Concordia College Alabama’s quiz bowl team has made it to the national championship for the fourth time since the program’s inception four years ago.

“This is such an honor,” said faculty team advisor Dr. Chinwe Okeke.

“We just started four years ago, and this is our fourth time going so we think this might be our year.”

Concordia made the “Great 48” and will compete in Los Angeles at the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge National Championship Tournament April 8-12 for a chance to take home $75,000.

The Concordia team recently competed in the Dillard University National Qualifying Tournament in New Orleans, where they made it to the quarter finals and finished in fourth place. The team found out last week that they made it to nationals.

“I don’t think words could properly express how proud I am of the students,” Okeke said.

More than 125,000 students have participated in the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge tournaments and more than $8 million has been awarded to students.

Okeke said her team is ready for the competition, and they have spent a lot of time working and preparing for the big day.

“We spend a lot of time together, and it’s paid off. Hard work has led us to this moment, and it’s just really wonderful,” she said. “We’re very humbled.”

Okeke said although the students enjoy the quiz bowl, the real fun comes when they get to the actual competition.

“The fun comes when we get to California. It is a lot of hard work, but we enjoy getting to know each other,” Okeke said. “It’s a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of work. The fun comes after we play the games and we get to know other students, and we get to scrimmage with other teams.”

The Selma City Council purchased new team shirts for Concordia, and Okeke said they are thankful for the council’s continued support of the team.

“The CCA family and the Selma City Council has been so supportive of the team and we are very, very grateful,” Okeke said. “Our success is Selma’s success.”

The team members are Marla Moore, Kenya McDowell, Tyornika Borwn, Javi Rhodes, Crystal Pettigrew, Catera Reese, Mark Arlond, Meharu Megano, Guichard Fuzeme, Alex McQuees and Victor Crowe.

Okeke said that only four of the team members will make the trip to California, but she has not yet selected those students.