Trevor's Trivia/Selcer Memorial at UT-Chattanooga 9/27/08

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

11th ANNUAL TREVOR’S TRIVIA/SELCER MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL QUIZBOWL 9/27/08

You are invited to UTC’s 11th annual Trevor’s Trivia: Bob Selcer Memorial High School Quizbowl. Named in memory of a UTC alumnus, author of a regular trivia column as well as many academic quiz questions, this will be a one-day team academic quizbowl competition in Chattanooga, TN, on Sat., Sept. 27, 2008.

The field is open to high school and middle school teams, but limited to 45 teams. To ensure that you have space reserved, we recommend that you e-mail utcquizbowl at gmail dot com at your earliest convenience with the number of teams your school expects to bring.

FORMAT: This will be an untimed tournament with 20 tossups and bonuses per round, with no bounceback on bonuses. Questions will cover a variety of academic disciplines, with a little popular culture and general knowledge thrown in. The field will be split into brackets for a round robin, followed by playoffs for each division. During playoffs, non-playoff teams will have the option of playing consolation rounds.

ELIGIBILITY: Students in grades 6-12 are eligible. Those in grades 11-12 are eligible to play in Division I only. (Exceptions may be made for players in 11th grade with no prior quizbowl experience, but only at the tournament director's discretion.) Students in grades 6-10 are eligible to play in either Division I or Division II. However, these questions are targeted at the high school level, and we strongly recommend that players in grades 6-8 play on Division II teams only. Separate trophies will be awarded for teams in Division II (teams composed entirely of players in grades 6 -10.) It is unlikely, but possible, that Division II teams may still play some matches against Division I teams. There will also be separate individual All-Star awards for players in grades 6 -10, even if they’re on a Division I team.

SCHEDULE: Registration begins at 9 AM EDT on Sat. 9/27, with announcements at 9:45 and play starting at 10. While we won’t have a precise schedule until we verify the field size, we expect to finish the round robin by 6 PM, followed by an exhibition “trash” round (see below), an awards ceremony for individual honors, and playoffs. We hope playoffs will be over by 8 PM.

LOCATION: Tournament HQ will be in 129 Grote Hall on the UTC campus (see directions and link to map below), with matches in Brock, and Holt Halls. (Grote itself is being renovated, so only the auditorium will be used there.) Because we will splitting the tournament between two non-adjacent buildings, each with a slow elevator, please let me know if any of your team members have disabilities and we will do our best to keep their matches in one building.

JUST FOR FUN: It’s become an annual tradition! While we finish the stats and standings at the end of the round robin, we’ll have an unofficial round of “trash” (pure pop culture), tossups only. This has become one of the most popular parts of UTC’s high school quizbowls. Anyone who can reach a buzzer can play in the trash round – alternates, coaches, parents, even the bus driver. Also, during the awards ceremony, we’ll give recognition (and maybe even prizes) for the cleverest T-shirts seen at the tournament.

FEES AND PAPERWORK: Tournament fees are as follows --
• Base fee: $80 per team (4 players can play at a time with up to 3 alternates; substitutions are allowed, but between rounds only.)
• $5 discount for each additional team from the same school
• $5 discount for each working lockout buzzer system, up to four systems (whether we use them or not – recently we’ve had a rash of buzzer breakdowns, so we want as many spares as possible)
After the tournament, complete sets of questions may be purchased for $15. Complete sets will be free to any school that provides a full-time official to assist tournament staff.

Pre-registration and prepayment are not required -- as long as we know how many teams you’ll bring, and for which division(s). Rosters may be changed at any time before the tournament starts -- but once it does, a player may not switch from team to team.

ACCOMMODATIONS: We have not reserved a block of rooms, but there is a standing discount at the historic Read House in downtown Chattanooga for $85 per night under the "UTC Athletics rate." There’s a trick to it, though – you have to call the local number, 423-266-4121, and stay with a local representative. Say “Don't transfer me to the national reservation line, I need the UTC discount rate that's in your reservation system.” If you have problems, please let us know and we’ll try to iron things out.
If you need more information, I can be reached on my cell phone (423-504-8255), at my office (423-535-7147), or by e-mail at utcquizbowl at gmail dot com.

We hope to see you Sept. 27!
--- Charlie Steinhice, UTC A.T.A. Coach

Directions to Grote Hall: Come towards downtown Chattanooga on I-24. Take the freeway splitoff labeled US 27 North – Downtown Chattanooga. Follow US 27 North to Exit 1A, 4th St. (Don’t worry about which way to turn on 4th St. – it only goes one way.) Follow 4th St. about ½ mile till you see the Mackenzie Arena (the “Roundhouse”) on your right. Shortly after you see the Arena on your right, 4th St. will merge with 3rd St. After they merge, watch for the second right (Palmetto St.) Turn right on Palmetto. Go 2 blocks on Palmetto, then turn right on Vine St. You will see barriers ahead where Vine St. is closed to auto traffic. The last parking lot on the right, just before those barriers, is the parking lot for Grote Hall. Enter through the door by the dumpster. Tournament HQ is Grote 129.

Here’s a link to GoogleMaps – I hope this newfangled internets technology works…

Click here for the map

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

Here's a quick field update for Trevor's Trivia/Selcer Memorial on 9/27. Teams are from Tennessee unless noted otherwise. if you have any additions or corrections, please let us know at utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks.


Clarkrange 1 (Div I)
Giles Co. 2 (both Div I)
Jasper Middle 1 (Div II)
McMinn Co. 1 (Div I)
Notre Dame 1 (Div I)
Ooltewah 1 (Div I)
Brindlee Mtn. (AL) 3 (1 Div I, 2 Div II)
Covenant Christian (AL) 1 (Div TBA)
DAR (AL) 3 (2 Div I, 1 Div II)
Indian Springs (AL) 1 (Div I)
Brookwood (GA) 1 (Div I)
NW Whitfield (GA) 4 or 5 (Div TBA)
Ringgold (GA) 1 or 2 (Div TBA)
SW Whitfield (GA) 3 (2 Div I, 1 Div II)
Walton High (GA) 1 (Div I)
Dorman (SC) 3 (2 Div I, 1 Div II)

[quizbowllee]

Gimme one more in Div. II, Charlie.

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

At this point the field is nominally full, with 43 definite teams representing 23 schools, and not representing a 24th. A slot is being held for a probable 44th team, pending confirmation. And that, ladies and gents, will max us out (and exceed our previous record for the fall tournament by 11 teams.)

Anyone who isn't on this list but ought to be, please let us know ASAP at utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks.

Teams are from Tennessee unless otherwise specified.

Calhoun (GA) 1 (1 Div II)
Covenant Christian (AL) 2 (1 Div I, 1 Div II)
DAR (AL) 3 (2 Div I, 1 Div II)
Dorman (SC) 3 (2 Div I, 1 Div II)
Ezell-Harding 2 (1 Div I, 1 Div II)
Heritage Middle 1 (1 Div II)
Hume Fogg 2 (1 Div I, 1 Div II)
Jasper Middle 1 (1 Div II)
M.L. King 3 (1 Div I, 1 Div II)
NW Whitfield (GA) 4 (3 Div I, 1 Div II)
Ringgold (GA) 2 (1 Div I, 1 Div II)
SW Whitfield (GA) 3 (2 Div I, 1 Div II)
West 2 (1 Div I, 1 Div II)
Brindlee Mtn. (AL) 4 (1 Div I, 3 Div II)
Brookwood (GA) 1 (1 Div I)
Clarkrange 1 (1 Div I)
Giles Co. 2 (2 Div I)
Hoover (AL) 1 (1 Div I)
Indian Springs (AL) 1 (1 Div I)
McMinn Co. 1 (1 Div I)
Notre Dame 1 (1 Div I)
Ooltewah 1 (1 Div I)
Walton High (GA) 1 (1 Div I)
Mudkip (GA) 1 (1 Div I)
Total 43 (27 Div I, 16 Div II)

[FYI, Mudkip is an unauthorized team unofficially representing an unknowing high school.]

[chemqueen2]

West can't bring a Div II team, but our Div I team will still be there.

[quizbowllee]

RRR... One less Div. II team for Brindlee Mountain. Sorry. Last minute "can't goes".

So, Brindlee Mountain will have 1 in Div. I and 2 in Div. II.

[quizbowllee]

Results???

I know that going into the single-elimination playoffs, Dorman A was seeded #1.

Walton was #2
Ezell-Harding was #3
Brookwood was #4
Hoover was #5
Chattahoochee (Mudkip) was #6

skip a few...

Brindlee Mountain was #11


We were defeated by Chattahoochee in the first playoff match, so I don't know what happened after that.

[chemqueen2]

Indian Springs was #8, and they beat #9 West in the first playoff round.

[AndyShootsAndyScores]

I know Mudkip and Dorman A made it to the semis, but I left after that.

[RountreeCHS]

My team called me last night, as I was watching the utter destruction of UGA football at the hands of Alabammer, that Dorman A defeated Chattahoochee in the Championship match by around 200 points (after 10 pm I might add!). In one semi, Chattahoochee was able to beat Walton (on a tiebreaker I believe) for the first time in 3 tries this year. The other semi had Dorman A against Brookwood I believe? Obviously, Dorman A won - I have no idea what the score was.

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

(after 10 pm I might add!)

How many rounds were there, 18?

[ClemsonQB]

From what I've heard, prelims (all 7 rounds of them) lasted until 5:30.

[jrbarry]

Brookwood-A lost to Dorman-A in the semis 440-210. Dorman-A was dominant all day.

We played 7 prelims and had 12 teams in the single-elimination playoffs. We started late, i.e. 10:20am I think round one actually began. Kinda hard to actually pinpoint why it took so long.

UTC people were very cordiale. Apparently the 45 teams entered was a tad bigger than their usual Fall tournament.

Questions were well-structured and edited but kinda easy in the prelims. They got more challenging in the quarters and semis.

Final placement

1. Dorman-A
2. Mudkip, i.e. Chattahoochee without their esteemed coach
3. Walton
4. Brookwood

[quizbowllee]

I want to preface this post by saying that UTC tournaments are our favorite pre-nationals tournaments of the year. The questions are the absolute best we see all year - except for maybe at PACE. The field is always strong, the atmosphere is wonderful, and it is just a lot of fun. I am hesitant to bring up our one complaint, but it has to be said:

The tournaments last RIDICULOUSLY too long.

I cannot fathom what on earth causes every single UTC tournament to run this long. Yes, the tournament started a little bit late. That's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is the enormous amount of time between rounds. Why do we have to wait 30+ minutes between almost every single round? I realize that there are multiple buildings that must be coordinated, but come on! I have hosted several tournaments that involved using two different buildings with 3 divisions (varsity, JV, and middle school) that had 10 or more prelim rounds PLUS double-elimination playoffs and I was still completely finished by 4:00 p.m.

A few suggestions come to mind:

1) I'm not sure if moderators are having to go all the way back to Grote to pick up questions or what... Whatever is going on, it isn't working. Give each moderator the entire tournament worth of questions at the beginning. It seemed that the often-heard excuse on why we hadn't started was "we're waiting on questions." Some of the rounds took so long to begin, that I was wondering if we were actually waiting on questions to be written!!!
2) Cut the long-winded speeches. Charlie, I love you, man. I really do. And, you crack me up with your wit. However, I don't think you realized it, but prior to announcing the seeding for the playoffs, you talked a FULL 15 minutes about volunteering to help out at UTC tournaments in order to get free admission. I understand the need to make that announcement, but you literally repeated yourself for a quarter of an hour.
3) Cut lunch time. We had an hour-and-a-half for lunch. We were able to go to Chili's, order our food, eat, have lengthy conversations, and still be back in time to wait another twenty minutes for the next match to start.

Uhh... I think that's it. Those are my suggestions.

Please don't get me wrong. Like I said, UTC hosts easily the most-fun tournaments we go to. The ONLY flaw is the length of the tournament. That wouldn't even necessarily be a flaw if we spent the time playing rounds. However, we spend more time "waiting for questions" than answering them. Please, please, PLEASE take a look at some of the things that are causing these delays and fix them. A tournament that lasts that long should have at least 10 to 12 prelim matches, not 7! If this is fixed, your tournament would be virtually perfect.

[MichaelKearney]

As one of the Moderators for the Tournament, I can clear up some of these issues before the usual piranhas come by to argue further points.

Yeah, things went a bit long. The tournament didn't end after 10, however, because I was at Provino's at 10.

Several teams flat out didn't show up at the beginning, leading to a lot of last-minute re-org. One team left during the tournament, leading to more reorganization. UTC lost its main building due to renovation, and ran things from two separate buildings. We were fairly understaffed, and I PERSONALLY ran my butt off between buildings to make sure that teams weren't waiting for too long. With 45 teams, everyone's not going to end at the same time. We weren't necessarily waiting on questions, we were waiting on all teams to finish.

Lastly, the speeches weren't 15 minutes long. There were several things that needed to be brought up, some of which I had personally asked Charlie to mention. Teams enjoyed themselves, got seeded properly, and were competing in a fair and well-written tournament.

[AndyShootsAndyScores]

1) I'm not sure if moderators are having to go all the way back to Grote to pick up questions or what... Whatever is going on, it isn't working. Give each moderator the entire tournament worth of questions at the beginning. It seemed that the often-heard excuse on why we hadn't started was "we're waiting on questions." Some of the rounds took so long to begin, that I was wondering if we were actually waiting on questions to be written!!!
2) Cut the long-winded speeches. Charlie, I love you, man. I really do. And, you crack me up with your wit. However, I don't think you realized it, but prior to announcing the seeding for the playoffs, you talked a FULL 15 minutes about volunteering to help out at UTC tournaments in order to get free admission. I understand the need to make that announcement, but you literally repeated yourself for a quarter of an hour.
3) Cut lunch time. We had an hour-and-a-half for lunch. We were able to go to Chili's, order our food, eat, have lengthy conversations, and still be back in time to wait another twenty minutes for the next match to start.

I'll try to address these suggestions the best I can.

1) I don't know about the JV division, but in Brock, when we finished, we were to go room 201 (where Charlie was reading), turn in our scoresheets and questions from the previous round, and wait for questions outside. For some reason, Charlie seemed to finish after a majority of the other readers were finished. This made sure that we all started at the same time, but it definitely was the main reason the tournament was so slow. At UA's tournament, our HQ was a room full of questions and a statistician, no one reading. This makes things run much more smoothly.
2) Charlie is a funny man, but he does digress in almost everything he does. This may have been one of the reasons his rounds took so long to finish. He should probably try and keep his speeches and whatnot as short as possible.
3) The longer lunch time makes sure the players and staff in the last room finished have plenty of time. The UA part of the tournament staff actually got back late from lunch. Also, NO ANKAR'S?! That was a tradition, man.

[wd4gdz]

As one of the Moderators for the Tournament, I can clear up some of these issues before the usual piranhas come by to argue further points.

Uh oh...

piranhas.jpg

(158.86 KiB) Downloaded 86 times

[quizbowllee]

As one of the Moderators for the Tournament, I can clear up some of these issues before the usual piranhas come by to argue further points.

Yeah, things went a bit long. The tournament didn't end after 10, however, because I was at Provino's at 10.

I can't comment on this, as we left after the first play-off round. It was 7:45 when that round ended. I know this because I have the text message I sent to my wife letting her know that we had just finished.

Several teams flat out didn't show up at the beginning, leading to a lot of last-minute re-org.

Like I said earlier, that is NOT what I am talking about. I completely understand the problems that arise when teams don't show or are late. That was handled admirably.

One team left during the tournament, leading to more reorganization.

That is unfortunate. However, I'm not sure why that would cause too much of a problem, seeing as the team that left simply forfeits their remaining rounds. I suppose steps could be made to ensure that teams get to play that extra round...

UTC lost its main building due to renovation, and ran things from two separate buildings.

I'm not really sure how this affects the timing of the tournament... Whether the matches take place in one building or the other is really inconsequential.

We were fairly understaffed, and I PERSONALLY ran my butt off between buildings to make sure that teams weren't waiting for too long.

Here, I believe, is the crux of the problem. It shouldn't be necessary at all for you to have ever left the building in which you were reading. There should be a central location within that building where you turn in score sheets and pick up the next round.

With 45 teams, everyone's not going to end at the same time. We weren't necessarily waiting on questions, we were waiting on all teams to finish.

I see another problem here. This is a problem that most tournaments have and I've never understood it. Why must we wait for EVERYONE to finish round one before beginning round two? When I run tournaments, I tell moderators that if there are two teams in their room, start reading. Yes, some rooms will get ahead of others. But, if the tournament director watches those situations, he or she can send the faster readers to the rooms that are behind and even things out. This keeps the tournament moving along, cuts down on teams having to wait, keeps teams out of the halls, etc. The only downside is the possibility of teams discussing questions that they have heard with other teams. But, I've found that this really doesn't happen. The teams are too busy starting their next round to have time to discuss the questions.

Lastly, the speeches weren't 15 minutes long.

Yes, they were. In fact, they were a little longer. I didn't start checking my watch until it had already been going on for a few minutes. Again, nothing against Charlie, but we really just wanted to know who had made the play-offs.

There were several things that needed to be brought up, some of which I had personally asked Charlie to mention.

Fair enough. There should always be an opportunity for announcements at tournaments. However, why not bring those things up at the beginning of the tournaments when we already had delays? And why repeat the same information so many times?

Teams enjoyed themselves, got seeded properly, and were competing in a fair and well-written tournament.

No doubt. Like I said, UTC tournaments are always our favorites. Our sole complaint is the downtime and the wait between rounds. This can be fixed relatively easily, making UTC's tournaments as close to perfect as possible. Please understand, I'm simply trying to make constructive suggestions on an issue that I know everyone noticed. This is not a problem that was unique to this one tournament, but a problem that has plagued virtually every UTC tournament I have ever attended. It seems to be getting worse instead of better.... Seven rounds should take about 3.5-4 hours tops. Period. But, we didn't start our playoffs until after 7:00 p.m. I know this is accurate because I sent a text message to one of our former players at 7:07 p.m. stating that the moderator had finally entered our room to begin the Quarter-Final Round.

Please don't take this as an attack, because it's not. The folks at UTC have done so much for quiz bowl in the Southeast and I recognize and highly respect that. But, this is an issue that needs to be looked at and fixed.

[scquizbowl]

At our tournament in Spartanburg, at Wofford, we also had problems with time. It was only 14 teams, with byes, but we didn't finish till 5:40 (ET).

Big win by Dorman over Brookwood in the semifinals. 10PM, that is ridiculous. That is the latest time I have ever heard for a quiz bowl tournament. We at least started at 9:15am. At least that is a good tournament, serving the Chattanooga area, which is sort of underserved for quiz bowl.

How are UTC's questions? We used A sets at Wofford's tournament, and there were many different results.

[BobGHHS]

So, out of curiosity, are there no individual stats at all, or was the stat disk temporarily misplaced?

Just kidding.

Congrats to Dorman and all other teams for a good showing.

[AndyShootsAndyScores]

So, out of curiosity, are there no individual stats at all, or was the stat disk temporarily misplaced?

Cody from MLK got first in DI scoring and Todd from Dorman got around fifth or sixth, but that's all I can remember.

[chemqueen2]

I think Todd got 5th, he tied with Sarah from west.

[Matthew D]

I happen to have a copy of the stats on my computer due to my wife keeping stats... let me get them off the laptop and I will post them by this evening...

[Ditzy Blonde]

Here are the individual results for the UTC tournament:

Varsity:

1 - Cody Simons of MLK A - 71.67 avg.
2 - Dylan Rush of Ringgold A - 65.0 avg.
3 - Wes Austin of Chattahoochie (MUDKIP) - 55.0 avg.
4 - Arvind Sekar of Brookwood - 53.33 avg.
5 - Sara Craig of West High - 52.0 avg.
5 - Todd Faulkenberry of Dorman A - 52.0 avg.

JV DIVISION II

1 - Ryan Reid of Ezell-Harding - 70.0 avg.
2 - Sam Abrams of Dorman C - 53.33 avg.
3 - Meghan Dennis of DAR "C" - 51.67 avg.
3 - Kannan Raju of MLK B - 51.67 avg.
5 - Trisha Knowles of Brindlee Mtn. B - 41.67 avg.
6 - Paul Sorrell of CCA "B" - 40.00 avg.

It was a great tournament, as usual. Long, but very well run. All teams did a great job and put up a nice showing. It was very nice to see the cordial sportsmanship and commradarie among all the teams and coaches. I want to thank Charlie for allowing me to be a part of the day and thanks to each team for making it a success. We would love to have any of these teams, as well as others that could not come, at our tournament in January.

Susan Dennis
DAR Quiz Bowl

[JackGlerum]

the tournament didn't end after 10, however, because I was at Provino's at 10.

my team called me right after the Championship match and that was after 10:30pm

Sooo...

[AdamL]

I heard from one of the CHS players at 9:33 saying that they'd just finished the match against Dorman.

[AndyShootsAndyScores]

I heard from one of the CHS players at 9:33 saying that they'd just finished the match against Dorman.

I'm not sure if the 10:30 ending time that is in question is EST or CST, but that s0unds about right as far as Eastern time goes.

[RountreeCHS]

10:30pm refers to EST which is approximately when the Finals ended. I bring this up because the top 4 teams, and thus those teams that stayed the longest, are all from EST: Dorman, Chattahoochee, Walton, and Brookwood. My team got home after 1am on Sunday. I am not posting this to bash the UTC folk, but merely to reiterate what Lee Henry said earlier: it is ridiculous for a tournament to last until after 9 or 10pm regardless of the time zone you live in! My kids loved the tournament and we will be back next year, but we hope that the next one ends around nightfall like this one was intended to according to Charlie's original announcement: "We hope playoffs will be over by 8 PM."

[AdamL]

Sorry to draw this out, but just to clarify, the tournament definitely did end at 9:30 EST. I got the call (in Alpharetta/EST) at 9:30, plus UTC's in ET anyway so there's no misunderstanding on that front. The team must've coincidentally called you an hour after the tournament ended, causing this confusion, Mr. Rountree, though I don't understand why they'd tell you it was right after the match (if that's what they explicitly said). From what I heard, the team got back to Alpharetta at 1:15am thanks to spending an exorbitant amount of time deciding on where to eat dinner and then eating.

On another note, I'd like to second the notion that Charlie's speeches and such, while entertaining, should probably be given at a different time... namely so that they don't interfere with tournament play, because I remember this happening last year when I attended also.

I also remember that in our prelim round against MLK, halfway through the round Charlie was interrupted by another staffer who needed whatever taken care of, and Charlie got up and left for about 10 minutes.... which, needless to say, interrupted the flow of the match ridiculously. In my opinion, he really shouldn't be a moderator if he's planning on taking care of such issues DURING matches.

[RountreeCHS]

I am not trying to argue the difference of 30-60 minutes with anyone here on this board, particularly former CHS Academic Team members; such an act is an exercise in futility in my opinion. Regardless of whether my team left at 9:45 or 10:00 or 10:15 or 10:30, they left over 90 minutes after the tournament was supposed to end (see the original post).

Here is the crux of my argument: a kind, generous parent volunteered to drive our team to UTC. When I provided that parent with the information regarding when to leave CHS and when they would likely return, I told them times based on what was originally posted on this board. Obviously, I did not tell the parent that they would be getting home well after midnight, nor did I have any reason to suspect that they would. Like many coaches/teams on this board, I rely on parents occasionally to help take kids to and from tournaments. I want to be able to provide them with close approximations of times whenever possible. In my mind, 90-120 minutes difference is not a close approximation of time, regardless of the time zone in question.

I do not think that Charlie or anyone at UTC intentionally tried to slow the tournament down, but it happened nonetheless. Once that process began, I feel like measures could have been taken to bring it back up to speed; evidently, according to Lee and others I have spoken to, they were not. 8pm is late enough for a tournament to end, but pushing it back until well after 9pm seems, to use Lee's term again, ridiculous.

Again, I have no ill will toward Charlie or the UTC folk, and I am not looking for an apology or any kind of clarification from them. I have run several tournaments of my own and I know that they can get away from you if you let them. However, I also know that you can finish a tournament with 45 teams and 10 rounds in less than 10 hours. Hopefully, next year this issue will be resolved and we can enjoy another otherwise wonderful tournament experience at UTC.

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

Congratulations to Dorman A and Ezell-Harding B, winners of their respective divisions at UTC’s 11th annual Trevor’s Trivia: Bob Selcer Memorial High School Quizbowl on 9/27/2008. A record 41 teams from 23 schools in 4 states competed. Trophy-winning teams were:
DIVISION I (varsity)
1st: Dorman A
2nd: Mudkip [students from Chattahoochee High who were playing unofficially, on their own initiative]
3rd: Walton
4th: Brookwood

DIVISION II (junior varsity)
1st: Ezell-Harding B
2nd: Dorman C
3rd: Hume-Fogg B
4th: Covenant Christian B


Full team and individual stats (not including playoffs) are posted online at:
http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org=utcquizbowl&id=10&page=standings

Playoff results and individual all-stars are listed below, but first there are a lot of people to thank.

Special thanks to Stephen Taylor for serving as tournament director for Division II, and to Susan Dennis for handling stats for both divisions. Special thanks also to Kelli Abernathy, Chela Camler, Andy Knowles, Jared Lauridsen, Stephanie Miller, Isabella Morales, and Stephen Stack of the University of Alabama Academic Quizbowl Team, who came en masse from Tuscaloosa to serve as officials (and get their first dinner at Provino’s.) Thanks also to Leah Hitt of Covenant Christian who officiated all day as well, and to our house readers and runners: David Amis, Jimmy Beilstein, Ruth Jackson, Michael Kearney, John Kilby, Dave Leach, Zac Perry, Dren Rollins, Ashley Rousselle, Eileen Steinhice, and Jacob Vannucci.

Thanks also to those who contributed questions: the teams from Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and UTC, as well as Gaius Stern, Seth Kendall, Eric Blair, Eugene Stoye, Michael Kearney, Eileen Steinhice, and Stephen Taylor.

And thanks to all the players and coaches for participating, and for maintaining a positive atmosphere, especially when we had to revise schedules on the fly due to some no-show teams.

DIVISION I PLAYOFFS

ROUND OF 16
Hoover 285, Ringgold A 40
M.L. King A 375, Dorman B 100
Mudkip 330, Brindlee Mtn. A 70
Indian Springs 250, West 160
Byes to the top four seeds (Dorman A, Walton, Ezell-Harding A, Brookwood)

QUARTERFINALS
Brookwood 300, Hoover 180
Dorman A 440, Indian Springs 130
Walton 340, M.L. King A 100
Mudkip 280, Ezell-Harding A 80

SEMIFINALS
Dorman A 440, Brookwood 210
Mudkip 250, Walton 240

FINALS
Dorman A 310, Mudkip 110


DIVISION II PLAYOFFS

SEMIFINALS
Ezell-Harding B 90, Covenant Christian B 60
Dorman C 210, Hume-Fogg B 60
Dorman C 90, Hume-Fogg B 0 (tiebreaker shootout)

FINALS
Dorman C 210 , Ezell-Harding B 80
Ezell-Harding B 80, Dorman C 30 (tiebreaker shootout)

INDIVIDUAL ALL-STARS

All-Stars for Division I were:
Cody Simons, ML King A (MVP)
Dylan Rush, Ringgold A
Wes Austin, Mudkip (Chattahoochee)
Arvind Sekar, Brookwood
Sarah Craig, West High
Todd Faulkenberry, Dorman A

All-Stars for Division II were:
Ryan Reid, Ezell-Harding B (MVP)
Sam Abrams, Dorman C
Kannan Raju, ML King B
Meghan Dennis, DAR C
Tricia Knowles, Brindlee Mtn B
Paul Sorrell, CCA B

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

I've read the discussion above, and I agree with most of what has been said. That tournament lasted ridiculously too long, 1 1/2 to 2 hours longer than it should have. I apologize. I disagree that this is the norm, though -- while we've had that problem with some of our college tournaments, it's been quite a while since the last high school tournament where we had this much go wrong.

A lot of the circumstances beyond our control (no-shows, teams arriving late, building issues) have already been mentioned in this forum. Another one no one mentioned: Every tournament, it seems, one group runs into bad restaurant service, can't get their check on time, and is half an hour late getting back from lunch. Naturally, on a day when we were already behind schedule, Murphy's Law decreed that this time the group consisted of *seven* of our officials. And no matter what that does to my blood pressure, it's just not in my nature to bark at people who were volunteering in the first place.

OK, now that we've covered the extenuating circumstances, let's get to my mistakes.

My biggest error cost us at least another half an hour, maybe more. We had a three-way circle of death in one bracket, and my solution was to add an extra round to the playoffs. In retrospect, I handled that wrong -- it would have been much quicker to have a one-game play-in for two teams, and keep the playoff field at 8 instead of expanding it to 12.

Another mistake: When the readers were late, I should have pulled the rest of the Division II readers to cover Division I and get it started sooner. Since the D II playoffs would be shorter, it would have had less impact on the whole day. But I didn't think of that in time.

Both mistakes were purely mine. They both stem from Big Problem #1: The truth is, I wasn't thinking clearly for much of the day. I used to be able to handle a late-night or even all-night session on tournament eve, but it looks like I'm getting too old to do it anymore. (If anyone wants to know why I was up all night finishing a tournament I started editing in July, e-mail me privately for a combination of valid reasons and weak excuses.) So when we had all that schedule juggling to do Saturday AM, where I used to be able to sort it out in 5-10 minutes, I was literally staring at a piece of paper and barely comprehending the situation, let alone seeing a solution. That's not a good feeling.

In the past, we've often started late, but we've been able to pick up the pace and make up most if not all of the lost time. Much of that has been thanks to a strong corps of versatile house officials who were accustomed to handling logistics and making changes on the fly. Which brings me to Big Problem #2: Some of our best crew -- specifically, five UTC grads with tons of experience and strong organizational skills -- have moved out of the area or had conflicts this time around. (A sixth moved out of town literally the next day, sticking around for Saturday just so she could help out.) We knew this was coming, so at least we had time to recruit some new officials (thanks Alabama!) But then another veteran volunteer cancelled at the eleventh hour, and there were two no-shows. All this left us with enough game officials to fill the void -- barely -- but our logistics really suffered.

I used to be able to run a tournament as a one-man band. This one showed me I can't do that anymore. I found myself (re-)assuming duties that I've been delegating in recent years, and I didn't do such a great job of it. And it made me appreciate all the more the quality of volunteer help we've been blessed with for the past several years.

So, what's our next step?

Here's Plan A: We're rebuilding the UTC team this year, and with three smaller tournaments to run between now and next March, I'm hoping the new crew will learn quickly enough to fill the void. If that doesn't happen, then Plan B is that we may have to consider a lower ceiling on the size of the field. Plan C is to reconsider having both varsity and JV teams at the same event, which would also simplify the editing -- it's hard to find the right balance in degree of difficulty. But the dual-track field seems popular: Eleven of the fourteen Div. II teams we had at Trevor's Trivia were accompanying a varsity team from the same school.

I'll discuss all of the above with the UTC crew, and we'll defer any decisions till next semester. But if you have an opinion on any of the above, or any other suggestions, please feel free to share them in this forum or privately to me (SteinhiceC [at] comcast [dot] net).

P.S. About the only thing that I completely can refute is the part about me finishing reading last. I believe that only happened twice, and in both cases I also started last. On one occasion I went to room A, read the first nine tossups while we waited for a tardy reader, then went to room B, started from scratch, and still finished the round close behind the other rooms in the same division. Lord knows I love to digress, but in this case that wasn't the issue. Also, my lengthy digression before individual awards was partly intentional stalling to give Susan Dennis time to finish the stats -- only it turned out she didn't need that much stalling. Susan did an incredible job, especially for a large tournament with results trickling in sporadically from two different buildings.