Announcer (00:01): Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas School District. This is the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director, Curtis Long

Moderator (00:14): Team two. In which book does a character set a whole tree on fire?

Student (00:21): My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulson.

Moderator (00:23): Correct. For five points. Question two. In which book is there a character who can control the moon, the wind, the forest, and the Season

Student (00:33): The Door By the Staircase by Katherine Marsh.

Moderator (00:35): Correct. For five points, team one, question three. In which book are characters told to read things? Unneeded. Undisturbed.

Student (00:44): Read The Children by Andrew Clements.

Moderator (00:46): Correct. For Five Points, team two, question one in the book dash, what is the exact title of Mitzi's Expert Report which receives an A plus?

Student (00:57): Great Dogs Everyone's Best Friend.

Moderator (00:59): Correct. For Five Points, team one. Question three. In the book, I survived the eruption of Mount St. Helen's 1980. How many people died in the eruption of Mount St. Helen's?

Student (01:11): 57,

Moderator (01:11): Correct. For Five Points

Curtis Long (01:13): Well, it may not be a big budget Hollywood game show, but a very similar nerve-wracking, fast-paced question and answer exchange took place in Salem just a couple of weeks ago. That's where qualifying teams of elementary and middle school students from all across Oregon were challenged over chapters.

Moderator (01:28): Team one. Question seven. In the book Wild Wings, what is the name of the castle that Rob discovers accidentally for the class research project

Curtis Long (01:37): Cross-examined about characters!

Moderator (01:39): in which book does a character have a dream about his elementary school principal

Curtis Long (01:44): Questioned about quotes?

Moderator (01:45): In which book does a character warn someone to beware of three figures?

Curtis Long (01:51): All in a quest to become state champions of Oregon's annual Battle of the books.

Moderator (01:55): Congratulations to both you teams for getting so far

Curtis Long (01:59): Today on The Proud To Be NCSD podcast. We've booked the only team in our district who qualified to compete in the Oregon Battle of the Books or OBOB State Championships and the only team ever to qualify from their elementary school. Please welcome the members of this super six member squad, the Bookworms from Riverside Elementary School. It's National Library Week and you'll definitely want to check out their story. We've pulled them out of class to hear how they read and studied 16 different books from cover to cover, how they practice for every possible page, turning Puzzler and how in the end it was more about inclusion and having fun than winning or losing. Please welcome Lawrence DePue, Emmett Tamtreng-Ashkar, Merric Tobin, Jayden Carbajal Batalla, Caleb Keller and Eli Torrez, along with their coach and Alder Creek Middle School para-educator. Lori DePue, let's meet the Bookworms! Bookworms, welcome to the show. We're so excited to get to meet each one of you. First off, let's have each one of you introduce yourself so we can hear your voices and tell us maybe what do you want to be when you grow up.

Meric Tobin (03:04): My name's Merric and I look forward into going into a sports career and if not then an author.

Curtis Long (03:10): My name is Jayden. I would like to be a ice room seller.

Eil Torrez (03:13): Hello my name is Lolo. When I grow up I would like to be a nurse.

Eli Torrez (03:16): My name is Eli and I wanna be a baseball player or a dentist.

Meric Tobin (03:22): My name is Caleb and I would like to be either a marine biologist or a game designer.

Emmett Tamtreng-Ashkar (03:28): My name is Emett and I would like to be a vet.

Curtis Long (03:31): Now for our listeners who have never heard of Oregon Battle of the Books before or OBOB, who thinks they can explain it? You read a certain number of books and then as a team you're quizzed about them. Explain for our listeners who don't know about OBOB, how does it work?

Meric Tobin (03:44): OBOB is sort of like a trivia game, like you were saying. They're usually about 15 or so books and then there's a pool playground, which she's who gets into the 16 and that goes on to top eight, top four, top two. And then they move on at the very end. If you make it to state, then the two winners battle each other and you see who wins.

Curtis Long (04:10): So they can ask you questions about anything about a book. Right? Yep. So different characters, what happens in a chapter? I've heard questions that are like, what exactly did this character say when this happened? Yeah, so it could be all kinds of details. Yeah. Is that right?

Merric Tobin (04:22): Yeah. And you have to be like super specific because lots of times, like even uh, the state battle, one of the the answers was Glimmer Minds and I said A Glimmering Minds and they didn't count it.

Curtis Long (04:32): They didn't count it. Okay.

Merric Tobin (04:33): But for school battles, it's not like there's 16 teams cuz not every, it's not everybody's seems to read a bunch of books and do all that trivia. So there might be 6, 7, 8 teams in South. You get into the top three or top six, then top three and then you just battle until you get into regionals. Like Caleb said, you do pool play, whoever gets the top 16, they keep on playing, playing, playing until the top two sometimes is the only law one winner. Sometimes he had 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, whatever and then it goes to state.

Curtis Long (05:00): So it sounds like, how many different books did you guys have to read for this competition? 15. 15 different books. And did you guys, did you guys read 'em all?

Meric Tobin (05:09): Yes, a lot of us did. A lot of us did.

Curtis Long (05:11): A lot of you read 'em all. So not everyone. So Jayden you were saying you read five of them?

Curtis Long (05:14): Yep, five of them.

Curtis Long (05:15): How many did other people read?

Meric Tobin (05:17): I read all By four.

Curtis Long (05:19): Okay, so you read 11 of them?

Eil Torrez (05:21): I read all 15.

Curtis Long (05:23): Oh my goodness.

Eil Torrez (05:23): Um, and repeated some of the books a few more times.

Curtis Long (05:27): So you read some of them multiple times just so you could make sure you wouldn't be stumped on those?

Eil Torrez (05:30): Yeah, I read 14 of them and then half of the

Curtis Long (05:33): 15. Wow, that's a lot of reading.

Eil Torrez (05:36): I read 15 and then repeated some.

Curtis Long (05:38): So you read some of them over? I didn't even think of that as some of you read 'em over and Jayden you said, I

Curtis Long (05:42): Read five books but the 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,

Curtis Long (05:47): He's counting on his fingers.

Curtis Long (05:48): I didn't but I didn't read 10.

Curtis Long (05:50): You didn't read 10 of 'em? Right. Okay.

Merric Tobin (05:52): I read all 15, but I, if it counted like all the books I've actually read, it'd be like, like 25.

Curtis Long (05:57): All the books you've actually read? Yeah.

Meric Tobin (05:59): Same like repeating. Yeah, I've read like Life of Surf like four times. Wow.

Curtis Long (06:03): Okay. So out of those 15 and we can put the 15, which ones were your favorites?

Meric Tobin (06:08): Um, my favorite was from the Disk of Zoe, Washington or Spark. My favorite was I'll Wish Inlet Dark.

Eil Torrez (06:15): My favorite was me Fria and The Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Savan cuz it was a good mystery. Mm-hmm.

Meric Tobin (06:22): <affirmative>. Yeah, that's a good one. Nevermind. That's probably my favorite. <laugh>.

Eil Torrez (06:25): My favorite was either Harbor Me or Me Fria and The Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angel Siez.

Meric Tobin (06:30): My favorite books are A Wish Dark Me, Frida and The Secret of the Peacock Ring. A Dragon with a Chocolate Heart and Letters from Cuba. Mm-hmm Probably my top three favorite or Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar Ocean In the Dark by Christina Sin Tova. And then probably Life Are The Trouble with Weasels by Rob Harrell.

Curtis Long (06:48): And I'm pretty amazed that you know the author and the title and that's part of the answers. Right? A lot of times you have

Meric Tobin (06:53): To get the

Curtis Long (06:53): Author with the title. Yeah. There

Meric Tobin (06:55): There's uh, two different types of questions. There's content questions where they ask you like questions in from the book. So like, what did this person do when this happened? Or in what book did this happen? And then you'd have to say, oh it's in the Dark by Christian 20 or whatever. Yeah,

Curtis Long (07:09): You had to say the exact author. Yeah. Okay. So how long did it take you? That's gotta take a while to read 15 different books. When did this team come together? When did you start?

Meric Tobin (07:18): Uh, we started, what was it, October? September? No. Oh, November. Oh it was mostly, we had a while to read the books. Emmett or? Yeah, me, Emmett Lolo, Caleb and then Eli joined, well the entire team like assembled probably like early in November. Okay.

Curtis Long (07:33): We heard a voice in the background there if you didn't hear, your coach is here with you, which happens to be Lolo's mom and is a para-educator at Alder Creek Middle School. So Laurie DePue is here also. We didn't have you introduce yourself. How proud are you of this group of kids here?

Laurie DePue (07:48): I'm super proud of them. They were a really good team. You know what's something interesting about this team? They also have all played soccer together on the same team. Mm. Yep. So I feel like that, I mean they're not all playing right now soccer, but I feel like they had some teamwork skills and understanding how you work together and sometimes play to people's strengths. And they did a super good job breeding together too. I feel like adding in here especially. So we didn't really have O Bob at Riverside last year. Okay. And the year before it was kind of funky because of pandemic. Everything was online. So nobody at Riverside who was doing o had done a real like O Bob experience before. So we do actually OBA always has 16 books, but there was kind of this funky thing that Okay. With one of the books. So they ended up not using one of the books, but a lot of you guys had read that book, right? That 16. Yeah.

Meric Tobin (08:43): Yeah. 10. Right.

Laurie DePue (08:44): They, they had, he know every book of them, Flint, but there ended up being two copies or two versions of it. Okay. So it was thrown out.

Curtis Long (08:50): Now did you guys find yourself reading books that maybe you wouldn't have read otherwise unless it was part of OBOB? Were there books that I probably wouldn't have read that unless it was part of a competition.

Meric Tobin (09:00): Absolutely. <laugh>, two of the books Spark and Wish in the Dark were extremely long. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but they were also really good. So I would've at first thought they were boring unless I did this competition, which made them really fun. I think that all these books were really, really, really good. It just that at first it was kind of hard to get into because there's a bunch of other stuff going on, but once you actually got into the story it's just, it just like pulls you in. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you Yeah. That's what it forces you. The author just forces you to take another page and then another picture and then another page and then you couldn't put it down.

Curtis Long (09:32): Put it down

Meric Tobin (09:33): All a sudden one hour entire time. You've already finished a book.

Curtis Long (09:36): So you can understand why the directors of OBOB chose these particular books to be part of the collection.

Meric Tobin (09:41): Absolutely. Cuz they're like really intriguing. I didn't know any of these books before, but like if I didn't know these books I would read every single one of them. And

Curtis Long (09:48): Not only do you have to read the books, you have to study all the little details like we talked about. Yeah. You gotta know characters and settings and plot twists. Did you write things down as you read? Did you just try to remember in your mind, what did you do to help study for of

Meric Tobin (10:01): Kinda things? Some of, some of us wrote things down, some of us tried, just tried to remember. It was we all did our own really. We all did our own thing. I made lots of flashcards, but oh, he also prepared us with uh, these little packets that kind of prepared us. Like he gave us just practice questions. And so in Shirley Jamil let's somewhere about Jillian Gertz, what happened in this part. And so people who up with goop, they just write these questions down, print 'em, put 'em in these little packets so you can practice them before a battle happens or really any time you want. Okay. Coach

Curtis Long (10:31): Laurie, what's your role? Once this team is formed and they start reading, how often did you meet with these guys and what happens during those meetings?

Laurie DePue (10:38): Well, I would come on Wednesdays and we actually had a team of four moms. Okay. And so I didn't, for our actual school meetings, I did not meet with this team.

Curtis Long (10:51): Well, you're at work, right? Right. So

Laurie DePue (10:52): Yeah, so there was a, there was another parent helper who helped with this team, but we would often just check in and see, Hey, do you have the books that you need? How are you doing on your book? Do you need a different book? And check in with them on practice questions. This team actually, we knew that it seemed like everybody was excited about reading and they didn't need a lot of support once they were going to regionals. Then we met a couple times they couldn't do it at school. So we met sometimes at our house and Oh, okay. Came over and we tried to do practice questions that also involved running around the house. Right. <laugh>? Yeah.

Meric Tobin (11:30): Yeah. Did you like playing tag and stuff? Hand them,

Laurie DePue (11:32): Hand them a flashcard and they had to actually put the answer on the book that was on a different part of the house. You know, this is, these are six boys right here. We, that's what we did.

Curtis Long (11:40): Yeah. And we're stuck right now. For those of you that are listening, we're stuck in the assistant principal's office. There's all 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of us in one room around a table. These guys are doing a great job. It's fun to have them here all with us. Okay. So you've done all your practicing and before you go to the OBOB State Championships, you have to take part in the regionals and that's when you take on other schools from around your area. What are you thinking as soon as the host starts asking those first questions? Were you nervous? Did you think, are we gonna be prepared? What do you think?

Eil Torrez (12:08): We were definitely nervous. <laugh>. And for me, I was just like, I was terrified. I was extremely scared of what the outcome would be. And if we made it to like, even if we made it to the top six succeed, we should be proud of it because we made it to the regional. Yeah. And then, but we kept going and it, at first it was just sup. I was really nervous. I don't know about you guys, but I was extremely nervous.

Curtis Long (12:30): So you're answering questions and let's tell, go back to the very first battle at the regionals. You guys must have won that one. Were you kind of surprised or shocked or were you thinking, Hey, we're pretty good at this. We're gonna keep advancing

Meric Tobin (12:41): The first four battles in regionals. That's pool play. So they collect all the points from the teams and so they take all the points, like see who does good. It was like everybody was pretty nervous and we never expected to get to state <laugh>. Like we we're like, like I was talking with my buddies at like lunchtime. I was like, if we got to the top eight, that would be so cool. Yeah. We got to top eight. Top four. Top two. Oh gosh. We're in state <laugh>.

Curtis Long (13:04): Yes. So you just thought it would be really cool to get in the top eight. And as he just said, whoa, we're in the top eight. Whoa. Now we're in the top four. Now we're in the top two. It just kept going for you.

Eil Torrez (13:14): So I think our school record was like top four. So when we beat I was thinking like I would just be happy to go home beating the school record and we get to state. Yeah. We made it to state. I was surprised about that.

Meric Tobin (13:30): We went to state when we won the regionals. Yeah. And so, uh, the very end battle on our top four was really nervous. You got really nervous at the end because Merrick really screwed up.

Curtis Long (13:44): Uh-oh. So Meric, what happened?

Meric Tobin (13:45): So when he asked us a question, it was actually not a hard question, but he asked how much time did Iggy play on Monster Track? And that's a video game he played. Okay. And so I didn't know if you're, I didn't know if you were asking how much did he usually play or how much did he play when he snuck it? Okay. Detail. And so I accidentally said it, but I was in the spokesperson and there's a rule, if you were not the spokesperson, you cannot speak. So

Curtis Long (14:08): Uhoh Merrick spoke when he wasn't supposed to. Yeah, absolutely.

Meric Tobin (14:11): We won. But at the kid was like, Hey, can I point out that the technically did something they weren't allowed to? Oh, they called

Curtis Long (14:17): Him because

Meric Tobin (14:17): We were talking. Gotcha. We were talking Well the, like the, the moderator moderators were, uh, chatting with the coaches to see, we were talking to see what we would think the answer was and we got it right. And someone called us out and we got Right. But the thing was we had to redo it. We had to redo it and no one really knew the answer until, besides Caleb, besides me who said 1954, which is when, okay, was it Frida died? No free died. Okay. If you get in the top 16, you're allowed to steal points. That means if we get it wrong, the other team can answer it. Right. Okay. And so the, they got the question four was 52 to 45, we were up, they could've still stolen the question stole

Curtis Long (14:56): And Eli came through. Caleb. Caleb. Now

Meric Tobin (14:58): Caleb came through Caleb. Caleb came through, I said 1969. But then that's the Apollo launch buddy <laugh>.

Curtis Long (15:05): Okay. So that's a good illustration though. So for people who don't know, so in OBOB, you guys can discuss your answers, but only one kid can say can be the spokesperson. Right.

Meric Tobin (15:14): And for 50 seconds you can't like, oh, okay. And

Curtis Long (15:17): Uh, so you get 15 seconds to talk it over and then only one person can say your answer for you

Meric Tobin (15:22): Ands the spokesperson battle at the state battles. There's one moderator, he's kind of serious. And so if you went over your time and he's like, I need your answer right now, <laugh>. And then this one girl, she accidentally studied and she's like, uh, he's like, that is incorrect. Oh

Curtis Long (15:35): My goodness. Didn't even give her time to answer. He,

Eil Torrez (15:38): She was like, uh, incorrect. Oh

Curtis Long (15:40): My gosh,

Meric Tobin (15:40): That's incorrect. The answer was <laugh>. That

Eil Torrez (15:43): That's, that was scary. It was

Meric Tobin (15:45): A pretty awesome journey. But the crazy thing is like, there was this one team called Hallan. Uhhuh. <affirmative>. We sort of allied with them

Curtis Long (15:53): Though. Hallan is another school that was probably in it. They won,

Meric Tobin (15:55): They won. They were insane. They won the whole thing. Yeah, they won the whole thing. Won state. They won the whole thing.

Eil Torrez (15:59): They won state, but

Curtis Long (16:00): Yeah. And you got to know them a little bit during the competition. Okay.

Meric Tobin (16:03): Yes. Yeah, we, we got, we got pretty good friends with him. Yeah. They were pretty, they were for us. And so the like out of 160 points, they got 148.

Curtis Long (16:10): Oh gosh. So they knew everything

Meric Tobin (16:12): And they were fourth graders.

Curtis Long (16:13): Whoa. Okay. So you're younger than you. When

Meric Tobin (16:16): We got in the top four, two teams got to go to state. And so if we went against Hallan, but we would've absolutely never made it different story. But instead we went against the River Valley, I think. Okay.

Eil Torrez (16:28): Our first state battle, the guy that was pretty serious, he was saying like rules and stuff, like the rules of the game. And he said that there are, in the past at OBOB State, there been people that used their eyelashes to do morse code. We're still giving some

Meric Tobin (16:42): Idea always

Curtis Long (16:43): To signal answers to people blinking or something. Sort of, it's a pretty serious battle. My goodness. Yeah. I, I just, okay.

Curtis Long (16:49): Blink twice if you're enjoying this eye-opening conversation with the bookworms from Riverside Elementary. Six, fun-loving fifth graders who've already opened our eyes to how they studied every page Turning point in 15 different books and how they felt on stage for the first time.

Lawrence DePue (17:05): I was really nervous. I don't know about you guys, but I was extremely nervous.

Curtis Long (17:09): But are they nervous when we put their knowledge to the test with our own questions? In the best of Iggy, how long each day is Iggy allowed to play video games? One hour.

Meric Tobin (17:18): One hour.

Curtis Long (17:19): That is correct. Yes. And what's more important to them winning an OBA battle or making sure all of their teammates contribute?

Eil Torrez (17:26): Like, does it, does it really matter if we're fir first or second? Let's let Jayden end because he doesn't usually get to participate in the battles. So that was more important than making it first. Don't

Curtis Long (17:37): Miss the next chapter of this Spine tingling edition of The Proud to Be Ncsd podcast right after this.

Commercial (17:44): Are you looking for a job right now? Looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? The North Kmi School district is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education as a classroom assistant or substitute teacher apply to work in one of our school cafeterias where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire before and after school. Caretakers, custodians, and bus drivers in North Clackamas. We promise it won't take you long to learn why our employees say they're proud to be in N C S D apply today on the Northam his school district website or call 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000. That's 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000.

Meric Tobin (18:38): He's definitely just joking about that. But he said that if you caught people like taking notes or something, they actually got kicked out. Oh my gosh. PE like they got kicked out the room. People are that desperate. <laugh>.

Curtis Long (18:49): Okay, we heard a sample of the questions you're asked during a typical oop battle between schools at the beginning of this podcast. How about we do a little sample battle right here? Would you guys be up for that? Absolutely.

Meric Tobin (18:59): Try.

Curtis Long (18:59): Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, these are questions from your book list this past season. Let's hear the book Worms in Action. Are you ready? All right.

Meric Tobin (19:05): Who should be spoke? Okay. Um, so

Curtis Long (19:07): They're trying to pick their

Meric Tobin (19:08): Spokesperson, Jayden, Merrick and Lauren. We're only gonna do one. Oh, let's, let's look Jayden. Alright.

Curtis Long (19:13): Yeah, we'll see. Here we go. It says, and I took these right off the internet out for the Oregon Battle of the books. 22. 23. Yeah. Here we go. Question one. In which book do children get beat up? Because of mangoes.

Jayden Carbajal-Batalla (19:27): Uh, which In the Dark by Christian. Oh, where In the Dark by Christina Servantes.

Curtis Long (19:31): That is correct. Number two. In which book does a character visit a family member in prison? However,

Meric Tobin (19:37): Me by Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson. That

Curtis Long (19:39): Is not correct. Oh,

Meric Tobin (19:41): It's

Curtis Long (19:43): Dang. That's right. That's right From the desk of, well I wanna challenge that <laugh>. Okay, question three. In which book does someone love Honey Cake with Peach Jelly Spark

Meric Tobin (19:53): Sparked by Sarah Beurs, sparked by Sarah Beth Durst.

Curtis Long (19:55): You guys are amazing. That is correct. Number four. In which book do some people leave each other? Notes Under the leaves of a Plant

Meric Tobin (20:03): Peacock Ring by Angela Cervan Meri, the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervan.

Curtis Long (20:09): That is correct. In which book does a chocolate milkshake save the main character's life?

Meric Tobin (20:16): Meri. Small steps, small steps. Here I'll pull by Kar. That is

Curtis Long (20:20): Correct. Yeah. In which book does someone call a Level a lie detector?

Meric Tobin (20:25): Uh, Shirley Jam by Jillian Gertz Shirley and Jamele Save Their Son Summer by Jillian Gertz.

Curtis Long (20:32): Unbelievable. That is correct too. In which book does a dog help a character's little Sister

Meric Tobin (20:37): Rescue the Organ Trail by by Kate? That is correct.

Curtis Long (20:42): In which book does someone drink milk for the first time? Oh, I think I may have stumped him. Yeah.

Meric Tobin (20:50): Let Cuba Letters from Cuba by Ruth Bihar

Curtis Long (20:53): Not correct. In which book does someone drink milk for the first time? According to this one, it says The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie. Does

Meric Tobin (21:00): That make sense? Oh,

Curtis Long (21:02): All right, we'll do two more. You guys are pretty impressive. Two more. Number nine, in the Best of Iggy. How long each day is Iggy allowed to play video games?

Meric Tobin (21:11): One hour. One hour

Curtis Long (21:12): <laugh>? That is correct? Yes. In Harbor Me. What did Esteban's father used to say? He wanted to be

Meric Tobin (21:19): Poem writer or a baseball player. Poem writer or a baseball player? That is correct.

Curtis Long (21:23): The answer here says a pull it. Yes. Okay, I'll do one bonus one for you cuz you guys have been so impressive. Let's see. In measuring up what surprise ingredient is shaped like Taiwan, according to Cece Sweet potato. Sweet

Meric Tobin (21:34): Potato. Sweet potato. Oh,

Curtis Long (21:36): Unbelievable. I know. Might as well just throw these questions right out the window. You guys got every one of 'em.

Meric Tobin (21:42): Don't shout.

Curtis Long (21:43): You guys almost got every one of 'em.

Meric Tobin (21:45): Honestly, I feel like a lot of the reason why we like succeeded in regionals is that we just had so much confidence in coming in and it's like, since this is actually our first year ever doing to Obama is like, we made it to regionals. Sweet. Oh, now we're in the top eight. Sweet. I went top four. Oh my gosh. Oh my

Curtis Long (22:00): Goodness. Obvious. Obviously all of you are so good at this, but you can all participate in one battle. The rules say that only four kids can participate at a time, but there are six of you. How did you work that out?

Meric Tobin (22:12): Uh, we had like a sheet sort of the, like that says spokesperson, like spokesperson, spokesperson Ger and out the manager. Like keeping track of like if someone, someone wants to challenge this question on, on what question and then the person who's out is just maybe helping the manager. Right. Or the person who's may be in the

Curtis Long (22:30): Next round. So you guys, you rotated the spokesperson job. Yes. And it sounds like you rotated who would sit out of a particular battle and then you had a manager as well, right? That would kind of help with things? Yes.

Meric Tobin (22:42): For the spokespersons, uh, it was mainly me and American regionals. Okay. And then it was me, American Lawrence in the, but

Curtis Long (22:49): It sounds like at least one time Merrick spoke when he wasn't the spokesperson. Yeah. <laugh>.

Meric Tobin (22:54): Yeah. That was when, that was when Caleb was the spokesperson. Oh, okay. And I just, my, my brain just turned off. Can you question?

Laurie DePue (23:02): Busted? You what? One thing that I feel like I have loved about this team is that people make mistakes. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And that we had a situation where somebody made a mistake and did anybody give you a hard time about it, Mary? No.

Meric Tobin (23:15): Yes,

Laurie DePue (23:16): But we know that sometimes people make mistakes and nobody hated you for it. Right? It was just that hey, that's just what happened.

Curtis Long (23:23): Now I hear there's a fun story behind your very last battle where you were able to let Jayden sub in. Can you tell me a little bit about that story? What happened?

Meric Tobin (23:30): That was

Curtis Long (23:31): Regionals. Okay. What happened in that?

Meric Tobin (23:33): Interesting. So you still had to declare like who, who to top one. Okay. And so we had a super quick battle cuz we, it already lasted like six hours. It was super quick like four questions for each team. And so I'm like, what's about Jane? Yeah. Like let's just give Jane, we already made it this date. We, it's fine if we place in second. And so the uh, halk they got into first, but we got second in.

Curtis Long (23:53): So Jayden didn't always get a be a part of the battle. Yeah.

Meric Tobin (23:56): Because he only allowed fight people.

Curtis Long (23:57): But for you guys it sounded like it didn't really matter whether you came in first or second. Yeah. Let's give Jayden a chance. Yes. That's super cool.

Eil Torrez (24:04): Yeah. Like does it, does it really matter if we're fir first or second? Let's let Jayden end because he doesn't usually get to participate in the battles. So that was more important than making it first.

Curtis Long (24:15): So that kinda leads to my next question. So for all of you, what's more important? Winning an OBA battle or making sure on your team gets a chance to play. Making

Meric Tobin (24:23): Sure all of your team gets a chance to play. Let's let Emmett and like Eli talk a little bit. <laugh>.

Curtis Long (24:29): They didn't see, look at that. They wanna make sure everyone gets the microphone too. Okay. Eli and Emett say they don't want to come,

Meric Tobin (24:34): They don't want to. It was fun going to state. Yes. That's And the

Curtis Long (24:38): Originals, that's Jayden who you guys got a chance to participate there toward the end. It sounds like for you guys what's more important, more than the competition was just having a good time and making sure everyone got a chance to participate. Yeah. Yes.

Eil Torrez (24:51): Sometimes,

Meric Tobin (24:51): Sometimes I think of times where like if one thing went wrong, we would've never made a state. For example, like in some of the final battles of like school level, we had two battles. We lost the first one. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but we barely won the second one. And so we, that was pool play. And so we won by one question <laugh> and we won by one question. Then we got to the finals. And so if we didn't answer that one question, it's like, what would happen? We, we would've happened <laugh>, we, we would've gone into another battle and then it would just be one battle.

Curtis Long (25:20): It all came down to just one question. All right. As we start to run out of time, we need to get you guys back to Mr. Rogers fifth grade class. Looking back on this incredible season you just had, what makes you most proud? I'd love to hear from all of you. What are you most proud of looking back on the season?

Meric Tobin (25:34): Honestly, something that I feel really excited about is that we were the first team in Riverside history. North Clima school, school district. But not only that, but we included Jayden in the school battles. Yeah. Sometimes even in the regional battles. And something I also love about that Jayden did is that even though he couldn't participate in the state battle, he still came. Yep.

Curtis Long (25:56): He still came. He was there to support you

Meric Tobin (25:57): Guys. Yeah. It was an hour drive. So I feel really proud of our team for making it to making history. Yeah. I'm proud of our team to making it to state in general.

Eil Torrez (26:06): I'm proud that all of us had good sportsmanship. We were, yeah, always like shake our hands or say like good a job. And in state we would even like give them a card that said like, good job making it to state

Curtis Long (26:17): Now. I heard about that. Now is that true that you guys not only congratulated the other team, you made them cards and gave them gummy bears too? Gummys

Meric Tobin (26:25): We're, we didn't gummy gum bears. We gave them gummys and moderators.

Curtis Long (26:29): Oh my gosh. What good sportsmanship. Lolo, what are you most proud of?

Lawrence DePue (26:33): I'm most proud that our team, since we're in school together, we still talk about Bob and stuff, but I'm really proud of our teamwork as an O Bob team. We've worked together, included who we can and tried our best.

Curtis Long (26:49): Jayden, what are you most proud of looking back at the season?

Meric Tobin (26:51): I'm proud of that we made it the state.

Curtis Long (26:53): Yeah. Emmett, how about you? What are you most proud of?

Emmett Tamtreng-Ashkar (26:55): I'm most proud that we didn't wanna leave anybody out. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we wanted like at what, in the beginning when we were picking teams too, we wanted like more people to be on our team so that we, uh, the whole school could just be on one team.

Curtis Long (27:12): It's such a great story for you guys and Coach Laurie. I mean, looking at these six fifth graders here, what are you most proud of looking back on the season that you guys had?

Laurie DePue (27:20): No, we, we talked quite a bit about the things that we can control and the things that we can't control. And when you have 15 or 16 books that you're reading and memorizing trivia, we don't know if they're gonna ask us the things that we know. Who knows? And we talked about just the importance of being a good sport or just even if we're disappointed or if somebody makes a mistake to be gracious to that person. We, we had a few challenges, right? There are a couple times it was like talking about listening well to each other and everybody's either 10 or 11 and I feel like we were working out some good interpersonal mm-hmm. <affirmative> and conflict resolution skills. And you guys did a really good job of then hearing when there was a problem to hear, oh, you know what? You're right. I wasn't listening. Well, we're gonna do better on that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and there were a couple times in the competition where we had to stop and review. Is everybody feeling heard? Is everybody feeling valued? And they did a really good job.

Curtis Long (28:21): Well, you have certainly made everyone in the district very proud. I know your school is very proud of you. There were adults who emailed me right away and said, guess what happened with this team from Riverside? And I've heard nothing but positive things, anything before we get you back to class and no stalling because you're trying to stay out of fifth grade right now. But anything that you want to add that we didn't touch on that you wanna make sure people know?

Meric Tobin (28:43): I just wanna give the things to all the teams that did participate and I don't think it's just about winning, winning, winning. Just at least a thousand kids tried their best and did what we were trying to do. Just try to read, go in, like have a group talk with your friends. Just chill out and try to do the best you can. So I wanna give thanks to all the teams that participate in O Bob.

Eil Torrez (29:02): Also, there's a good lesson is if you make mistakes, that's fine. Yeah. You don't have to give other people a hard time if they make a mistake just to push the mistake back and just keep moving forward.

Curtis Long (29:15): Lolo, Emmett Merrick, Jaden, Caleb, Eli, and Coach Lori, congratulations once again for competing in the O Bob State Championships, the only North Clackamas Elementary School to make it that far and for being the first ever team from Riverside Elementary to qualify. Just as this podcast is titled, each of you truly makes us proud to be N C S D. I have one big question for each of you. Are you going to participate in O Bob next year as sixth graders?

Meric Tobin (29:41): Yes, absolutely.

Curtis Long (29:42): You'll be back Essic. Will the book worms be back? Yeah.

Eil Torrez (29:46): Um, lot of us have already read some of the books for next year in middle school.

Curtis Long (29:50): Oh, so the book list is already out?

Speaker 8 (29:52): No, we just, most of the time we just got the books already.

Meric Tobin (29:57): A lot of us are reading them already. So that's,

Curtis Long (29:59): So you're already preparing for next season Coach Laurie, are you gonna be back to coach them next year? We'll see <laugh>.

Meric Tobin (30:05): I might not, I might not. I, I dunno. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. And yes.

Curtis Long (30:13): All right. Are you guys ready to get back to class with class long enough? No. It's time for me to get you guys back to class and coach Lori to get back to school. Thanks so much for joining us today on the podcast. You Thanks

Meric Tobin (30:23): For having, having us. Thanks for having us.

Curtis Long (30:26): Thanks for listening to the Proud To Be NCSD podcast in North Clackamas. We know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in N C S D.