You probably already have an idea on how to start a quiz bowl team at the high school or middle school level. Your school or homeschooling co-op may even already have a quiz bowl team. 

Here are the important steps in starting a quiz bowl team:

• Recruit Players - Your best quiz bowl players may be your highest performing students academically. They may also be students that are noticeably smart, but unfocused or distracted in their studies. Quiz bowl may be just the thing to focus and awaken their intellect.    
• Find a Quiz Bowl Coach or Advisor - It is not necessary that a quiz bowl coach "know everything." A much more important quality is being to motivate, focus, and develop the players.
• Secure Funding - A quiz bowl team does not require a lot of funds to start or maintain. The main costs are questions, a buzzer system, and travel to tournament locations.   
• Get Practice Material - We will soon have practice Catholic quiz bowl questions available.  
• Start Practicing and Studying - Arrange a time (or two) every week when the team can come together to play practice games. Study time, more or less, accomplished on a student's own time. NAQT offers some good resources in their "You Gotta Know" section. CQBO will soon be offering study materials and resources for purchase.   
• Contact Us - Please register your team by emailing CQBO at cqbo@mail.cqbo.org. We would love to help you get started and connected.  
• Get a Buzzer System - Anderson Systems has been the gold standard for buzzer systems since the 1990s, at least. Here is the link to their website. There are some durable low cost options available. 
• Attend Tournaments - If a CQBO tournament is not being hosted in your Diocese, email us to see if we can help you get your Diocese involved. You may also be able to participate in tournaments hosted by neighboring dioceses.  
• Run Tournaments - Running tournaments is a great team fundraiser and helps build up the Catholic quiz bowl community.

Keep practicing and keep attending tournaments (and eventually, national championships). Even if you don't win tournaments, your students will win through strong formation in the Catholic intellectual tradition.