Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

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Magritte's Pipe
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Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Magritte's Pipe »

The Pennsylvania State Academic Coaches' Association (PSACA) was formed at a meeting last week to promote quiz bowl in the Commonwealth. We are modeled in large part after associations in other states such as Illinois, and our goal is to encourage as many quiz bowl and academic coaches as possible to join. One function we hope to take on is to help tournaments find dates that avoid conflicts, as much as possible.

Here is the current tournament schedule for the coming school year. It will be updated as new information comes in:

MIDDLE SCHOOL
HIGH SCHOOL
HIGH SCHOOL OUT OF STATE
HISTORY BEE AND BOWL
COLLEGE

September
September 30 - Princeton PHSAT (IS-168) viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20162

October
October 7 - Nittany Lion Novice at Penn State (DEFT) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... 08#p334508
October 14 - Tri-State Tussle III at Delaware Valley HS (IS-168) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20217
October 28 - Lehigh Valley Academy Tournament (IS-169A) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20175
October 28 - Mellon Bowl XV at Carnegie Mellon (IS-170) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20356

November
Philly Fall Tournament: FSS Open (HFT packet) and Carver Novice (PSACA packet) Announcement - http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/4481/ Sign-up form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... Q/viewform forum post http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20473
November 11 - Brainbusters Tournament in Ithaca, NY (IS-170) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20223
November 18 - Henderson Tournament (IS-170) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20345
November 18 - SAGACITY Tournament at the University of Pittsburgh (NAQT IS-171A Set) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20423

December
December 2 - University of Pennsylvania Tournament (National Division EFT/Open Division WHAQ II) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20384
December 9 - Great Valley Middle School Tournament (NAQT MS Set) viewtopic.php?f=46&t=20460
December 16 - Manheim Township Academic Challenge (IS-171A)http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20541

January
January 6 - Downingtown East Winter Tournament (IS-172) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20565
January 13 - Manheim Township Middle School Academic Challenge (MS-25)
January 13 - Boardman HS Invitational near Youngstown, OH (IS-171A) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20451
January 20 - Western PA NHBB at South Side High School in Hookstown (C set)
January 27 - Eastern PA NHBB at Wyoming Area Secondary Center in Wyomissing (C set)
January 27 - Swarthmore Novice Tournament(SCOP Novice) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20641
January 27 - Taylor Allderdice Invitational (IS-168) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20690

February
February 3 - Big Lake Brawl II at Wallenpaupack (IS-173A) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20621
February 10 - Carnegie Quiz Invitational at Carnegie Mellon (IS-172) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20773
February 10 - NHBB States at Great Valley High School (B set)
February 24 - Great Valley Tournament (Open: Yale BHSAT; Novice: TBA) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20625

March
March 10 - Great Valley Middle School Ichabod Invitational [Tentative] (SCOP Middle School Set)
March 17 - Philadelphia Championship (IS-175A) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20860
March 17 - Penn State Academic Bowl II (IS-175A) https://www.naqt.com/registration/field ... nt_id=9168
March 24 - Battle of the Burgh XXI at University of Pittsburgh (IS-173A) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20873

April
April 14 - Philly Csteak at Berwick (PSACA Philly Cheesesteak) http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=20872
April 28 -SSNCT

May
May 12 - MSNCT
May 26 - HSNCT

June
June 2 - PACE-NSC

In addition to using this thread to claim dates and to try to avoid conflicts as much as possible, please do get into contact with me at [email protected] if you'd like more information about PSACA. We are incorporated as a non-profit and hoping to build an organization over the coming school year. I am not the only member of the Board serving this year until elections can be held next summer. The other board members are Bern McCauley of Great Valley, Pete Schmidt of Lehigh Valley Academy and Shan Hogan of Carver High School. When we have a website I will post a separate thread on our organization, but for now, please direct all inquiries to me and I'll forward them on if need be.
Last edited by Magritte's Pipe on Wed Jan 31, 2018 6:06 am, edited 50 times in total.
Andrew Gianelli
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by ppadmanabhan »

Boardman High School will be hosting the Boardman Invitational on an A set on January 13, 2018. We are located just south of Youngstown, OH, about an hour from Pittsburgh. We welcome Pennsylvania teams to participate!
Pranav Padmanabhan
Boardman High School 2018
Youngstown State University 2018
The Ohio State University 2022
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Magritte's Pipe »

Please note that the Lehigh Valley Academy tournament is now scheduled for October 28th.
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Magritte's Pipe »

First, a bunch of updates have just been made to the listings above (including a tournament announcement).

Second, could a mod please unsticky the tournament list for PA from last year and replace it with this thread? Thank you to anyone who can and will do this!!
Andrew Gianelli
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Important Bird Area »

Magritte's Pipe wrote:could a mod please unsticky the tournament list for PA from last year and replace it with this thread? Thank you to anyone who can and will do this!!
Done.
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Jcrmoon42 »

PA NHBB Tournaments:

January 20 - Western PA - South Side Area High, Hookstown (C Set)
January 27 - Eastern PA - Wyoming Area Secondary Center, Exeter (C Set)
February 10 - PA States - Great Valley High, Malvern (B Set)
Jason Russell
IAC - Director of Operations, Middle School & Elementary Divisions
[email protected]
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Jcrmoon42 »

Adding this one as it is just outside PA:
January 6 - Delaware, Wilmington Friends School (C Set)
Jason Russell
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by monty »

did the West Chester Henderson tournament get cancelled?
We were interested in going.
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Important Bird Area »

Henderson's announcement is here. (It was briefly in moderation this morning when the post was edited with a field update.)
Jeff Hoppes
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VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF

"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by monty »

Ok thanks, please delete my comment
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Thaumatibis gigantea »

Swarthmore will be hosting a tournament on SCOP Novice on January 27.
Rebecca Rosenthal, Bergen County Academies '16, Swarthmore College '20
PACE, Director of Communications
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Antrobus63 »

On the DC metro thread, I asked about the Johns Hopkins event on April 7. Jeff Hoppes of NAQT wrote:
This event will use NAQT IS #174. Please note that this is the same set used at the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition later in April.
Since this concerns teams in our state, I thought I'd post my reply here. Please let me know what you all think:

Thanks, Jeff, I've already talked about this with a coach or two, and we'll talk about it at our PSACA meeting this Thursday.

This is a problem. I'm glad that Pennsylvania is using NAQT questions now, but not crazy about the set overlap between various events, which puts many of us in a bind. Another problem is that the PA state tournament is always on the same weekend as SSNCT. This affected LVA two years ago (we nearly didn't make our flight to Chicago) and now affects other teams in the state: I believe that those teams who have signed up for SSNCT the past few years have simply conceded that they will not be able to compete in our state tournament, which is too bad.

On the other had, PA hasn't yet made the state tournament date official on its website (which is still stuck in 2016-17) and they have not returned my e-mails asking for an official date. If it is, in fact, Friday, April 27th, as NAQT's website says, LVA won't be going to Harrisburg in any case, because that is NHBB weekend--and Friday is an actual competition day. Other schools may be forced to choose as well but, speaking just for LVA, there's no way we skip the first day of NHHB for a state competition that pretty much every coach agrees is not a top-notch event. Also, we would then be able to play #174 somewhere else, which will make the choice to skip states even easier for several teams.

I know that it's not NAQT's job to tell people when to schedule their tournaments, but as QB continues to grow, I think it's important that we all--coaches, NAQT, PACE, NHBB--work together more collaboratively to try to iron out this schedule stuff well ahead of the coming school year; this March would not be too soon to discuss 2018-19 in detail. We need to make each other aware of potential date and set conflicts, and probably set some general ground rules that we all agree to abide by.

For instance, big-time national events (as opposed to simple regional tournaments) should be never be announced in the middle of the year. The IPNCT announcement in December further complicated an already cramped April-May (state competitions, NHBB, SSNCT, HSNCT, PACE, to say nothing of AP exams, finals, and prom). Most people will not be affected, but this put families like mine in a very difficult position. It will be hard enough to shoehorn this event into our schedule, but the added personal expense (there aren't too many schools or clubs that will be willing to foot the bill for an individual and her/his family to attend a non-team event that has been dropped suddenly into the schedule in the middle of the season) may force many families to make the unavoidable, if painful, decision to not attend IPNCT. Indeed, may of the best players are already excluded because they had previously committed to tournaments (ICT or the Texas Invitational) that had date and set conflicts. An Individual Championship without players like William Golden and Clark Smith, to name a few, won't have nearly the prestige of a tournament that is set up so that every top player has a legitimate chance to participate.
Peter Schmidt
Columbia '84, Yale '88
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Lehigh Valley Academy 2016-18
Pennsylvania NASAT '15, ‘18, ‘22, '23
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Re: Pennsylvania Tournaments 2017-2018

Post by Important Bird Area »

Part of the problem here is that there are quite simply a limited number of weekends in April and early May, and a large number of competitions that take place then.

Some of the factors that influence our scheduling for SSNCT have included:

-Easter weekend
-National History Bee and Bowl
-the Missouri State High School Activities Association state series
-the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition
-AP testing dates in early May
-the proximity of other NAQT national championships (ICT and MSNCT are in the same six-week stretch; it can be stressful for our staff to travel on back-to-back weekends)

In short: there are a lot of things to consider here, and there is no optimal solution that results in zero conflicts. Every year at least some teams report to us that they will be unable to attend SSNCT for scheduling-related reasons, so it's up to NAQT to decide on a schedule that minimizes possible conflicts.
Jeff Hoppes
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF

"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
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