Dennis Haskins Open@ UT-Chattanooga: tentative date & survey

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

UTC is strongly leaning toward Sat., March 3, 2012 as the date for our fifteenth annual Dennis Haskins Open High School Quizbowl in Chattanooga. If you are in the Southeast and know of any conflicts that weekend, or just want to suggest an alternate date, please contact me directly at steinhicec@comcast.net. Thanks.

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

March 3 is no longer an option for internal team reasons. We are now looking at March 31. Does anyone know of conflicts in the area for that date? Thanks.

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

There is still some room available in the Dennis Haskins Open High School Quizbowl at UTC next Saturday (3/31/12.) I'm mystfied by the absence of a full announcement that I remember posting, at the same time we distributed the info by e-mail. On the other hand, I've had computer issues recently. plus my typing skills (or lack thereof) have already led me to delete this message in progress twice already, and I have no idea what I did to cause it. Feel free to mock my technical skills.

In any event, there is a tournament at UTC on Sat. 3/31/12 and we still have room. I have copied below the e-mail text distributed 3/14. Please let us know at both this e-mail address and utcquizbowl@gmail.com if you are interested, or if you have any corrections to the information below.

One other note: For Division II (junior varsity), NAQT has graciously offered to let us use a middle school set, MS-02, instead of IS-113 (which will be used for Division I.)

Here is the field list as I have it so far. We are expecting 13-16 teams, with some other inquiries pending. All schools are from Tennessee unless noted otherwise.

Brindlee Mtn. (AL) 1 Div. I
Dade Co. (GA) 1 Div. I
Daniel Boone 2 (divisions unspecified)
East Paulding (GA) 1 (division unspecified)
Farragut 1-3 (divisions unspecified)
Gibbs 1 (division unspecified)
Hardin Valley 1 Div. I
Murray Co. (GA) 1 (division unspecified)
Oak Ridge I Div. 1
Ooltewah 1 (division unspecified)
West 2-3 (2 Div. I, ? 1 Div. II)

Original details from 3/14 e-mail:

As previously announced, the UTC Academic Trivia Association will host its 15th annual Dennis Haskins Open High School Quizbowl on Saturday, March, 31. We apologize for the delay in fleshing out the details – I’ll spare you the long explanation for the delay.

Before we get into logistics, there is one important note. If you were among the teams who were treated rudely by a particular moderator during the morning matches of last year’s Haskins, the offending official is no longer affiliated with the program and you can rest assured that you will be treated with respect by all tournament officials.

The field is open to high school and middle school teams, with up to 4 members per team (not counting alternates – see below.) We are tentatively capping the field at 32 teams. Division I (varsity) is open to teams with players from all grades. Division II (JV) is open to teams where all players are in grades 6-10. To ensure that you have space reserved, we recommend that you e-mail utcquizbowl@gmail.com, or call or text me at (423) 504-8255, at your earliest convenience with the number of teams your school expects to bring. Once the field is officially full, we will start a waiting list.

Also, if you plan to bring more than two teams from the same school, you are strongly encouraged to provide at least one experienced full-time official. This will allow us to expand the field to accommodate the extra teams while still allowing room for more schools.

QUESTION SOURCE: This will be an unofficial NAQT event, which has implications for qualifying for the 2012 HS NCT. As stated earlier, we will be using NAQT Invitational set IS-113. This set was also used for Jaguar Bowl in Athens, GA, on 3/3/2012. For understandable reasons, teams such as Norcross and Chattahoochee that attended Jaguar Bowl will not be eligible for this year’s Haskins; we apologize profusely for the inconvenience. (If you attended Jaguar Bowl and would like future freebies at UTC, please let me know – we would gladly accept additional readers or scorekeepers in return for substantial credits toward our 2012-2013 tournaments.)

FORMAT: This will be an untimed tournament with 20 tossups and bonuses per round, with no bounceback on bonuses. Other than the untimed aspect, we will follow NAQT rules (see http://www.naqt.com), including 15-point power tossups and -5 points for interrupts. 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 (varsity) only. Students in grades 6-10 are eligible to play in either Division I or Division II, although we strongly recommend that players in grades 6-8 play for Division II teams only. Separate trophies will be awarded for teams in Division II (teams composed entirely of players in grades 6 -10.)

SCHEDULE: Registration begins at 9 AM EDT on Sat. 3/31/2012, 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 the newly-renovated 129 Grote Hall on the UTC campus (see directions and link to map below), with matches in Grote, Holt, and possibly Brock Halls. 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 for the cleverest T-shirts seen at the tournament (as long as someone reminds me.)

FEES AND PAPERWORK: Tournament fees are as follows --
• Base fee: $80 per team (4 players can play at a time with up to 4 alternates; substitutions are allowed, but between rounds only.)
• $5 discount for each working lockout buzzer system, up to two systems per team (whether we use them or not.)

A tournament registration form is attached. 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: With changes on the downtown hotel scene, we don’t currently have any standing room discounts. If you are planning an overnight stay and would like some help, please contact us at utcquizbowl@gmail.com and we’ll see what we can arrange.

If you need more information, I can be reached on my cell phone (423-504-8255) or by e-mail at utcquizbowl@gmail.com . We hope to see you on March 31!

--- 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. Tournament HQ is Grote 129. Enter at the door by the glamorous dumpster.

Here’s a link to GoogleMaps. Use with caution – note that Baldwin St. was shortened decades ago and Vine St. is inaccurately marked as a through street.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=700+vine+st+chattanooga&sll=35.046546,-85.294654&sspn=0.010558,0.021307&ie=UTF8&ll=35.047969,-85.295749&spn=0.010558,0.021307&z=16

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

Congratulations to Oak Ridge and Farragut C, winners of the varsity and JV divisions (respectively) of the 15th annual Dennis Haskins Open High School Quizbowl, held at UT-Chattanooga on March 31, 2012.

Oak Ridge came back from a 95-point deficit early in the second half to defeat Farragut A in the championship match, with Webb taking third and M.L. King Magnet finishing fourth. Farragut C ran the table in a triple round robin to win the JV championship outright, with Lincoln Co. B edging out (Knoxville) West C for second. Oneida took fourth.

Rohen Nag of MLK Magnet School was the top scorer in the varsity division, while Farragut C's Lam Tran was MVP for the JV division. Full stats for JV, and stats for the varsity prelims, may be found on this forum at:

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/953/stats/varsity_prelims%2C_jv_all_games/

Varsity playoffs results were as follows:

QUARTERFINALS
Oak Ridge 350, Farragut B 160
MLK Magnet 305, Brindlee Mtn. 165
Farragut a 315, Lincoln Co. A 70
Webb 265, west A 175

SEMIFINALS
Oak Ridge 310, MLK Magnet 215
Farragut A 280, Webb 275

FINALS
Oak Ridge 310, Farragut A 215
(No, that's not a typo -- the score was identical to Oak Ridge's semifinal match.)

Thanks to all our volunteers, to NAQT, and to Dennis Haskins for sending mementos for the champions and all-stars. Most of all, thanks to the players and coaches who participated.