Quiz Whiz

Cameron Karnes honored, Cloud team excels again

Story and photos by Stephanie Karnes

On Wednesday, June 20th 2018 four high school seniors who competed in this season of WCMU Public Television’s Quiz Central were awarded textbook scholarships in the amount of $500 to Central Michigan University.  Among the honorees was Cameron Karnes of White Cloud High School.
White Cloud competed throughout the school year on Quiz Central winning each round of Blue Division competition to finish as division champions.  They lost in the semi-finals of the Grand Championships by one question to Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart Academy. As division champions, the White Cloud team netted an additional $28,000 in college scholarship money.  Six players from White Cloud were awarded $4000 each to be used over the first two years at Central Michigan University for housing expenses.
White Cloud began their winning streak by defeating the team from East Jordan 220-180 on the February 21st episode.  They continued their winning ways against St. Louis on the April 25th episode with a score of 220-140.  On the May 23rd episode, White Cloud defeated Traverse City St. Francis with a score of 330-190.  They clinched the division title on the June 6th episode with a victory over Boyne City 240-230.  All episodes can be viewed online at https://video.wcmu.org/show/quiz-central/.  

The Team L-R front Breauna Lodden Jamia Tancock, Kiranna Franklin, Isabel Karnes, Janessa Shepard L-R back Brendan Lodden, Anthony Solis, Parker Karnes, Jennifer Shepard, Cameron Karnes, Delton Dowling

The White Cloud team consisted of Seniors Cameron Karnes, Jennifer Shepard and Kiranna Franklin; Juniors Isabel Karnes, Jamia Tancock and Delton Dowling;  Freshmen Parker Karnes and Janessa Shepard; and middle school students Anthony Solis, Brendan Lodden and Breauna Lodden. They are coached by Tony McHattie.  Coach McHattie puts in countless hours with the students and often spends his own money so that the team can travel to State and National competitions. White Cloud has competed at the Michigan High School State Meet for 29 years.  They have competed at the NAQT National Quiz Bowl Competition for 21 years. This year the team finished tied for 5th place at state and tied for 7th place at Nationals.  In addition, they won the 2018 NAQT Small School Championship (Class B, C,D.)
As a member of the White Cloud team, Cameron, along with many teammates, attended Ace Quiz Bowl Camp each year.  In addition, the quiz bowl team practices 11 months out of the year. Most students have double practices at some point in the year when they are involved in other sports.  Karnes ran cross country and track for 4 years. He also was a member of the White Cloud High School Marching Band. He graduated Top 10 of his class. He served as both Class President and President of the National Honor Society. 
“On quiz bowl you have to learn to stay cool under intense pressure.  You also have to learn to make split second decisions. As captain, it is important to listen to the input from the other team members, but you must also be able to make final decisions, “stated Karnes. 
These skills have helped prepare him to continue to be a leader in other aspects of his life.  Karnes was named to the All State Quiz Bowl Team for class C/D for the past two years. In addition, he was chosen for the CSAA All Conference Quiz Bowl Team for the last three years and narrowly missed being named to the All-American Team.
Karnes will be attending CMU in the fall of 2018 to pursue a degree in computer engineering.  He has earned a place in the prestigious Chippewa marching band playing mellophone and will be living in the college of science and engineering residential hall 
With his high school quiz bowl career at an end Cameron hopes to join or start a club level quiz bowl team to continue competing in quiz bowl.  

Parker, Isabel, and Cameron Karnes each competed for a strong White Cloud team. Next year Parker and Isabel will continue while Cameron moves on to CMU.