SOUTH DEERFIELD — With Frontier Regional School’s “As Schools Match Wits” team earning a national tournament nod, it is looking to the community for a little help in getting to Illinois.

After a strong performance at the Mayflower Cup tournament at Hopkinton High School in October, the quiz bowl team qualified for the Small School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. While most fees are typically paid out of pocket by the team’s coaches and chaperones, the cost to send team of students to the Midwest for a weekend is a bit more expensive, and the team is launching several fundraisers, including a GoFundMe with a goal of $5,000. The total fundraising goal is roughly $6,000.

This is the first time Frontier has qualified for a national tournament in the decades-long history of Frontier’s “As Schools Match Wits” team, according to Frontier science teacher Stacey Chapley, who has been the faculty advisor and coach for the last 13 years. “As Schools Match Wits” is a long-running quiz show program produced by New England Public Media and Westfield State University.

If they can raise the money, sophomores Connor Mabius and Aisla Varnon will join juniors Tyler Wolkowicz, Mason Smith and Isaac Ostendarp as they look to compete with schools from around the nation from April 26-28.

“Our priority is to have a good time,” Smith said when asked if they were nervous about competing on a national stage. “It’s not the end of the world if we don’t win.”

Mabius, the team captain, put it more philosophically.

“Why should we worry about losing? That’s part of life,” Mabius said. “It’s to have fun, to learn and to collaborate with each other.”

Quiz bowls are a competition of questions and answers, where players must buzz in — without consulting their teammates — to answer. If correct, the team earns points and a bonus question, where teams can work together, is posed. Topics range from pop culture and sports to academic topics, such as science, math, literature and history, which make up approximately 85% of questions asked, according to the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ website.

A sample string of questions provided by Chapley started with a question about a specific style of pottery and its country of origin. Meanwhile, the bonus, follow-up question dove deep into cellular biology and ribonucleic acid (RNA). There is also a buzzer aspect of the tournament, much like “Jeopardy!,” where contestants must race against each other to buzz in first.

“Part of it is getting the categories you know. … One of the most important things is having a well-rounded team,” Smith said, with Wolkowicz adding that the judges often like to “throw you oddballs (questions) and make it as convoluted as possible.”

The other major test of the competition, the students said, is the stamina needed to get through eight hours of racking your brain for knowledge in such a wide variety of topics.

“By the end, your brain is sort of melting out of your ears,” Ostendarp joked.

Frontier is the only school in western Massachusetts and one of two in the state — with Weston High School being the other — to qualify for the tournament. No schools from Massachusetts qualified in the 2023 tournament.

As the team continues to prepare, Chapley said “As Schools Match Wits” and other similar competitions are a great addition to the school community and help bring students together. She thanked those who already donated, including the Deerfield Police Relief Association and the Hadley-based accounting firm Boisselle, Morton & Wolkowicz LLP.

“They’re supportive of each other. I have never heard a kid put another kid down because they got a wrong answer,” Chapley said. “This is one of the highlights of my week. … Any support would be greatly appreciated.”

The GoFundMe can be accessed at bit.ly/48MxdWo.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.