SANTA ANA : Quiz Whizzes Seek Funds for Texas Trip

Want to put yourself in the shoes of the county’s toughest high school quiz team, the champions at Valley High School?

Answer this--fast: “An earthquake ripped through an Asian city in the early 1900s and left only one building intact. What was the name of the city and who was the surviving building’s architect?”

Quickly coming up with the correct responses under pressure--in this case, Tokyo and Frank Lloyd Wright--is what these high schoolers do best.

The team of seven boys and six girls won the Orange County Kiwanis Quiz Bowl in March and received an award last week for their achievement from the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Trustees.

At the Kiwanis Bowl, the students beat out teams from across the county, including tough competition from Irvine’s University High School and Anaheim’s Sonora High School.

Valley High team members are now seeking donations and trying to raise the $8,000 they will need to travel to a national quiz competition to be held in June in Houston. At that contest, the Valley High team could vie for $75,000 in scholarship money against 82 other schools.

During their academic competitions, students answer questions covering a wide range of fields, including physics, mathematics, history, literature and geography.

“This is not trivia,” said co-coach Greg Sommer, 36. “Most people have a shot at trivia.

“These kids have a lot of brain power. They know they’re good, but in Houston they’ll find out how good they are.”

Thanh Doan, 17, a senior, said he loves the challenge of the competition: “I just like being in intense situations, the euphoria of winning and seeing your school being proud of you.”

His twin brother and team captain, Lich, said that winning makes all the hard work of studying worthwhile: “I guess it’s the glory after you win. Everybody treats you like a king or an emperor.”

By competing in a national competition, he said, the team hopes to improve the reputation of the high school and the city.

“This might show (people) that there is hope in the inner city and let people know that there are some pretty bright kids in the inner city,” Lich said.