Lucky guesses or hours of studying, reading or just listening to the radio or television.

You never know what tidbits some label as useless will become useful knowledge to the competitive quiz bowler.

Jake Sundberg knows sports and is the science wizard.

Bryan Fontenot is the sports and arts man.
Scott Broussard is the pop culture guru and member of the literati.

Chris Fontenot can be counted on for weird and random knowledge.

The four make up not the dream of teams at UL, but the most academic - UL's Club for Academic Competition - or to most of the public, UL's quiz bowl club.

One of the club's teams beat Tulane in February for a spot in the Intercollegiate Championship. So they'll travel to College Park, Md., in April and likely will face off with other Division II teams like Columbia, Stanford, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Dartmouth is one of the teams on the Division II waiting list.

The secret to their success is an honest thirst for what they don't know and simply the gift of not taking themselves too seriously.

Not even they could believe they beat Tulane in the regional in February.

"We go to sectionals and this team wins first place. No one saw it coming at all," said Charmika Stewart, rolling her eyes. She wore a red T-shirt bearing the words: "Music+ Science=Sexy."

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Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com