RESULTS: Sue Pasco Opening Tournament (9/26/09; Essex, VT)

[kcommo]

The Vermont-NEA Scholars' Bowl is pleased to announce it will be holding the 11th annual Sue Pasco Opening Tournament, its annual kickoff tournament, at Essex High School in Essex Junction, Vt., on Saturday, Sept. 25.

This is a semi-formal event, featuring candy prizes, and meant to serve as an introduction to the season for Vermont teams. However, we would be glad to welcome any other schools that are interested in making the trip to join us.

We hold this tournament in conjunction with our league coaches meeting, and the format is dependent on the number of readers we have available. If we get enough volunteers, we will start during the meeting and play 8-10 matches about 20 minutes in length. If not, we hold some kind of collective competition in during the meeting and typically run eight shorter matches once the meeting ends and the coaches can help read.

This tournament will serve as an NAQT HSNCT qualifier, but to keep costs to a minimum, we're using a set from last season, IS-84A. Any school that has purchased or played on that set is, obviously, ineligible.

Entry is free for all members of the Vermont Scholars' Bowl. We ask any out-of-state to pay $5 per team to help defray our question costs. The registration deadline is Sept. 21.

If your interested in registering or have any other questions, contact me, Kevin Commo, at kcommo@scholarsbowl.org.

Also, the Scholars' Bowl is also tentatively planning to hold its third annual Pre-Holiday Academic Tournament on Friday, Dec. 4, at South Burlington High School in South Burlington, Vt. Look for an official announcement once we finalize the details, probably soon after school starts.

[Lucy Lane]

Why not use an HSAPQ set from this year that serves better quality questions? Chances are that many teams have already played on IS-84A, and I think you would be doing them a favor by using a HSAPQ set instead of an NAQT set.

[cdcarter]

Why not use an HSAPQ set from this year that serves better quality questions? Chances are that many teams have already played on IS-84A, and I think you would be doing them a favor by using a HSAPQ set instead of an NAQT set.

I assume since they are running this tournament for free, they need the deep discount that NAQT gives on year old sets, and the likelihood of any VT team having seen/played this set is low enough to make this make sense.

[bt_green_warbler]

What Chris just said. If "many teams" had already played this set, we wouldn't have provided it.

[kcommo]

I assume since they are running this tournament for free, they need the deep discount that NAQT gives on year old sets, and the likelihood of any VT team having seen/played this set is low enough to make this make sense.

That's exactly right. One of the cornerstones of this tournament has always been free, open participation for our league's schools, and that's not something I could -- or would -- change. Were it not for the NAQT discount allowing us to run this event with a minimal financial hit, we would likely be forced to use questions from our archives.

As for the questions themselves, I'm told the northern-most East Coast tournament run on IS-84A was in North Carolina, so any team that would be likely to make a trip to Northern Vermont should be clear to do so.

[nalin]

Why not use an HSAPQ set from this year that serves better quality questions? Chances are that many teams have already played on IS-84A, and I think you would be doing them a favor by using a HSAPQ set instead of an NAQT set.

Because I can go online and print out the HSAPQ questions at anytime. If they wanted better "quality" questions, under your definition they would just get an IS set. This is an Opening tournament, so A series is perfectly fine.

[kcommo]

Registrations have been slow to arrive this year, but the field is finally starting to take shape. Hopefully we'll get a few more schools at the last minute, but for right now, I'm expecting:

South Burlington 3 teams
Champlain Valley 2
Fair Haven 2
Hanover 2
Essex 1-2
Lamoille 1-2
Mt. Mansfield 1-2
Bellows Falls 1
Burlington 1
Middlebury 1
Mt. Anthony 1
North Country 1
St. Johnsbury 1
Total 18-21 teams

-Kevin Commo

[kcommo]

I've been updating the list above as the last-minute registrations pour in. Today was the registration deadline so what we have now should be pretty much it.

[kcommo]

Congratulations to Hanover (N.H.) High School for winning today's Sue Pasco Opening Tournament, the Vermont-NEA Scholars' Bowl's 11th annual kickoff tournament, against a field of 16 Northern New England teams from 13 schools. The Marauders went 5-0 in the A playoffs to finish 9-1, winning their last nine games after a first-round loss to runner-up Champlain Valley (8-2).

Hanover and Champlain Valley qualify for the NAQT and PACE national tournaments while South Burlington, which also went 8-2 in finishing third, also earns an NAQT qualification.

We didn't keep individual stats, but full results can be found online at http://www.scholarsbowl.org/09pasco%20playoffs_standings.html.

Finally, a major thank you to the volunteers who did a great job and allowed to run official game during our league coaches' meeting.