Junior Kwonjae Lee remembers the books his mom forced him to read as a child, the topics ranging from geography to mythology.

He said the facts he learned  and the knowledge he gained from the books gave him the skills needed to do well in trivia and a taste of the satisfaction of learning new things that would fuel him to start Quizbowl club.

Lee and junior Grant Kim have reestablished Glenbrook North’s Quizbowl team that will compete in Scholastic Bowl under the Illinois High School Association. In the game, two teams compete for the higher score, which is accumulated by players correctly answering trivia questions covering a broad range of topics, such as geography, history, science and math. The club meetings consist of teaching members the general rules of the game and emulating the game format in practice.

Kim said that as a freshman, he was surprised the school did not have a Quizbowl team.

According to Lee, many other schools have Scholastic Bowl teams. He said he was inspired by his friends who were involved in the club at other schools who told him the activity was fun and interesting.

“So I was thinking with Grant, ‘Oh, we should start a Quizbowl team,’” Lee said.

Lee and Kim both participated in the Northbrook Youth Commission Quiz Bowl in middle school, where they first discovered their passion for the game.

“Getting questions right is really exciting and fun,” said Lee. “It’s like getting a hard math question right, and you do well for your team as well. Even if you get a question wrong, it’s not demoralizing because everyone knows that the questions are difficult. So even if you said the wrong answer, you’re going to learn [from] it, and you’re going to be able to improve from that.”

Kim said his vision for the club is for everyone to have fun and learn a lot until it becomes “a big thing at GBN.”

Kelly Reimer, the sponsor of the Quizbowl team, said inconsistent interest in the club had previously been a problem.

“GBN did have a Quizbowl team in the past, but there just wasn’t enough commitment from students in order to keep it going, so it just fell to the wayside,” said Reimer. “I would love to see it become a consistent thing where we have a team competing every year.”

Kim said the club is fitting for people who want to have a wide breadth of knowledge.

“I feel like society in general is focused on the wrong stuff,” said Kim. “They are less cultured now than they were a few years ago. I think that in Quizbowl, you study a lot of really interesting stuff. … It just teaches you and makes you more [knowledgeable] than you would by living life normally.”

Lee said what makes Quizbowl different from other academic clubs is the team aspect.

“Math team is kind of one-on-one I guess, like you’re taking a test and doing well for yourself,” said Lee, who is also on Math Team. “[But in] Quizbowl, you’re working with a team and solving questions. You get more of a sense of a team-oriented [group]. … There are people that specialize in different things.”

Some members focus on literature, while others choose fine arts.

“I do math and science and [another person] does geography and history,” Lee said.

Lee said so far, the team, consisting of freshmen, sophomores and juniors, seems promising because some members already know which topic they will pursue.

“You don’t have to know everything, it’s what you’re better at,” said Lee. “It’s not just yourself.”

The team, Lee said, will take care of the rest.