Question: What can stop Scott Petrak from playing triva?

Answer: Nothing.

Not even the coronavirus pandemic.

A trivia buff, Petrak plays for a pair of DJ Trivia teams in Butler County.

He'd play with his squads as many as four times a week, matching wits with other teams, both locally and nationally.

“Sometimes my wife (Diane) makes fun of me,” Petrak said.

When the spread of COVID-19 forced establishments where DJ Trivia was played in Butler County and around the country to shutter, Petrak and his teams were left with a lot of questions.

But no answers.

“We miss it terribly,” Petrak said.

They have found a way to quiz on, however.

Petrak meets up with members of his teams online, taking their trivia games virtual.

“Getting through this virus so far has not been easy,” said Petrak, 63, of Renfrew. “Virtual trivia nights have helped. We've been on Zoom and it's been nice to see people's faces.”

DJ Trivia is an interactive, on-screen trivia game with a live host. It is usually played at bars and restaurants and pits on-site teams against each other.

When Petrak and his team at the Slovak Club in Lyndora and his other team called, Channelling Solomon, comprised of friends at Trinity Lutheran Church in Center Township, competed in person — mostly at the 11th Frame Bar & Grille — they worked together to answer questions.

Now, he and his Slovak Club teammates have to do it online in a scaled-back national game.

“It's a simulation of what we do on a normal night,” he said. “There's no live competition.”

The questions are shown on screen and then competitors are given time before the answers pop up.

It's not the same. The pizzazz has been lost, Petrak said.

“The bad part when the bars were shut down, you lose that camaraderie,” he said.

Petrak, though, gets some of it back on Tuesday nights with his Channelling Solomon team on Zoom.

They meet up to flex their trivia muscles and to share each other's company.

Everyone has categories where they shine.

“I'd like to think my wheelhouse is rock and roll and baseball,” Petrak said. “And science fiction — I'm a big (Star) Trek fan.”

His teammate on Channelling Solomon, Lisa Blackburn, has a knack for answering music clues.

Now, however, they compete as individuals against one another in their Zoom trivia sessions.

For Petrak it was a way to extend friendships outside of the church.

“It's a way for the people of the church to get together,” Petrak said. “It's kind of a ministry of its own.”

Blackburn said she looks forward to the trivia nights each week, but also misses the camaraderie of playing together as a team and in person.

“The rivalry isn't there,” said Blackburn, 57, of Herman. “But we muddle through. It's all for fun.”

Grace Bickert is the self-proclaimed “quizmaster” for the Channelling Solomon group. It is Bickert who crafts the questions each week.

Bickert, who is in her mid-60s and hails from Muddy Creek Township, enjoys whipping up the queries.

She said she has more than 200 of them that she has stockpiled over the years, and has submitted many questions in the past to DJ Trivia.

“I don't know if they've ever used them,” she said, laughing.

Bickert's trivia wheelhouse? Flags.

“I guess I'm the flag and monument person,” Bickert said.

Bickert said what makes the group so special is how eclectic they are.

Some have come and some have gone, but the age range can be from 20 to 76.

“They can show a picture of Alexander Graham Bell and then one of Zac Efron,” Bickert said. “It's good to have people who know who Zac Efron is.”

Petrak said Bickert has been instrumental in keep the group meeting.

And quizzing.

“She's a dynamo,” Petrak said.

Blackburn said Bickert is a very passionate about trivia.

She can relate.

“Back in the '80s when Trivial Pursuit came out, we'd play our neighbors on the front porch,” Blackburn said. “When our family gets together, I always want to break out one of the five or six editions of Trivial Pursuit I have.”

The Solomon group hopes to get back together in person soon.

But until then, they are content to play trivia any way they can.

“It's been fantastic,” Petrak said. “It really is the best part of the week for a lot of us.”