CHICAGO — Everyone has seen a Super Bowl hero, after leading his team to victory, announce that now he’s going to Disney World.

The winners at the Bible Bowl had their own plans: hit Chicago’s Navy Pier and do some shopping.

“We pretty much studied the whole time we were here,” said Maura Kisseberth.

She, along with Julie Merriman and Emily Allen — all 17-year-old seniors-to-be representing First Church of Christ in Xenia, Ohio — smote all comers in the 41st National Bible Bowl Tournament last month in Chicago.

They beat more than 100 teams in the top division — there were more than 200 teams overall, from 30 states — to cap five days of competition at the Hilton Chicago.

The week started with a 400-question quiz, testing students’ knowledge of this year’s text. There was also a quoting bee competition in which participants are given the number of a verse and have to quote it.

But the main event was the round-robin and double-elimination competition that led to the Xenia team soundly defeating Pinedale Christian Church from Winston-Salem, N.C., before a nearly full house in the Conrad International Ballroom.

“There were a lot of upsets early in the tournament,” Allen said, “so we didn’t play a lot of the teams we were expecting. A lot of good teams kind of knocked each other out.”

Spoken like a gracious winner. And that’s to be expected, said Bret Talley, executive director of the Cincinnati-based National Bible Bowl.

“It teaches them how to win graciously and how to lose graciously,” said Talley, himself a former national champion. “You won’t see anyone get mad if they lose. They put it in perspective. You can grow even if you lose.”

The annual Bible quiz extravaganza for third through 12th graders is modeled on the GE College Bowl. Two teams of three or four players square off in two 10-minute halves. The quiz-master asks a 10-point tossup question, and whichever team buzzes in first with the correct answer gets several bonus questions.

But instead of having to know the locations of the Lincoln-Douglas debates or the identity of Columbia University’s first anthropology professor (Franz Boas, of course), the students were quizzed on a section of the Bible.

The text — it can be Old or New Testament — is from the New International Version of the Bible.

Each June 1, the following year’s text is announced. For this year’s event, it was the Book of Luke. To say that the kids learned their stuff would be an understatement.

The First Christian Church of Kissimmee, Fla., sent two teams to Chicago. Of the seven team members, six totally memorized the text, “and the seventh can quote pieces,” said coach Gary Bordelon, whose No. 1 team finished eighth.

“And they memorize key words. If you give them words, they can quote (the passage). If you give them a reference, Luke 2:38, they can quote that reference.”

The study time involved is incredible — maybe 8 to 10 hours a week during the school year but as much as 7 or 8 hours a day after school gets out leading up to the tournament.

Still, you don’t hear any complaints.

“I think the Bible itself is fun, just memorizing Scripture,” said Philip Primmer, a member of the Ferris Christian Church team from Ferris, Ill. “They say it’s a game. But it’s more than that. You memorize God’s word and put it in practice elsewhere.”

Kisseberth agreed.

“I’ve been in the Bible Bowl since fifth grade, fourth grade,” she said. “It’s always been an awesome opportunity to memorize Scripture.

“And it’s something that is helpful. I’ll be talking to a friend who’ll be having problems with their parents, and I can quote Scripture that might help. And it helps me get closer to God. It helps me know which way to go.”

There’s also a financial benefit — this year’s Bible Bowl offered more than $500,000 in scholarship money from 18 Christian colleges and universities — but that seemed to be way down the list of reasons to be here.

Chelsea Johnson, 17, from Southeast Christian Church of Louisville, said the experience has made her a better student.

“The (written) test really helped me in my schoolwork,” she said. “And the studying (habits) have helped my test-taking skills.”

But to her the best part of the Bible Bowl — this was her seventh one — was the social aspect.

“Meeting people from all over the country is really neat, and getting together once a year each summer is fun,” she said. “These are people I’ll be friends with all my life, who I’d otherwise wouldn’t have ever met.”

Next year, Southeast Christian Church will have a home-court advantage, when the Bible Bowl is held in Louisville. The text for 2006 is the Book of Acts.

“The kids will probably start (on Acts) in the middle of August, usually around the time school starts again,” Talley said. “By the middle of August, most of them will have already started studying.”

——

Some sample tossup and bonus questions from this year’s Bible Bowl:

1. Apollyon is the Greek name of the angel of the Abyss in the Book of Revelation. The demons begged him repeatedly not to whatfi

2. Each of these alliterations is two words long. The first word of each is the same. They are “L” alliterations, and both are found in Chapter 10. I am sending you out this way, and I saw Satan fall this way. What are these alliterationsfi

3. List the seven men found in Luke 23.

Answers:

1. Order them to go into the Abyss (Luke 8:31).

2. Like lambs (Luke 10:3), like lightning (Luke 10:18).

3. Barabbas (Luke 23:18), Caesar (Luke 23:2), Herod (Luke 23:7), Jesus (Luke 23:3), Joseph (Luke 23:50), Pilate (Luke 23:1) and Simon (Luke 23:26).

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.

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