The Quizbowl Resource Center

by **Broad-tailed Grassbird** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:26 pm

Might as well get it started.

Tournaments:

MSU is going to run a middle school tournament through NAQT. Also, we're going to mirror something in the fall. We'll figure that sooner rather than later. Rube and March Madness will occur as usual. And as usual, no one has committed to NAQT states that I know of. Also, I hate the KMO Bowl tournament.

Michigan people probably have their usual things going on (Autumn Classic, in a time that is still technically autumn), whatever else they usually do.

Central maybe they'll do something? I'd assume DCC will host a tourney as well? Novi has a new coach, so who knows?

Teams (I remember nothing of who is returning):

DCC- B finished 8th at HSNCT, A finished 13th. Some guys are graduating, but not all. Those who are back will form what I predict to be the state champions. As usual, the pipeline is strong over there, and their B team will be top 5 in the state.

DCDS- Losing Neil was impossible, but DCDS showed that they were the perennially good program that we know they are. Won the inter-county league. Will challenge for the state championship

Novi- Coach Baker got a promotion. But he's no longer the quiz bowl coach. Novi is losing a lot, but committed players get better. Everyone thought Okemos was done for because their coach was leaving, but they were one of the top teams in the state this past year. Based on the finish at HSNCT, this was their best season ever. I think they'll finish 3rd in the city of Novi, but still be top 10. Top 5 or better is not out of the question.

Okemos- I think they return people? I guess that makes them the dark-horse, due to the bias towards Detroit Area teams.

Plymouth schools- Play tournaments, don't just play in a league.

Brighton- Hold a practice for crying out loud. And join the inter-county league. Even Howell is in that league.

Oh, and then there's all the other "usual suspects", especially in the Detroit area. I'd hope that schools outside Detroit, and Lansing continue to play more good quiz bowl. If you are out in West Michigan, or the Saginaw/Bay City/Midland area host a tournament!

by **Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:49 am

I'm working on getting a Midland Dow team active, and briefly talked to the adviser. Midland High was apparently a decent team this year (for the area), so perhaps I'll be able to get them to travel a bit too. I think I'll be able to get Dow to a few tournaments this year, but hosting something would probably take a bit longer.

by **DrCongo** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:20 am

I guess I'll give my two cents on our team. We lose 6 REALLY talented seniors this year, four of whom accounted for like 80% of our toss ups at NSC, but we return myself, Brandon Roach, Jimmy Haubert, Connor Gibney, Collin Parks, and Alex Morgan. Our A team should be strong but we right now have a glaring hole at RMP which we're working to cover. Our B team can still definitely finish in the top 5 in the state next year but I don't think at this point that we will go 1-2 like we did last year. There are some underclassmen who have been working pretty hard and it's showed in the summer practices I've been holding. Anyway, that's our team. I know a little bit about some other teams, but not enough for me to start ranking them.

Also, I have heard about a possible Country Day tournament written primarily by Sid and John at Country Day. We should have another house tournament this year, too.

by **DrCongo** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:15 pm

Also, does anybody have information about the circuits outside of Southeastern Michigan that we could post on that thread Dave Madden started?

by **Newsteinleo** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:58 pm

Next season is going to be very interesting:

1. DCC-A: They return a lot of people from the B team that got 8th at HSNCT and the A-team that finished 13th. Considering the program they have, they will only get better.
2. DCD- They return Siddhant and two others (I believe). Being as good as they were last year, they could challenge DCC for the championship, but I think DCC A still has a little edge.
3. Novi- Lost the entire A-team and a couple of people from the B-team from last year. We sent a lot of people to camp this summer, but is still a step below the top two.
4. Okemos- Not sure who returns, but I think they will do very well. Again also not a serious threat for the top spot, but can definitely be dangerous.
5. U of D- They return many people from last year, which was a great team. I think they can play very well. They seem to know random chunks of information that makes they somewhat unpredictable.

I think that spots 3-5 is going to very tight, and I don't know exactly what is going on in some of the other schools like Troy and GPN. However, I look forward to seeing how much each team has improved over the summer

by **Seram Friarbird** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 12:52 am

I don't have that much time for a couple weeks, but here's just a few thoughts:

We return Sid Chand (who wasn't at HSNCT), John, and myself. Hopefully we can find a fourth player to complement the rest of us, but I think we'll be better than this year. John and I are indeed working on a housewrite; not sure what the date would be as of right now.

DCC - Very impressive performances by both teams at Nationals this year; though they lose a lot of great players, they still return a lot of talent and will undoubtedly get much better throughout the year. The A team has to be the favorite right now, and their B team next year should be solid as well.
Novi - Although they lose a lot of players, they're always good year after year, and I could definitely see them in the top five.
Troy - I know that they had a couple of pretty solid freshmen this year, and return a few other people as well, so I'd put them pretty high up as well.

Like everyone else, I'm not really sure who's returning for Okemos, but they'll do well again. Also not sure about GPN either.

These were pretty rushed, so I probably forgot something important to say. Maybe later I'll post some more stuff.

by **Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:11 am

I was very impressed with how Utica improved over the year, and they should probably be in any top 5 discussion.

by **Ringil** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:48 pm

Troy returns their main 4 scorers next year. I'm not sure how much they'll improve, but some of their members have expressed an intention to study and get better.

by **Broad-tailed Grassbird** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:49 am

Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat wrote:I was very impressed with how Utica improved over the year, and they should probably be in any top 5 discussion.

Their coach is a former Henry Ford II player, they're going to be better every year.

I don't like this article though for obvious reasons: http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/201 ... 567649.txt

by **PennySalem** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 3:45 pm

Our new A team probably has a few holes to cover, and Novi is losing our coach, but there are some dedicated members on the team. To be honest, Novi"s performance might be pretty erratic.

DCC- Swept the subject tournaments at Acequizbowlcamp, so they should be all around powerful.
DCD- We found out last year that DCD had an amazing program, as their team quickly moved to challenge the Michigan teams last year. Who knows what they will bring this year with their A team largely intact.
GPN, Okemos, and more noticably now Troy should be pretty strong as well. I dont know who returns for the first two, but as a side note, even though Troy is returning its scoring players, the program has an issue with getting to tournaments.

by **ryandillon** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 12:09 pm

DCC is going to be pretty nasty this year. Bobby was one of our best (if not our best) players at HSNCT last year, and Roach was a huge contributor at both nationals as well.

by **Lion81** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:41 am

Overall, I think the battles at the top of tournaments are going to be much closer this year than last year (except for last year's states). This is what I think the best teams in qb will look like next year:

1 - CC A: They return enough talent from last year's A and B teams to make a team with potential to go even farther at nationals
2 - DCD: Almost the same team as last year, they should be very competitive against CC A and will likely be on the Top 20-25-in-the-nation border.
3 - Novi A: This is last year's B team minus a few people, but I think they will be significantly better than last year with some rising talent. I think they will be better than anyone is expecting.
4 - CC B: I would be stunned if CC B were not on the map this year, despite not knowing anyone that will be actually on this team. They could easily turn out to be the 3rd best team just because CC is always so deep, although I think that is as high as they can go this year.

After this I dont know enough about which teams return which players to make a reasonable guess, but Troy, Utica and Okemos should all be in the mix for the 5th spot. DCD is good enough to get a couple of wins against CC and games between them should all be intense.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:37 am

I was just wondering, do you guys at DCC plan on hosting anything in the fall this year? I know you hosted Fall Novice last year and had a housewrite the year before.
Also, Nalin, do you know if MSU still plans on mirroring anything, and if so, what? I guess I'll ask if Novi's still having a tournament this year. I assume Michigan's still having Autumn. I just want to make sure there's stuff going on ahead of time, because last year we only went to like three tournaments due to conflicts.

About our own housewrite, if it goes on at all, it'll probably be in the spring. We've written a bit of it, but John's pretty busy right now with college apps and other stuff, so I'm not sure what's going to happen with that. In any case, I'm almost sure we'll mirror something even if we decide to finish the housewrite.

by **Broad-tailed Grassbird** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:39 pm

xpmath wrote:I was just wondering, do you guys at DCC plan on hosting anything in the fall this year? I know you hosted Fall Novice last year and had a housewrite the year before.
Also, Nalin, do you know if MSU still plans on mirroring anything, and if so, what? I guess I'll ask if Novi's still having a tournament this year. I assume Michigan's still having Autumn. I just want to make sure there's stuff going on ahead of time, because last year we only went to like three tournaments due to conflicts.

About our own housewrite, if it goes on at all, it'll probably be in the spring. We've written a bit of it, but John's pretty busy right now with college apps and other stuff, so I'm not sure what's going to happen with that. In any case, I'm almost sure we'll mirror something even if we decide to finish the housewrite.

It's a probably at this point. Just trying to settle things organizationally with us running a middle school and college tournament this fall (as those are both October tournaments). If we do run one it'll be November 12th, and it'll be announced by September 5th at the latest (HFT or DAFT). I'll try and get some people to commit to things so we can speed this up and give you an answer before that.

If someone was planning a tournament in November, let me know.

I know Michigan is hosting Autumn on its traditional weekend (12/3).

And since I mentioned that tournament, does anyone have a preference between Harvard Fall Tournament or DAFT (or is anyone planning on heading to the main site for HFT?)?

by **Seram Friarbird** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:55 pm

Er, well, because I was being REALLY stupid and didn't think DAFT would actually get mirrored in Michigan and wanted to get as much writing experience as I could, I decided to write for DAFT so...

I'd feel really terrible if there wasn't a DAFT mirror in Michigan simply because I'm an idiot, so I'm going to try my hardest to get us to mirror it. To be honest though, that's probably not going to happen, so it's up to you to decide whatever you want to do. I wouldn't mind if you mirrored DAFT; we might still get a team to go, and I might staff or something.

by **Broad-tailed Grassbird** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:08 pm

xpmath wrote:Er, well, because I was being REALLY stupid and didn't think DAFT would actually get mirrored in Michigan and wanted to get as much writing experience as I could, I decided to write for DAFT so...

I'd feel really terrible if there wasn't a DAFT mirror in Michigan simply because I'm an idiot, so I'm going to try my hardest to get us to mirror it. To be honest though, that's probably not going to happen, so it's up to you to decide whatever you want to do. I wouldn't mind if you mirrored DAFT; we might still get a team to go, and I might staff or something.

The whole idea came up because of people writing DAFT within the state wanted it mirrored. Joe Nutter and Ryan Dillon specifically, IIRC.

by **AlphaRasmus** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:40 pm

As of our organizational meeting tonight, we're officially planning to mirror HFT on November 12. More details and a formal announcement are coming soon.

by **DrCongo** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:52 pm

I've heard that Novi isn't hosting their annual tournament mainly because of the absence of Coach Baker and I think our coach wants to host an NAQT tournament to make up for that loss. Also DCC wants to bring one team to HFT in Cambridge, MA, but that's not set in stone.

I noticed that there will be an ACE Camp in Ohio this summer. Hopefully the proximity to Michigan will encourage a lot more Michigan players to attend.

by **jjones** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:45 pm

DCC would like to push its Fall Novice tournament on October 22nd. We have 15 teams registered, but some of the usual suspects are missing. Registration will be open until Wednesday, October 19th. The announcement for this tournament can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12146&start=0

Good luck all teams with the season.

by **PennySalem** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 2:46 am

I talked to some Northville kids; they seem really good this year as well

by **DrCongo** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:01 pm

I think the stats from MSU's Harvard Fall Mirror show that there's more than a little work to do in making good quiz bowl more popular in Michigan and in making more teams better. Given the current discussions about expansion of quiz bowl on the forums, I got to thinking about what we could do to help change the current scene in Michigan and thought of something:

Over the summer I hosted practices almost every Wednesday for returning DCC players at a local bookstore, reading them questions with a buzzer borrowed from my coach. I was thinking of possibly opening this to people from any team and somehow expanding it. Of course, there are concerns like logistical problems and where we would get questions from (questions nobody has read) but if something like this could get off the ground, it might be a good step in helping foster good quiz bowl in Michigan and I'd love to have a part in organizing it. This could benefit a lot of people.

by **ryandillon** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:36 pm

DrCongo wrote:I think the stats from MSU's Harvard Fall Mirror show that there's more than a little work to do in making good quiz bowl more popular in Michigan and in making more teams better. Given the current discussions about expansion of quiz bowl on the forums, I got to thinking about what we could do to help change the current scene in Michigan and thought of something:

Over the summer I hosted practices almost every Wednesday for returning DCC players at a local bookstore, reading them questions with a buzzer borrowed from my coach. I was thinking of possibly opening this to people from any team and somehow expanding it. Of course, there are concerns like logistical problems and where we would get questions from (questions nobody has read) but if something like this could get off the ground, it might be a good step in helping foster good quiz bowl in Michigan and I'd love to have a part in organizing it. This could benefit a lot of people.

I'd help out with this in a heartbeat. I know that Bobby hosted these in Northville. I'd be willing to help out every week at the Northville site, or I could also form some sort of a "Downriver Practice League" for people in the Metro Detroit area during the summer if enough people were interested.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:11 am

I agree with everything that Bobby said, and I'm definitely up for helping spread legitimate quiz bowl in anyway possible. I think some of the main problems are that i) people think quiz bowl is just trivia with seemingly random answers that they've never heard of, ii) when people first see pyramidal questions, they can only answer maybe a couple tossups in a packet and immediately give up, and iii) they don't realize that to become a good team, you need to actually study, not just have questions read to you.

For example, during our second game against Brighton A on Saturday, one of their players asked me how I knew the stuff was coming up, and I find it really unfortunate that so many teams that are willing to drive out to so many tournaments just don't know that there are so many resources available. I believe that Mike Cheyne mentioned this a few months back, but I think a possible idea would be to come up with a guide explaining pyramidal quiz bowl, the canon, various ways to improve, and some resources. Tournament directors could then email this out to teams, many of which I'm sure would love to improve but just don't know how to.

by **DrCongo** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:15 am

xpmath wrote:For example, during our second game against Brighton A on Saturday, one of their players asked me how I knew the stuff was coming up, and I find it really unfortunate that so many teams that are willing to drive out to so many tournaments just don't know that there are so many resources available. I believe that Mike Cheyne mentioned this a few months back, but I think a possible idea would be to come up with a guide explaining pyramidal quiz bowl, the canon, various ways to improve, and some resources. Tournament directors could then email this out to teams, many of which I'm sure would love to improve but just don't know how to.

I think Dave Madden made something like this and passed it out to us at ACE Camp this summer. I'll go back and check. Maybe we could make our own, too. It can't hurt. Also maybe practices don't have to be practices; we could help show quiz bowlers good ways to study too

by **Broad-tailed Grassbird** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:19 am

DrCongo wrote:I think the stats from MSU's Harvard Fall Mirror show that there's more than a little work to do in making good quiz bowl more popular in Michigan and in making more teams better. Given the current discussions about expansion of quiz bowl on the forums, I got to thinking about what we could do to help change the current scene in Michigan and thought of something:

Over the summer I hosted practices almost every Wednesday for returning DCC players at a local bookstore, reading them questions with a buzzer borrowed from my coach. I was thinking of possibly opening this to people from any team and somehow expanding it. Of course, there are concerns like logistical problems and where we would get questions from (questions nobody has read) but if something like this could get off the ground, it might be a good step in helping foster good quiz bowl in Michigan and I'd love to have a part in organizing it. This could benefit a lot of people.

Stop pretending it's a crusade against bad quiz bowl. Take that crusade to Grand Rapids. There are very teams between Lansing and Detroit that are playing bad quiz bowl, as in I can't even name one. The issue here is the broadening gap between teams that practice, and teams that show up to tournaments. A team like Brighton doesn't practice, despite knowing full and well that if they want to do well they have to do that. When I was in HS, there was definitely a huge gap, but it wasn't a 20 PPB gap. Today's HS players on top teams are ridiculously good. I believe some kid on IMSA outbuzzed me on something within my major. That probably confirms that I am a 7 ppg player, but then again Bobby is probably going to play more tournaments between last year and this year than I have played in my entire life.

I don't really know how you improve the level of competition of a whole region. There are a lot of players out there like me who were trying to balance football practice, Science Olympiad, finishing the school newspaper, with most important of all school. You can focus on trying to get players more involved, but every school is different, so it's tough to say how does school X get consistently better unless their coach is actually putting the time and effort in.

by **DrCongo** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:36 am

I didn't mean it to be a crusade against "bad quiz bowl," just against bad quiz bowl teams and helping them to study and get better. I wasn't thinking about crusading against KMO or anything like that. I just worded my thoughts pretty badly. Atrociously, actually.

You're definitely right, Nalin, so maybe it's just a matter of what Sid suggested in making sure that coaches are aware of resources like the Torrey Pines database and the ACF database and etc. I still think that holding summer practices for interested players can be nothing but fun and helpful. Maybe the players who attend practices will learn ways of studying that they can show to their coaches, who will use that insight to help future players. Plus it's always cool to meet other quiz bowlers in your area and play together.

by **ryandillon** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:51 am

Pszczew wrote: There are a lot of players out there like me who were trying to balance football practice, Science Olympiad, finishing the school newspaper, with most important of all school. You can focus on trying to get players more involved, but every school is different, so it's tough to say how does school X get consistently better unless their coach is actually putting the time and effort in.

The kids who want to get better at quiz bowl will get better at quiz bowl. Every program has kids who are on the quiz bowl team for non-quiz bowl reason (resume boosting, hang out with friends on the team, something to do, etc.), but there are also kids who, if given the proper resources or motivation, would put in the time to get better. It seems to me that this "crusade" would be to get these high schoolers the motivation and resources that they need. I mean, if DCC didn't know about quizbowlpackets.com or the Torrey Pines database and only learned from the old NAQT packets we read at practice, as I'm sure many teams do, we probably wouldn't be as successful as we have been in the past. The majority of us were also fortunate enough to be able to attend ACE for three years during our careers. Also, most of us began playing in national tournaments as sophomores, which I don't think that the majority of high school players in Michigan are familiar with.

The bottom line is, there is definitely something to be said for exposure to good quiz bowl and good competition leading to success in quiz bowl, and if more kids were given these opportunities, I'm sure that the status of quiz bowl in Southeast Michigan would take leaps and bounds, as far as competition goes. I feel like hosting practices, where kids can play against each other, ask questions, study, or even just talk about quiz bowl, would provide great opportunities for kids who want to get better, but aren't given the opportunity to improve at their school practices.

Also, from my experience in high school, the majority of improvement that I made was made on my own time at home. I don't think that many kids realize that you can go home and really study because of the vastness of the canon and the lack of direction from their coaches. Even with the proper guidance, its difficult to delve into the canon on your own, and I think that kids' dependence on practices at school to get better is misplaced and inefficient. The exposure to high schoolers to the packet archives, or maybe a comprehensive guide to the canon as was suggested earlier, in an effort to give them a handle on what comes up and what doesn't is essential to the circuit's development as a whole.

by **nvraptor** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:24 pm

This is a rather old discussion, but I'd like to chime in with my own experiences.

Northville is a school that doesn't go to any extra tournaments or invitationals, and our "practices" consist of a once-a-week, hour-long session where the coach reads non-pyramidal questions out of a twenty-year-old trivia book. It's no surprise that we haven't been a presence in the Michigan quiz bowl scene at all. That being said, our team this year is doing fantastic. Since freshman year we've been self-motivated to study for quiz bowl and do practice questions without the help of our program.

I think that part of the problem stems from the program in question. Traditionally rigorous quiz bowl programs will generally produce players that are more motivated to do well, and they end up doing the extra work on their own. On the flip side, lax programs tend not to have many motivated players. Even after presenting many of the resources available for quiz bowl (quizbowlpackets.com, Torrey Pines database) to the freshman at Northville, none of them seem to take any interest because it's treated as more of a recreational activity that requires little dedication than a competitive "sport." I guess what I mean to say is that bringing awareness to quiz bowl resources can help a little bit in improving the general skill level of teams, but it will only go so far. The players who really want to do well will already have motivated themselves.

On a separate note, it was great to be able to compete at Rube this year (Northville went under the alias 'Central', because we registered without affiliation to our high school). It marked our first big tournament as a varsity team, and it really was incredible to see the level of competition that Michigan has to offer.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:52 pm

nvraptor wrote:Even after presenting many of the resources available for quiz bowl (quizbowlpackets.com, Torrey Pines database) to the freshman at Northville, none of them seem to take any interest because it's treated as more of a recreational activity that requires little dedication than a competitive "sport." I guess what I mean to say is that bringing awareness to quiz bowl resources can help a little bit in improving the general skill level of teams, but it will only go so far. The players who really want to do well will already have motivated themselves.

I actually identify with a lot of what Patrick said, and agree completely with the quoted part. Thankfully, we're actually able to attend tournaments, but due to silly school requirements, our official "practices" occur during club periods for fifty minutes mostly every Tuesday, where everyone in quiz bowl sits in a room and answers questions, generally from A sets from a few years back - this is still an improvement over last year, where most practices were on things like Avery questions. Like Patrick, I've found that the majority of our players treat quiz bowl as a casual activity and don't bother studying; unfortunately, I'm guessing this is the norm in most schools, especially in Michigan. The majority of schools simply go to tournaments, occasionally have a highly motivated player(s) emerge for a few years, but then slip back into relative mediocrity. In my mind, this makes what Mr. Jones has done at DCC, i.e. building multiple teams that are competent nationally every year, incredibly impressive and noteworthy. On that note, this is a really interesting and fairly relevant thread, with regards to teams being consistently good.

Aside from this, although I wasn't able to play you all yesterday, I definitely hope you're able to go to the tournaments we have left this year, whether affiliated with your school or not, and hopefully we end up playing at some point!

by **DrCongo** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:11 pm

xpmath wrote:In my mind, this makes what Mr. Jones has done at DCC, i.e. building multiple teams that are competent nationally every year, incredibly impressive and noteworthy.

In my mind, the two keys to maintaining a program and attracting interest are:

1) An administration willing to pump money annually into your program
2) A coach dedicated to challenging your team and taking your team to as many tournaments as possible

With the current belt-tightening in the public school system, it's increasingly hard to get the first key consistently, and I guess the second key I listed is just luck of the draw. We're lucky to have three teachers at CC who are dedicated to our program and to have a dedicated administration. It leaves it increasingly up to the students to recruit and motivate younger students but also I believe it puts more pressure on in-state college quiz bowl teams to do whatever they can to help schools. We're lucky U of M and MSU both host a good amount of tournaments each year, although I think more mirrors of house writes (of Michigan-appropriate difficulty, like LIST) would be beneficial to Michigan high school quiz bowl.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:18 pm

DrCongo wrote:We're lucky U of M and MSU both host a good amount of tournaments each year, although I think more mirrors of house writes (of Michigan-appropriate difficulty, like LIST) would be beneficial to Michigan high school quiz bowl.

Everything about this sentence is true, and yeah, good quiz bowl might be almost nonexistent in Michigan if it weren't for U of M and MSU. And on the LIST note, we ARE hosting a mirror of LIST, although the exact date is still being figured out. We were planning for March 17th, but that turns out to be Science Olympiad, which wouldn't work out; we're looking at March 31st as a possible date, but nothing's certain as of right now.

by **jgalea84** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:34 pm

Attitude is everything. At both DCC and Olmsted Falls, we've treated quiz bowl as seriously as a sport or the band--you have to show up, you have to do work, or you won't succeed. Ideally, the players challenge one another and the coaches just guide the internal competitiveness and desire to succeed. It is impressive that Mr. Jones has managed to field such a deep program, but such success is possible for any school that wishes to put the effort in. It's not even about money per se--a lot of the better programs don't spend a bunch. Traveling is certainly the best way to get better, but fortunately Michigan offers plenty of good quiz bowl (for instance, you'd be hard-pressed to find non-TU/B tournaments, which is not true of Ohio) and good teams to compete against. So at that point it becomes about effort and attitude. Mr Jones has done a great job building up the depth at CC, but it's working off a formula that's existed for years, both at CC and other top programs nationally.

If you're at a program and you want to see positive changes, talk to your coaches. Let them know your passion. If you have access to quizbowlpackets.com, and your coach is reading you Patrick's Press questions from 1994, then by all means, print out an old Prison Bowl or PACE set and have your coach read it to you. Sometimes I have to let Mrs Smith know it's ok to press our kids a little harder, and it's easier to make that case when they show her their competitive fire. And you can get a lot better in a short time--I've seen teams take huge strides from one season to the next.

The most valuable quiz bowl resource is time--you have to be willing to expend it to get better.

by **Madagascar Serpent Eagle** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:00 am

xpmath wrote:
DrCongo wrote:We're lucky U of M and MSU both host a good amount of tournaments each year, although I think more mirrors of house writes (of Michigan-appropriate difficulty, like LIST) would be beneficial to Michigan high school quiz bowl.

Everything about this sentence is true, and yeah, good quiz bowl might be almost nonexistent in Michigan if it weren't for U of M and MSU. And on the LIST note, we ARE hosting a mirror of LIST, although the exact date is still being figured out. We were planning for March 17th, but that turns out to be Science Olympiad, which wouldn't work out; we're looking at March 31st as a possible date, but nothing's certain as of right now.

As a side note, March 31 is ICT, so I'm not sure how you are for staff, but if you think you might need any outside help, I don't think anyone here or at UM will be around then.

by **DrCongo** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:18 am

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think March 31st is also the weekend of History Bowl for Michigan.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:27 am

DrCongo wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think March 31st is also the weekend of History Bowl for Michigan.

So I didn't know we even had a History Bowl site in Michigan...yeah going to have to go work on another date then I guess. Sorry.
The thing is, March 10th is supposedly a test date and the day of DCC's middle school tournament, which I assume they'll be staffing, March 17th is Science Olympiad as mentioned, March 24th is March Madness, April 14th is NAQT States, and my coach doesn't want us to do anything before those, I believe. April 7th is the end of our spring break, so I'm not sure how many people we'll have available to staff. I don't know how many teams would want to play things after NAQT States, but we could see. Also that stupid KMO style tournament whose name I can't remember is probably going to take up a date as well.
I'll go check stuff with our coach when I can and find out what our options are.

EDIT: Added stuff.

by **Broad-tailed Grassbird** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:30 am

xpmath wrote:
DrCongo wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think March 31st is also the weekend of History Bowl for Michigan.

So I didn't know we even had a History Bowl site in Michigan...yeah going to have to go work on another date then I guess. Sorry.
The thing is, March 10th is supposedly a test date and the day of DCC's middle school tournament, which I assume they'll be staffing, March 17th is Science Olympiad as mentioned, March 24th is March Madness, April 14th is NAQT States, and my coach doesn't want us to do anything before those, I believe. April 7th is the end of our spring break, so I'm not sure how many people we'll have available to staff. I don't know how many teams would want to play things after NAQT States, but we could see. Also that stupid KMO style tournament whose name I can't remember is probably going to take up a date as well.
I'll go check stuff with our coach when I can and find out what our options are.

EDIT: Added stuff.

Crap States (downgraded from Bad States) is the April 21st. History Bowl is the 31st. Hartland is apparently using the last NAQT set on March 3rd, but no one has heard from them that I know of.

by **Yeah, that's a thing** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:01 am

I'm interested to see how Northville progresses, they had a solid Rube performance.

by **RealMadrid314** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 8:19 pm

Ya they were a pleasant surprise at that tournament.

by **RealMadrid314** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 8:42 pm

Connor, do you know if they are ranked at all?

by **RealMadrid314** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 8:48 pm

hopefully Michigan quizbowl will become more competitive nationally over the coming seasons

by **jjones** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:15 pm

Detroit Catholic Central in Novi is hosting History Bowl and History Bee tournaments on Saturday, March 31 at its campus at 27225 Wixom Road, Novi, MI 48374. These are the only tournaments in Michigan this year, so this would the best opportunity for Michigan teams to experience these great new tournaments.

History Bowl is a team competition much like your regular quiz bowl competition where teams of four compete against other teams. You can get more information about the format of this tournament at http://www.historybowl.com.

History Bee is an individual competition, so even if you can't bring your team, maybe some of your students would be interested in competing individually! You can get more information about the format of this individual competition at http://www.historybee.com/.

Both the Bowl and Bee will consist of a varsity division and a junior varsity division.

Field size is limited to a total of 48 teams. All teams will be guaranteed five preliminary matches. The Registration Fee for the Bowl is $50 per team, with a discount of $5 available if you bring a buzzer system. You can register online for either the History Bowl, History Bee or both at the following website: http://www.historybowl.com/registration/.

The top teams and individuals will qualify for the National Championships in Washington, DC on Saturday, April 28, 2012.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

by **Weighted Companion Cube** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:21 pm

xpmath wrote:
DrCongo wrote:We're lucky U of M and MSU both host a good amount of tournaments each year, although I think more mirrors of house writes (of Michigan-appropriate difficulty, like LIST) would be beneficial to Michigan high school quiz bowl.

Everything about this sentence is true, and yeah, good quiz bowl might be almost nonexistent in Michigan if it weren't for U of M and MSU. And on the LIST note, we ARE hosting a mirror of LIST, although the exact date is still being figured out. We were planning for March 17th, but that turns out to be Science Olympiad, which wouldn't work out; we're looking at March 31st as a possible date, but nothing's certain as of right now.

If you still want to mirror it, it seems that feb 25 is open, I don't see anything else going on.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:26 pm

Actually I think we decided that there wasn't a good date this year; next year we'll be sure to pick something in advance.

by **Weighted Companion Cube** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:39 pm

xpmath wrote:Actually I think we decided that there wasn't a good date this year; next year we'll be sure to pick something in advance.

This is a post from someone who is very disappointed

by **DrCongo** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:45 pm

Hartland tournament results!

Detroit Catholic Central A beat Detroit Country Day A in the finals with the score being something like 505-240. Detroit Catholic Central B beat Utica Academy A in the third place game.

DCC A and B finished first and second respectively in the Junior Varsity division.

The varsity tournament was run on an NAQT packet (not sure which one) and the JV and novice tournaments were run on the traditional Hartland set of questions.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:27 pm

DrCongo wrote:The varsity tournament was run on an NAQT packet (not sure which one) and the JV and novice tournaments were run on the traditional Hartland set of questions.

IS 109 I believe. Also haha I think the first tournament I ever played was Hartland novice two years ago...I seem to recall a lot of Harry Potter questions.

by **bt_green_warbler** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 12:32 am

xpmath wrote:
DrCongo wrote:The varsity tournament was run on an NAQT packet (not sure which one)

IS 109 I believe.

This is correct.

by **Madagascar Serpent Eagle** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:54 pm

Have any HSAPQ sets been mirrored in Michigan this year? I'm not aware of any, but there could have been a tournament or two on them that I missed.

by **Seram Friarbird** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 5:02 pm

I don't believe so. Tournaments in Michigan seem to predominantly use NAQT, which is why I was so happy when MSU mirrored HFT, although it turned out to be too difficult.

by **Weighted Companion Cube** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:03 pm

Plan Rubber wrote:Have any HSAPQ sets been mirrored in Michigan this year? I'm not aware of any, but there could have been a tournament or two on them that I missed.

A few players at DCC have considered approaching our coach about hosting one, nothing official yet.

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