Tennessee '14-'15

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Tennessee '14-'15

Post by cchiego »

At the state level, Farragut should romp through the state next year with the 1-2 punch of Kai and Daniel plus whomever else steps up in the 3rd and 4th slots. Ezell will fall off (though I suspect they'll be rebuilding) after a dream season this year (the best season a TN team has had since the old Riverdale team days over a decade ago). I'm not sure what's going on at Hume Fogg, USN, or Oak Ridge, but all definitely have the talent pool to draw on to get good.

With plenty of firepower returning, I expect Germantown to become the top team in West TN next year. Houston, MUS, and White Station (maybe Bolton too?) should all be right behind though. I will do whatever I can to help the coaches in this area host good QB tournaments next year, but I do not know who will step up to host. I know Itawamba wants to host a big tournament, so that might be an interesting way to get TN/MS/AL teams all in one location.

There still needs to be more cross-regional travel within TN and more of an effort to get into the pockets of bad/no QB in the state like the NW and the far East. Once again, a strong federation of regional bodies seems like the way to go rather than one Nashville-based conglomeration.
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Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Post by gimmedatguudsuccrose »

With the season over (except for NASAT this weekend), I'll follow Chris's lead and state my predictions for quizbowl in TN next year.

These teams are the order of how readily I could recall information about them and NOT ranked based on skill.

Farragut: We only graduate 2 seniors: Akshay Soni, with his deep math and science knowledge, and Lam Tran, who could not make it to either national this year. However, our core remains. As the leading generalist, I will contribute the bulk of our team's music, literature, and science knowledge. Daniel, the current JV History Bowl National Champion, has incredible depth in three areas: History, Christianity, and Visual Arts. Ani has great knowledge of all things Indian and, if he studies, could our team's top scorer. The position of fourth scorer will most likely go to Yongyu, Jimmy, or Ronik, all of whom are motivated rising juniors who did not neg a single time at HSNCT.

Ezell-Harding: Although they graduate TN's top player in 2014, Griffin, they still maintain a great deal of scoring with Aric, Austin, and Jonathan. All three have improved tremendously over the years and have played together as a team before and have crushed the competition. Expect them to win many of the regular season events and do well at HSNCT.

Oak Ridge: The team finished t33 at 2013 HSNCT and 23rd at 2014 PACE is no more with the graduation of William, Gaibo, and Aram. Their team next year will most likely consist of Albert Xue, Tina Wang, and whoever else they can find. Albert and Tina are both much more interested in science bowl as opposed to quizbowl, so no one knows how many regular season tournaments they will attend.

Hume-Fogg: Although they graduate their top scorer Pavel, they retain the rising sophomore Aditya Srivastava, who did quite well at HSNCT. 2014's State champs will most likely continue to improve. The previous year, they graduated their top scorer Abhi but managed to bounce back and do even better in 2014, and they may do the same this year.

Germantown: This is a team to watch out for. Under Chris Chiego's instruction, Germantown went from 11 PPB on IS128 in the fall to 13 PPB at HSNCT. At HSNCT, both their A and B teams went 5-5, indicating that they have depth and a lot of room to grow. Their top scorer at HSNCT, Apurva, was also one of the Sophomore Rising Stars of the tournament (at least, I remember from the awards ceremony that she was: NAQT has yet to post the tournament write-up). With practice, they could become the best team in West Tennessee.

Now for some teams that are good, but I know little about.

White Station: 5-5 at HSNCT this year, but they graduate their top scorer Zach and maybe some of their other players. However, they always seem to bring quite a few teams to tournaments, so this year could be a rebuilding year as they pull some players from their lower ranks onto their A team.

Central Magnet: t19 at this years MSNCT, Central Magnet is both a middle and a high school. Shawn Zheng, one of their top players, has shown that he is willing to study and improve. If they can make the transition to high school quizbowl, they could make the playoffs at this years HSNCT.

USN: They graduate their entire A-team, but they had 2 teams that got ~14 PPB on IS132 at the Vanderbilt ABC, so they could work their way up, although it seems that the days of Mark Arildsen are not coming back anytime soon.

There are many other great teams in TN, but unfortunately I do not know much about them (ie Memphis University School, Oliver Springs and many others that I have forgotten). Although there is a lot of quizbowl, much of it is done with very sketchyformats. In East TN, the PBS Scholar's Bowl Competition hosts almost 50 teams in a competition with questions sure to make :chip: proud. However, there were exactly 3 pyramidal quizbowl events during that time: the Dennis Haskins Invitational at UTC, the Bobcat Challenge at Oliver Springs, and the Regional History Bowl tournament in Anderson County (notably on the same day as the state tournament). In middle TN, Vanderbilt has done a good job hosting multiple tournaments, and Ezell-Harding also hosts their annual invitational that draws the most out-of-state teams every fall. In west TN, Chris Chiego has done a superb job of promoting good quizbowl by hosting multiple tournaments and spreading the word to many of the surrounding schools.

TACA, the state quizbowl association, also seems to make the TN circuit smaller. Their modus operandi involves no keeping of statistics, 'worksheets,' and bonuses for only half of the match. As a result, many schools who participate in the state tournament are unwilling to branch out and try more standard formats (20/20, etc etc). I hold the opinion that if TACA were to change to the standard 20/20 and keep statistics at tournaments, other tournaments and events in TN would begin to follow suit, and hopefully the circuit would expand and become more active and less isolated. However, I am in the minority with this view, and TACA steadfastly refuses to change, so in all probability nothing will change.

Even so, 2014 was perhaps one of the best years in TN quizbowl history, as Ezell-Harding went t8 at HSNCT and Farragut got 8th at PACE. Hopefully, we will do as well at NASAT!
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Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Post by johntait1 »

cchiego wrote:At the state level, Farragut should romp through the state next year with the 1-2 punch of Kai and Daniel plus whomever else steps up in the 3rd and 4th slots. Ezell will fall off (though I suspect they'll be rebuilding) after a dream season this year (the best season a TN team has had since the old Riverdale team days over a decade ago). I'm not sure what's going on at Hume Fogg, USN, or Oak Ridge, but all definitely have the talent pool to draw on to get good.

With plenty of firepower returning, I expect Germantown to become the top team in West TN next year. Houston, MUS, and White Station (maybe Bolton too?) should all be right behind though. I will do whatever I can to help the coaches in this area host good QB tournaments next year, but I do not know who will step up to host. I know Itawamba wants to host a big tournament, so that might be an interesting way to get TN/MS/AL teams all in one location.

There still needs to be more cross-regional travel within TN and more of an effort to get into the pockets of bad/no QB in the state like the NW and the far East. Once again, a strong federation of regional bodies seems like the way to go rather than one Nashville-based conglomeration.
Farragut also has Ani, who is a senior next year and put up 24.44 ppg at PACE with 13 powers and 18 tossups. He was a huge reason why we somehow managed to sneak into the superplayoffs at PACE. Fourth scorer will probably be Yongyu, who put up 15.24 PP20 with 7 powers and 10 tossups at HSNCT. He's really good; he puts up more than me when we played JV this year, but he overlaps a lot with Kai so playing together he doesn't get as much questions. We should be pretty solid all around, with specialties in Music, Christianity, and Indian stuff. Our main weakness will probably be science, it'll be up to Kai to try to fill it.
Ezell should still be pretty good with the Cunningham twins, but losing Griffin(arguably the best player in Tennessee) will definitely hurt a lot.
USN also loses very good players in Jesse and Case(don't know much about their other players), so they'll probably have to do a bit of rebuilding as well. With the Griffin and the top USN players gone, History Bowl should be really wide open as USN and Ezell have pretty much dominated History Bowl the past few years. Should be interesting to see how new players step up.
Oak Ridge loses their top three players so they'll definitely need to do some major rebuilding. I don't really know much about West Tennessee.
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Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Post by TSIAJ »

Regarding Central's 2014-2015 crew, I'm not entirely sure of our A and B team divisions yet.
However, I speculate the A team will be led largely by Kory Cooke, who is a very good literature player, along with Chase Scott, our main history and geography scorer.

Brenden Ni, who in my observations during my only practice with the high school team, is a decent science player and is worthy of being mentioned as a contender for a spot on the A team. At this point, I really can't give an accurate representation of the team members, but I suspect that the rest of the A team will be a tossup between rising freshmen including myself, being the music, art, literature (overlaps quite a bit with Kory), and Asian history specialist, and Morgan Elrod-Erickson, who is improving at a fantastic rate and is a decent specialist in mythology and some basic science. For the B team, I predict we'll have John, Pranav, Elizabeth, and Craig(in no specific order), most likely, as a very decent all-around team.

I'm entirely clueless about our present middle school team, but if they commit and study hard this summer and next year, they could do extremely well for an entirely new team.

To wrap it up, I'd like to express that this is entirely speculative and may turn out to be entirely wrong because our team order will be based on stats.

Edit: spelling
Last edited by TSIAJ on Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:38 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Post by Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin »

--Long post ahead--
Congratulations to Kai, Griffin, Jesse, Aram, and Akshay for placing 10th at NASAT! The only predictions I have are that Ezell-Harding will control the Middle TN area, Farragut will beat Ezell (at any level), and that the NASAT team will improve from this year's finish.

I'm happy with 13 NAQT (not counting Rotary and JROTC, which are restricted), 4 mACF/HSAPQ, and 3 History Bowl tournaments this year, which is way more than last year, even though there was unequal coverage by region. West TN also showed no signs of converting to good quizbowl, as more anti-pyramidal than pyramidal tournaments are held there. We hosts got some old and new teams in the circuit. I'll be cold calling some old and new coaches in August to encourage them to participate more. And although we weren't (I wasn't) able to salvage stats from Ezell, Portland, Webb, Lincoln County, or TACA, I think we can train volunteers to do those things next year.

Next year, I'd like to see increased high school hosting continue. White Station (x2-3), Bolton (maybe), Germantown (x2), Ezell-Harding, Portland, USN (possible), Central Magnet, Farragut (maybe), Vanderbilt (x2-4), Tennessee Tech (not TACA- what will likely be a collegiate program founded by Chuck Pearson), History Bowl hosts (x3), and Oliver Springs will host on pyramidal. While directing History Bowl, I talked to Anderson County about hosting on NAQT, so they might use an A-set next year (I'm not sure whether they are going to host NHBB again, as they had unrealistic expectations about the turnout and lost money). That should help East Tennessee, even if it has low attendance. Unfortunately, UTC might not host anymore since Charlie has retired or something, so someone should host in Chattanooga. Red Bank hosted on NAQT (JROTC) this year, so I'll contact them as well as McCallie, Baylor, and CSAS. Other teams that play well regularly but don't host (Oak Ridge, McCallie, and Hume-Fogg: I'm looking at you), do it! There are lots of sets to be mirrored and lots of money to be made. Chuck Pearson and I are also slowly building a collegiate circuit. I've found ~15 former HS players at UTK, and after they start a student organization, they should be able to host a HS tournament (maybe the year after next).

Now for the usual complaints: I think some of the same problems around for half a decade are still in place, including:
Communications (of the State tournament and some other tournaments, of team coaches and hosts of non-traditional events that deliberately avoid giving contacts or results to "outsiders", of TDs to teams that show up to one of their tournaments once and quit, of team coaches and tournament directors who refuse to respond to emails or phone calls)
Outreach (of TACA to new and rejoining teams, of TDs to their one-time teams and teams in general, all of Chris's posts upthread) and
Format (of ~40 minute modified-NAQT rounds x8 at an inconveniently 2-day State ("tradition") because of moderators that don't know the rules or cannot read packets in time or control talkative teams, of using non-pyramidal housewritten (!) questions lacking a distribution at USN's tournament, of cutting prelim rounds to 15/15 to "save time" instead of training moderators well, of not keeping statistics (or not posting them when your moderators have obviously kept them) or distributing question sets and not understanding how much those numbers, and the packets from sets can help teams improve)

Note 1: USN won't write their own questions next year, which is a good thing. Their decision to write a tournament without real outside help is not entirely their fault- they simply saw it as a microcosm of what goes on in most highly insular state tournaments every year, and that's the real problem.
Note 2: I've read the previous format threads, but I still think the one-clue worksheet rounds from 6-8 tournaments across the state are suboptimal and not well-written. Some things on there are too hard for HS difficulty (even IS-1X6 difficulty), and the distribution of these worksheet rounds invariably favors general knowledge and not any distribution (don't have any with me right now to prove this, and current players just throw them out because they're virtually useless). Even Ezell's tournament doesn't use worksheets. Yes, dozens of experienced and new players are griping about worksheets, even if that means they don't score as many points as they would have!
Note 3: I don't have any proof of this, but I think that State does not actually crown the best team in the state: Ezell-Harding and probably Farragut would beat Hume-Fogg at any 20/20 event, and that the 10/0, 15q worksheet, 10/10 format contributes to these results (it's like taking out a quarter of a packet and giving half of those points to both teams). In fact, Farragut beat Hume-Fogg at Dennis Haskins with higher PPB and PPG, and Ezell performed better than Hume-Fogg at HSNCT. Also, both H-F and Ezell were playing their full lineups at State..and at WNAB, where Ezell beat H-F on a modified IS-A set. In the past, worse teams have beaten better teams (MLK v. H-F 2012, Farragut v. H-F 2014), not only due to strength, but also due to tournament and round formats, and so this observation is more of a trend than one match.

Why doesn't State just have an 8 team round robin, followed by top 4/bottom 4 split round robin for 10 games in 10 rounds of 20 tossups and 20 bonuses outlined on the ACF website? They have 14 packets, and they only use 8 of them, still splitting things over two days because of their moderators and tradition! The State tournament also forbids B/C teams in the interest of making things "fairer". What other NAQT State Championship would ever do some or all of the above things, which have limited TACA's own growth and revenue for years?

Having one tournament a year with a non-regular format is fine, but not 6-8 (excluding NHBB). These happen to be the exact few most teams play (have played, will play) and expect to improve enough at to do well on IS-1X6, which is the state set, and they are hardly representative of regular-format tournaments in the rest of the quizbowl circuit, which is why every single TN-format only/majority TN-format team suffers at HSNCT!

There is no lower bracket at most TN tournaments, and most offer 5 prelim rounds for the same price that ABC offers 10 guaranteed rounds for! Hosts should consider giving teams more rounds in general and more against similar-caliber teams...and quitting these dumb single-elimination rules apparently in some old coaches' handbook (which also forbids teams with less than four players).

I haven't had much success converting the ~10 schools with lots of raw talent that play both good and bad to switch to only good quizbowl. The week before ABC, I learned of the annual "Upper Cumberland Regional" near Cookeville that ~20-30 good- and bad-playing quizbowl teams had been attending...and it was scheduled the day of ABC (multiple times). Since that non-pyramidal tournament gives teams "very good treatment", it's no surprise that some coaches still prefer bad to good quizbowl. In fact, some teams (in the past) still chose the non-NAQT TV tournament to go to over ABC when they knew good and well that Quizbusters hosts were very date-flexible. Morristown-Hamblen West went to NAC Nationals this year even after their players told me they enjoyed ABC, which sadly shows that most of Tennessee is, and has always been, in a state of flux.

This has created stark differences in performances for the past 5-8 years, where a few coaches go to both good and poorly formatted tournaments, while most (~30 other coaches) attend the poorly-formatted (see:above) and very predictable ones, practice on their older (read, too difficult-1990-2000) IS sets that aren't too helpful, and feel resigned to the same placement with respect to other teams. Preparing for things like lightning or worksheet rounds and "double-or-nothing" rounds steals time during practices, and many students/coaches believe quizbowl is a fact-association game and that good players have eidetic memories based on what many teams do in practice. Some teachers hope that rivalry will make their kids do better but still have no idea how, and this forms a vicious cycle of low motivation and bad performances that has remained unbroken for five years for some teams.

Players and coaches have told me that they enjoyed and learned more from ABC much more than, Webb's or Ezell's tournaments, or even State. That should not be the case: they should enjoy and learn from all NAQT tournaments equally and play regular format more often than they play "Tennessee format".

It's not TACA's job or my job to coach HS teams, but it is our job to make sure that kids play the most and the most competitive and enjoyable environments possible by providing as many real tournaments and resources for improvement as possible. This is where we have a great opportunity to work together to make a positive difference, Tracy, and I hope we can both capitalize on it.
There still needs to be more cross-regional travel within TN and more of an effort to get into the pockets of bad/no QB in the state like the NW and the far East. Once again, a strong federation of regional bodies seems like the way to go rather than one Nashville-based conglomeration.
Chris has posted this twice, but I think the need for HSAPQ's state series or something similar needs to be emphasized again. TACA does not currently encourage competition the way it should, and it didn't even post the dates of Vanderbilt's two or Germantown's three tournaments on its website last year. About five Nashville-area coaches were surprised when I told them that we host, not because they were aloof from the (poorly formatted, age-old) circuit, but because nobody ever told them before I started vigorously emailing and visiting coaches to try and get this circuit going! So, HSAPQ's state series and the associated outreach would help create the kind of regular, self-improving circuit that could've emerged years ago. It would have legitimacy to coaches and players. I know HSAPQ doesn't usually interfere in states with established NAQT championships, but this state seems like an exception because of geography and State's horrible logistics, and I believe the two (State and the state series) can coexist by taking different dates. Also, Quizbusters tapings can end in March or April but are flexible, and I would work with Vanderbilt's club and HS clubs to make sure nothing interfered with either state tournament.

On that note, Chris, we're going to miss you, and I'm glad Germantown will play and host in the future. I will have more time to do quizbowl-related stuff next year, but I don't think anything I can do will totally compensate for your moderating and hosting abilities.
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Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Post by yeah viv talk nah »

Is the TN '14-'15 thread going to be up anytime soon? It'd probably be better to discuss predictions and such on a new thread.

Split; in general, feel free to go ahead and create new threads in this kind of case --Mgmt.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by OliverSpringsQuizBowl »

FYI...

Charlie has not retired. UTC didn't host Haskins this year because Charlie couldn't find a question vendor. Yes, I'm sure there might have been something out there, but unfortunately he ran out of time and couldn't pull everything together. Charlie essentially has an upper-middle management position with BCBS of TN, and he works insane hours. He doesn't have as much time to devote to the team. That being said, UTC should be back on the schedule, and the Pied-Piper of Quizbowl will welcome all comers.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by OliverSpringsQuizBowl »

Well... it looks like I was wrong...

If I did things right, you just received an e-mail announcement for UTC’s NAQT HS NCT summer mirror on 7/26/14. If you didn’t get it, it’s also posted on the quizbowl forum, or I can forward a copy.

At that tournament, I plan to announce my official retirement as coach of UTC ATA. As you must have noticed in the last two years, I have been able to devote very little time to this cause that I still hold dear. Part of this is due to expanded work duties, and part of it is due to diminished ability to burn the candle at three different ends. I’d like to think I outlasted any reasonable expectations, and I hope you will not be disappointed by this inevitable decision.

After the mirror, I would like to hold a discussion of the future of the UTC quizbowl program. Taking Dave Leach’s line, let’s call it the 3rd Council of Provino’s. If you are interested in participating, and especially if you are willing to be part of the solution, please join us. If I have overlooked anyone, please forward as appropriate.

Ironically, the one part of my former duties that I think I can still fulfill is being a Tournament Director on the day of the tournament…. provided that someone else has handled the announcements and pre-tournament arrangements, and someone else handles the aftermath. It would be great if we could find a solution that makes this possible without overburdening any individual. But the more important issue is how we rebuild the UTC program itself.

FYI, if UTC ATA continues, there is a provision in the by-laws that allows the team to choose its own coach, as well as assistant coaches and business manager if they so desire. There is also a tiny provision I wrote years ago in anticipation of the present situation, allowing the organization to designate a coach emeritus; I will humbly ask for that designation.

Thanks for your part in 17 years of one of the greatest experiences in my life.


-- Charlie


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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by johntait1 »

Interesting...Problem is most of my teammates played at HSNCT.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by TSIAJ »

OliverSpringsQuizBowl wrote:Well... it looks like I was wrong...

If I did things right, you just received an e-mail announcement for UTC’s NAQT HS NCT summer mirror on 7/26/14. If you didn’t get it, it’s also posted on the quizbowl forum, or I can forward a copy.

At that tournament, I plan to announce my official retirement as coach of UTC ATA. As you must have noticed in the last two years, I have been able to devote very little time to this cause that I still hold dear. Part of this is due to expanded work duties, and part of it is due to diminished ability to burn the candle at three different ends. I’d like to think I outlasted any reasonable expectations, and I hope you will not be disappointed by this inevitable decision.

After the mirror, I would like to hold a discussion of the future of the UTC quizbowl program. Taking Dave Leach’s line, let’s call it the 3rd Council of Provino’s. If you are interested in participating, and especially if you are willing to be part of the solution, please join us. If I have overlooked anyone, please forward as appropriate.

Ironically, the one part of my former duties that I think I can still fulfill is being a Tournament Director on the day of the tournament…. provided that someone else has handled the announcements and pre-tournament arrangements, and someone else handles the aftermath. It would be great if we could find a solution that makes this possible without overburdening any individual. But the more important issue is how we rebuild the UTC program itself.

FYI, if UTC ATA continues, there is a provision in the by-laws that allows the team to choose its own coach, as well as assistant coaches and business manager if they so desire. There is also a tiny provision I wrote years ago in anticipation of the present situation, allowing the organization to designate a coach emeritus; I will humbly ask for that designation.

Thanks for your part in 17 years of one of the greatest experiences in my life.


-- Charlie


Anybody got any ketchup to put on my foot?
Is this open to anyone? My school/coach has not sent out any info on this, since it's before the school-year.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by CSQuizJags »

It is open to anyone (and for HSers, those who didn't play at HSNCT). UTC has done this for many many years and a lot of veteran players come and play the set. There's also talk of a trash event on Sunday.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by TSIAJ »

CSQuizJags wrote:It is open to anyone (and for HSers, those who didn't play at HSNCT). UTC has done this for many many years and a lot of veteran players come and play the set. There's also talk of a trash event on Sunday.
Great! I'll see if I can salvage some of my teammates to go.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin »

Here's the actual calendar for events in Tennessee and surrounding states, updated for TACA website activity and forum posts from surrounding states.
The top row is the state or region of the event, the thing in [brackets] is the name of the question set it's using, and the location of the event is in {braces}. SAT, ACT, and holiday dates are in the first column in green, and college tournaments are in red.
Please feel free to message or email me with any corrections.

Vanderbilt will host an FKT mirror on Edit: October 4th, for which I've put an entry on the chart and an announcement here: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=16193.

Updated: 11/24/14
Attachments
Calendar 14-15.xls
Tournaments in Tennessee and surrounding states.
(42.5 KiB) Downloaded 190 times
Last edited by Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin on Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:27 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Great Bustard »

NHBB West Tennessee will be at First Assembly Christian School in Cordova on Sat. Nov. 1 on C Set. There is a very good chance I will come and direct it. We will likely have at least 1 other Western TN site; possibly even a third. More info to follow as dates get firmed up.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by wareagle »

Teams from Tennessee are encouraged to attend a Southeast region mirror of the Harvard Fall Tournament at Marist School (GA) on 11/15.

More information can be found here.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16396
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by TSIAJ »

The 2014 Central Magnet Fall Invitational tournament was this past Saturday (9/27). I had the pleasure of reading, and am pleasantly surprised by the performance of many of the teams.

Congratulations to Olivia Kiser from Glasgow for winning first place in the HS division playing solo beating out Ezell-Harding A 400-290 in the championship round, and Hume-Fogg A for taking third place in a consolation round against the Hume-Fogg B team. In the MS division, Central Magnet B won against Ezell-Harding C in an upset, after defeating Central Magnet A in the previous round.

(stats excluding player statistics and tossup/bonus specifics can be found at http://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-te ... nt_id=5728)

Even with the loss against Glasgow, I expect Ezell-Harding to maintain its position in the Middle Tennessee region, along with Hume-Fogg being a formidable team as well.

All in all, I am very excited for the Tennessee circuit this year!
Shawn Zheng
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by njsbling »

Siegfried wrote: (stats excluding player statistics and tossup/bonus specifics can be found at http://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-te ... nt_id=5728)
Why are player stats and TU/Bonus info not kept?
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by TSIAJ »

njsbling wrote:
Siegfried wrote: (stats excluding player statistics and tossup/bonus specifics can be found at http://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-te ... nt_id=5728)
Why are player stats and TU/Bonus info not kept?
I do not know; I am a supporter of full statistics, but it is not up to me to decide.
Shawn Zheng
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by cchiego »

There are many unique things about TN tournaments even in the year 2014. Look no further than the continuance of single-elim playoffs pretty much everywhere, AUK tournaments in Memphis, Middle TN tournaments using 16 TU rounds (although this isn't limited to TN either, alas), the use of total points from prelims for seeding in far too many tournaments, the exclusion of B teams from the state tournament (with its own outdated qualification format and other additions), a few random tournaments still using worksheets and not having any contact with the larger world, and the collapse of most organized tournaments in the Chattanooga/Knoxville/Tri-Cities area for reasons still unknown (not just UTC--Knoxville used to have several active hosts and Cookeville was once a national powerhouse). While it's nice that TN doesn't have an arbitrarily stupid/evil governing body like some of its neighbors (Arkansas Quizbowl, I'm looking at you), there's also been a distinct lack of progress from the late 90s until now.

Things are getting ever-so-slowly better. Thankfully, the Nashville Quizbusters TV program is using NAQT questions now, which seems to have had a salutary effect on the number of active Middle TN teams attending tournaments in general. But there's a huge void to fill in the area of basic good quizbowl practices that we could use a few enthusiastic coaches/players/teams to help fill.
Chris C.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Important Bird Area »

cchiego wrote:the collapse of most organized tournaments in the Chattanooga/Knoxville/Tri-Cities area for reasons still unknown (not just UTC--Knoxville used to have several active hosts and Cookeville was once a national powerhouse).
Cookeville is hosting on November 22nd using IS #140.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by johntait1 »

Hi everyone,
Farragut High School is hosting a History Bowl and Bee on November 22nd http://www.historybowl.com/regionalsite ... tennessee/ More information can be found on the website. There will be a Varsity and JV division, and Middle Schoolers are welcome to play in JV. Please sign up at http://www.historybowl.com/registration/ and we hope to see you!

I know this was posted on the History Bowl website a while ago but our team suggested that I post it on the forums as well.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Amethyst »

Chattahoochee would like to invite teams in Tennessee to attend our annual tournament, the CATT! The questions this year will be a mirror of the UMD set produced by the University of Maryland. As usual, our tournament will be held on the 2nd Saturday in December (12/13/2014) at Chattahoochee's campus in Johns Creek (5230 Taylor Road, 30022). Please refer to our post in the tournament announcement thread for more details and registration: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16383

Hope to see you there!
Amith Punyala
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by johntait1 »

Registration deadline for the East Tennessee History Bowl is in less than one week http://www.historybowl.com/regionalsite ... tennessee/
Sign up at http://www.historybowl.com/registration/
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin »

We're (Vanderbilt is) deliberating on a few dates for ABC (using IS-144) right now, since 3/7 is Bobcat Challenge, 3/14 is KAAC (and state NHBB), 3/28 is TACA State (and ICT). We may pick 4/11, and if we do, we'll hold NASAT tryouts right after that using Scobol Solo, at $5 or $10 a person (depending on the number of people that are interested and show up), with all proceeds going to registration and/or transport to NASAT. I'll post the announcements for both whenever we decide.

In other news, I discussed good tournament practices with Central Magnet's coach at WKU's Hilltopper tournament, and we may help fix their tournament next year.
Cookeville will be using "Tennessee format" for their tournament.
Rohan Nag
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Ssmith »

I resent the implication that our tournament needs to be "fixed." I do hope to keep individual stats if I can secure enough reliable moderators and scorekeepers. I have not yet made any decisions regarding bracketing of prelims or playoffs. No tournament is perfect and coaches may be unhappy no matter which format is used. Regardless, I appreciate all coaches who host because I know how challenging it is, and I willingly accept whatever format the tournament director chooses. My team just wants as many opportunities as possible to compete.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by johntait1 »

Thanks to all the teams who showed up today at the East Tennessee History Bee and Bowl at Farragut High School. We genuinely felt that all the teams and players played very well. We were especially glad to see so many new players and hope that they will continue to play History Bowl in the future.

The results of the tournament:
Varsity Bowl: 1. Farragut A 2. Farragut B 3. Blount A
JV Bowl: 1. Farragut D 2. Blount C

Varsity Bee: 1. Daniel Yan 2. Ani Perumalla 3. Kai Smith 4. Yongyu Chen
JV Bee 1. Kevin Chen 2. Adi S 3. Eric Wang 4. Will Hong

I'n not sure about Geography Olympiad results yet. I will try to post them when they are available.

Full results for Bee and Bowl Nationals qualification should be up on the History Bowl website soon. Stats should be posted at http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/2703/ when Kai is done.

Again, congratulations to all the teams that came, and we hope to see you at future tournaments!
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin »

Ssmith wrote:I resent the implication that our tournament needs to be "fixed." I do hope to keep individual stats if I can secure enough reliable moderators and scorekeepers. I have not yet made any decisions regarding bracketing of prelims or playoffs. No tournament is perfect and coaches may be unhappy no matter which format is used. Regardless, I appreciate all coaches who host because I know how challenging it is, and I willingly accept whatever format the tournament director chooses. My team just wants as many opportunities as possible to compete.
I didn't mean to offend- I just wanted to let you know that we can work together so that your tournament will be optimal for you, your readers and scorekeepers, and all the teams that attend. The many good practices in quizbowl tournaments are all part of that, and even though it can be stressful and tedious, it's actually rewarding (emotionally and economically) to run a good tournament! Some of those good practices are listed here: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... 17&t=16503, and I emailed you in the past with some of the other things you can do to make your tournaments run smoothly. Directing good tournaments isn't easy, but it does get better with experience and with good moderators, and coaches and players will let you know that they enjoyed your tournament (even) more if it is run well. They'll also be more likely to return in the future, and your tournament will be more famous/renowned across the state and the region, attracting more teams, and so on.
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by Unicolored Jay »

Hey, so I'll be an incoming graduate student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and will be starting a team there. From what I gather in this thread, quizbowl doesn't seem to be very active at all in this area, and I'd like to change that. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much time I'll have to spend on working on that, and this whole task of creating a collegiate quizbowl team that can attend and host tournaments throughout the year isn't something that I can do on my own, so it would be very helpful if I could get some interested people at UTK together!

My experience with quizbowl at the high school level was in Ohio, which has some similarities to Tennessee as far as I can tell - its state organization and format, for one, although it seems like the level of quizbowl activity doesn't seem as high here (for example, I don't think there are nearly as many TN teams attending nationals as OH teams), and from looking at this thread there are apparently other problems or areas where Tennessee is lagging behind other states, so I'd like to see if those can be made better!
Jasper Lee
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Re: Tennessee '14-'15

Post by kmattix »

I setup a West Tennessee Quizbowl blog/website in order to help West tennessee (and the surrounding area) maintain a standard of good quizbowl. The site is up at https://west-tn-quizbowl.herokuapp.com/. If any quizbowl vets want to help me write some content, please email me at [email protected].
Keith Mattix
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