Ivan that helps us win.”

The Charlemont students will be competing in the Small School National Championship Tournament’s Open Division, which welcomes schools that are not considered traditional public schools and have an enrollment of less than 350 students across the top three grades, up to grade 12. There is a separate division for traditional public schools. In this year’s championship for small schools, there will be 148 teams competing, with 66 in the Open Division.

Gay noted the championship for small schools will provide a nice opportunity for students to see competitors from other small schools.

“We thought it would be nice to compete against other schools closer to our size. The academy only has 90 students and some of these bigger schools have more than 500,” Gay said. “We had been competing with a lot of these smaller schools at tournaments in eastern Massachusetts throughout the year as well.”

The team had qualified for the championship last year as well, but chose not to go as they felt they needed more practice. Gay said preparation for nationals largely included competing in smaller regional tournaments. At the Lexington Invitational Tournament held at Lexington High School in March, the team tied with Westwood High School for third place.

“Quiz bowl is not really a big thing in western Mass, but it is in eastern Mass, so about once a month we would head to towns like Hopkinton and Belmont to compete,” Gay said.

Harder said quiz bowl was still a new thing for him and his classmates, as the school has only been competing for the past few years. Harder joined the team last year.

“Our school is very small. Everyone has a decent awareness of what’s going on and heard a quiz bowl team was getting started,” Harder said. “I had a friend on the team so I decided to give it a try.”

Gay said he feels confident in the team’s ability to win, even while competing against bigger schools with older students.

“We have a pretty young team. We have no seniors, but they’re intelligent and they’re prepared,” Gay said.

Harder said the team members are not experts in any particular subjects, but each has a subject they are strong in, thus forming a well-rounded team together. For example, Harder is fond of literature and world history. He said he is excited and nervous about competing in the national tournament.

“I’m excited, but qualifying was the easy part. These teams are insanely good. I’d be proud if we make it to playoffs,” Harder said. “But it will be a lot of fun and a chance to try something new and meet other students.”

The results of the championship tournament will be posted live throughout the weekend at naqt.com.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.