There are a number of students at Tri-County Alliance (TCA) Church in Clearwater who like being quizzed on their knowledge of the Bible. They enjoy it so much they joined the church’s Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) team that was just begun last year.

JBQ is a competition designed to engage students in 1st through 6th grade to learn about the Bible in a fun, exciting way. Working in teams, kids get together to learn and understand questions and answers from the ‘Bible Fact-Pack.’ Then, the kids compete in quizzing matches. Each match consists of 20 questions, with two teams working to beat each other to the buzzers to answer the question.

Ten students regularly practice and compete on TCA’s team, and Head Coach and Quizmaster Valorie LaBeau stresses that it’s open to any kids in the community that want to join, they don’t have to belong to TCA. All churches are welcome to participate if they want to start their own team as well.

“What we’re about is teaching kids about the Bible,” said LaBeau. “We don’t care what ‘label’ they bring in.”

The Bible Fact-Pack questions are categorized into Bible quotes, general questions (which cover all the major stories in the Bible), and logistics, such as how many books are in the Old Testament. The questions are divided into 29 sets, with two sets released each week for the teams to practice. Only the first group of questions is used at the first meet, the second group is added to the second meet, and so on. By the fourth and final meet all of the possible questions from all 29 sets of questions are in play.

“The kids have fun,” said LaBeau.

Practice starts in September, and there are four league meets in the season, starting in November and ending in March. The top teams then compete at state, and from there move on to regionals and then nationals.

Teams consist of four members in two divisions; rookie and experienced. This year TCA had two rookie teams and one member who was paired with an experienced team from Marshall.

“If a student obtains a certain average at the meets they’re required to move up to an experienced team,” explained LaBeau.

“It’s really fun to do,” said Maria Larson, a member of TCA’s team. “I like being able to learn the Bible, know the knowledge, and meet new people, and I like being part of a team with my friends.”

Larson joined last year after learning that, when he was a kid, her dad had been part of a JBQ team that won the state and national competition one year.

“That got me excited about it,” she said. “I thought it would be fun to try again this year and learn more.”

There are six rounds at each JBQ meet; this year’s TCA team was tied for first place, with a 6-0 and 5-1 record after two meets. The top 10 students with the correct answers are also recognized; TCA’s team had four team members place in the top 10 at both meets.

Unfortunately, the January meet was canceled due to weather, and the March meet and state competitions were canceled due to the quarantine.

“What’s important isn’t winning or losing,” said LaBeau. “The Word the kids have learned will stay in their hearts forever. The coolest thing is that I have a room full of kids who want to learn better than the kids next to them so they can buzz in faster. They’re focused so they really learn and retain the information.”