Monday, Nov. 02, 2009

From Quiz Bowl to 'Jeopardy!': Althoff senior lands spot on 'Teen Tournament'

Althoff Catholic High School senior Gabe Orlet was on summer vacation with his family and about to drive into the parking garage at Arlington National Cemetery when he got a call about being a contestant on "Jeopardy!"

Gabe, 17, of Belleville, and his parents had been waiting for the call, but it was Gabe's maternal grandfather, a French native, who answered the cell phone.

"He had no idea who or what 'Jeopardy!' was, so he said it pretty calmly," Gabe said. "My mom yelled at my dad not to pull into the parking garage. After the call, because of where we were, I had to be pretty reserved for awhile, which was hard because I was so ecstatic."

Gabe's mom, Veronique Orlet, the skeptic of the family, had not told her parents that Gabe tried out for a spot on "Jeopardy! Teen Tournament."

"I mean, 15 out of 50,000 kids," she said. "I kept saying, 'Don't hope too hard.'"

In the weeks leading up to the "Jeopardy!" taping Aug. 15-18, Gabe said he was too nervous to watch the show or to tell anyone he had been selected.

"On the flight (to Los Angeles) with him, I decided to get philosophical with him, and he doesn't like it when I say that stuff, but I said it anyway," Gabe's dad, Thomas Orlet, said. "It's going to be fun, do your best and you might win. Somebody's got to win -- it might as well be you -- but you should have fun anyway."

Contestants were given the first day to tour Los Angeles, and Gabe and his dad went to Venice Beach. The participants then taped 10 shows in two days.

Gabe is on the episode airing at 3:30 p.m. Friday on KSDK-TV Channel 5.

"Everyone there was 'the smartest person in the room,' but they were not just people who do math problems for fun," Gabe said. "They were at the show not only because they were smart, but because they had great personalities. We were in the middle of an intense competition, but we all got along really well."

Gabe, a self-proclaimed "knowledge junkie," said his interests are in ancient history and geography. He has a knack for remembering random numbers, and spends most of his time online reading Wikipedia. He is taking AP physics this semester, but said that science is not his strong suit.

Gabe said his love for trivia comes from his "trivia junkie" father.

"Every summer, the entire Orlet family, about 50 of us, goes to Lake of the Ozarks and we play 'Trivial Pursuit,'" Gabe said. "When I was young, I would try to play with the grown-ups. That kind of fostered the intellectual curiosity in me."

Gabe said his experience with Quiz Bowl at Blessed Sacrament School and Althoff, where he is captain of the varsity team, also helped him in "Jeopardy!" Gabe's younger brother, Max, also participates in Quiz Bowl.

"Playing Quiz Bowl, I have a tendency to buzz even though I don't know the answer," Gabe said. "Quiz Bowl definitely helped with speed. If there's a question you don't know right away, look for key words. You could know everything in the world, but you need to be able to call it up fast enough."

Veronique Orlet is the Quiz Bowl coach at Althoff. She also teaches French.

"He knows himself well enough, and waits for what he can handle and what can work for him," she said. "So when he tries to do something, he can do well with it. And he just loves to learn. He just has a curious mind and lucky that he has good retention and able to retrieve information."

Her only worry was that her parenting technique would place her son at a disadvantage.

"We do not have cable and we do not have video players at home," she said. "If they ask him a question about a cable show, he won't know and, of course, that will be my fault."

Gabe has told his family whether he wins, but hasn't shared other details of the show.

"It has been a big strain for me to have to be so secretive for three months," Gabe said.

After the episode airs Friday afternoon, Gabe said he will be acting that night in Althoff's fall play, "Curtains."

Then it's back to working on college applications. Gabe said he hopes that by this time next year, he'll be studying political science and history at Georgetown or Princeton.