Jr. Wildcat IV at Northwestern (3/2/2013)

[Dan-Don]

Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois will host Jr. Wildcat IV, our annual middle school tournament, on March 2, 2013. I will be the Tournament Director.

Question set
We will be using a to-be-announced set from Olympia Academic Questions. We acknowledge that we received negative feedback about our use of Olympia last year, but using an NAQT MS set would have resulted in the exclusion of teams in the Leyden-Norwood League.

Tournament rules
To make the tournament run more smoothly, and to bring Jr. Wildcat more in line with the format of the Middle School National Championship Tournament, we will be following all collegiate rules of the Academic Competition Federation with no exceptions. This is the same as last year. I've attached a handy table that outlines the key differences between ACF and IESA rules, but I strongly encourage you to read the ACF rules for yourself. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to email me ([email protected]).

Tournament format
The field is currently capped at 24 teams. All 24 teams will play 10 matches. By registering for Jr. Wildcat, you are agreeing to stay and play all 10 matches. If you do not intend to play all 10 matches, then do not register for Jr. Wildcat.

Registration
To register, you must fill out this form.

Registered field (24 of 24 spots filled)
Barrington Prairie x2, Barrington Station x2, Blackhawk x2, Holy Cross x2, Keith Country Day School, Lincoln, Manteno x2, Marshall x2, Metcalf x2, St. Benedict, St. Raymond x2, Sunset Ridge, Quest Academy x2, Union Ridge x2,

Wait list
Cary, Daniel Wright x2, Wayside, St. Athanasius

If you have any questions or would like to volunteer to staff, please post here or email me ([email protected]). I can provide staffers with a free lunch.

[the return of AHAN]

Barrington Station will field a pair of teams for this. However, I'm disappointed that one league, not an open tournament, uses the sum of NAQT's MS questions for the year and it effectively shuts out the rest of the suburbs from hearing a single NAQT set without crossing state lines or signing up for MSNCT.

And another thing, I'd love to see the set-up of this league that uses >20 rounds of questions. I mean, what did they do last year when NAQT only offered MS-02 & MS-03?

[Important Bird Area]

Barrington Station will field a pair of teams for this. However, I'm disappointed that one league, not an open tournament, uses the sum of NAQT's MS questions for the year and it effectively shuts out the rest of the suburbs from hearing a single NAQT set without crossing state lines or signing up for MSNCT.

If there are schools that want to hear these sets, we would encourage someone to host another tournament in the area. (For the record, we offered Northwestern the option of using one of our sets and un-inviting the Leyden-Norwood teams. If an additional host wants to take that deal, that would probably benefit everyone.)

what did they do last year when NAQT only offered MS-02 & MS-03?

I believe they used both NAQT and non-NAQT questions for their league last year.

[the return of AHAN]

I'm certain teams would show up to Rockford if Keith put on a tournament on MS-05... Lord knows they have a veteran TD on staff at their high school this year....

[MichaelFalk]

We'd come to Junior Wildcat.

We'd also come to Keith or someplace else to play MS-05.

[African threadfish]

We'd come to Junior Wildcat.

We'd also come to Keith or someplace else to play MS-05.

Brad Fischer and I are talking about potentially hosting MS-05 at Keith. Stay tuned

[African threadfish]

Just sent in our form for Jr. Wildcat. The kids loved it last year!

Thanks and hope that we were able to snag a place!

-Kristin Burns

[the return of AHAN]

Update? Or is this still a 5-team tournament?

[Dan-Don]

I've brought the announcement post up-to-date. I'm waiting until Monday to send out email invitations because I want to make sure everyone's back from winter break.

[Dan-Don]

I can only guarantee four more spots in the tournament, so register soon!

Edit: the field is now full so I will start a wait list.

[the return of AHAN]

I see your waitlist has 5 teams. Any chance that you expand this tournament to 30 teams? Or is there just not enough capacity?

[Dan-Don]

We should have the capacity, but we'd need more staff that we can't pay.

[Dan-Don]

Sorry I forgot to post this until now, but I'm updating the stats round-by-round.

[African threadfish]

On behalf of the Keith team, Thank you Dan and to all of the wonderful staffers for hosting a fantastic tournament on Saturday! The kids had a blast and we really appreciated the invitation and opportunity to play.

A job well done, thank you so much!

-Kristin Burns
Keith Country Day School Coach