Western Canada 2010-11

[Camelopardalis]

I think most of Western Canada exclusively plays Reach for the Top, but I've heard rumblings of a NASAT team in British Columbia and a proposed NAQT tournament in Winnipeg, so I figure this thread is worth starting. It would be interesting to hear from some people in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba about quizbowl in those regions, since I'm not too familiar with the teams there.

British Columbia - Any events at UBC next year? It would be great to see a NAQT or HSAPQ tournament in the Vancouver area, since there are a lot of good Reach teams there. The top three teams at Reach Provincials last year were all regulars: Sir Winston Churchill won, St. George's came second, and Burnaby North finished third. Any idea on who will win this year?

Alberta - Historically, Alberta teams haven't fared too well at Reach Nationals. Harry Ainlay from Edmonton almost always qualifies, and they were joined this year by another Edmonton team, Old Scona. Royal West unsurprisingly also did well. Any idea on events the possibility of quizbowl in Calgary, Edmonton, or Red Deer? If there's a quizbowl team at the University of Alberta next year, it would be neat to see a tournament hosted there.

Saskatchewan - Saskatchewan only restarted Reach on a provincial level last year, so good quizbowl is probably still quite in the distance. I'm curious though: how was the new league run last year? Were a couple of schools invited at the beginning of the year; was it just the one school (Carpenter) participating; were there multiple school boards involved?

Manitoba - St. Paul's almost hosted an IS-A tournament in February, but I guess it didn't end up happening. There are several good schools in the Winnipeg area (St. Paul's, St. John's-Ravenscourt, Kelvin, Vincent Massey), and I expect that one of those teams will end up taking Reach Provincials in 2011.

[nobthehobbit]

British Columbia - Any events at UBC next year? It would be great to see a NAQT or HSAPQ tournament in the Vancouver area, since there are a lot of good Reach teams there. The top three teams at Reach Provincials last year were all regulars: Sir Winston Churchill won, St. George's came second, and Burnaby North finished third. Any idea on who will win this year?

I can say that Churchill doesn't return anyone. Beyond that, I know nothing.

[MBreacher]

Sorry for bringing this back from the grave but I haven't been on here in months and the topic at hand is still relevant. Regarding the proposed February tournament, we (St. Paul's) unforunately aimed too high in trying to organize a large tournament with out of province teams. Although teams from B.C. expressed interest, there were simply too many logistical issues to overcome. Three months ago, we started planning a scaled down, local tournament (8 teams max) using A/Intermediate level NAQT questions and received interest from the first three schools we contacted. Unfortunately, we couldn't agree on a date before the Reach provincial finals (preparing for this was a main motivating factor for the tournament) and so it fell through.

Provincial finals are scheduled for April 14. All of the Winnipeg schools you mentioned will be there. Vincent Massey from Winnipeg are a good team, but the Vincent Massey that made the nationals last year was actually from Brandon and they'll be competing next week as one of the favourites. I'm pretty sure they return several members from last year's group (one of their returning players made the national "all star team").

[MBreacher]

Provincials were held yesterday and we were able to make it a four-peat, with Vincent Massey Brandon finishing 2nd. Kelvin and Vincent Massey Winnipeg rounded out the top 4. The provincial coordinator mentioned that he is not sure if 2 Manitoba teams will be going to the Nationals this year but I suspect (and hope) that Vincent Massey, a strong team, will come.