The Quizbowl Resource Center

Unfortunately, it is I who must be the bringer of 'corrective' news. Brother Nigel is a member of a religious congregation, the Marianists, I believe. As such, he is not a monk. The overwhelming majority of Catholic religious educators, of which there are 1000's, aren't either. In the USA, monks who are currently in education would -- basically -- be those who are Benedictines, Basilians, and Cistercians. While the work of the Marianists is, undoubtedly, outstanding religious education, it does not have its inspiration and source from any monastic tradition that I am aware of. Perhaps one day I'll have the opportunity to meet this outstanding Catholic religious educator.

jonah wrote:http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/member ... ile&u=4903

oh snap

Hello everyone,

My name is Al Luna and I am the Quiz Bowl Coach for Harlandale High School in San Antonio, TX. I used to play the old College Bowl circuit in the late 90s in the NW USA and after several years in the medical field I decided to give teaching a try. This is my first year here at Harlandale, and the first thing I did was plead the administration to let me start a Quiz Bowl team. Not surprisingly they had never heard of Quiz Bowl, solely Acadeca, but I convinced them of the advantages of having a Quiz Bowl team over an Acadeca one. I think they were happy to have a teacher who wanted to sponsor an academic club since Harlandale revolves around sports. We are a poor, 98% Hispanic, inner-city school, but I was able to muster up 2 teams to send to the Oct 2nd tournament at Seven Lakes. As expected, our teams finished last in the JV division, but I hope to slowly improve its standing this year. I am excited that we will likely send 4-5 JV teams to the HoHoHo. Even though we are not that good the students have really taken a liking to Quiz Bowl.

If you any advice on starting up a team or any suggestions at all in general, please let me know. I am very happy that I found this message board. Lastly, do any of you know any other schools in San Antonio that boast a Quiz Bowl team?

Albert Luna R.T. (R)
Anatomy Teacher
Harlandale High School
San Antonio, TX

mondofia1 wrote:If you any advice on starting up a team or any suggestions at all in general, please let me know. I am very happy that I found this message board. Lastly, do any of you know any other schools in San Antonio that boast a Quiz Bowl team?

Strake Jesuit has a team, as does O.W. Holmes

Strake is in Houston.

Where have you seen a Holmes team play?

jonah wrote:http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/member ... ile&u=4903

I see that Jonah is trying "to make a funny" --- NOT!
Snap? Oh, please!
Not even close - and I'm talking hand grenades and horseshoes!

etchdulac wrote:Where have you seen a Holmes team play?

On NAQT.com (here:http://naqt.com/stats/school.jsp?org_id=63409), it lists their program status as "active."

The Stats for the TQBA Spartan Showdown (NAQT, set IS-99A) are here: http://www.texasquizbowl.org/d/10sparta ... dings.html

Hot damn, Vimal. You should not be allowed to play on IS-A sets. Congrats on the numbers though.

Chandragupta Maurya wrote:

etchdulac wrote:Where have you seen a Holmes team play?

On NAQT.com (here:http://naqt.com/stats/school.jsp?org_id=63409), it lists their program status as "active."

Without any results tied to the team listing, it's hard to know what year (or decade) they were last "active." But that listing address is definitely correct... I'll dig around with NAQT to see when that is from, and if there's still a sponsor there. Wouldn't hurt to double the number of known programs in San Antonio.

sacagawea wrote:Hot damn, Vimal. You should not be allowed to play on IS-A sets. Congrats on the numbers though.

Thanks

etchdulac wrote:I'll dig around with NAQT to see when that is from, and if there's still a sponsor there. Wouldn't hurt to double the number of known programs in San Antonio.

Just looked this one up... and we don't have any contact information for them at all, not even obsolete contact information. Sorry. (When we have a current contact, there will be a name listed under "team contacts".)

bt_green_warbler wrote:

etchdulac wrote:I'll dig around with NAQT to see when that is from, and if there's still a sponsor there. Wouldn't hurt to double the number of known programs in San Antonio.

Just looked this one up... and we don't have any contact information for them at all, not even obsolete contact information. Sorry. (When we have a current contact, there will be a name listed under "team contacts".)

Thanks for your quick help, Jeff.

sacagawea wrote:Hot damn, Vimal. You should not be allowed to play on IS-A sets. Congrats on the numbers though.

Was bedeutet "Hot damn"?
Ich kann das nicht verstehen!
Sacagawea - Du bist ein Teufel! ! !

Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad wrote:

sacagawea wrote:Hot damn, Vimal. You should not be allowed to play on IS-A sets. Congrats on the numbers though.

Was bedeutet "Hot damn"?
Ich kann das nicht verstehen!
Sacagawea - Du bist ein Teufel! ! !

Playful censorship -- it just sounds better in German.
Not that I disagree with his message.

mondofia1 wrote:If you any advice on starting up a team or any suggestions at all in general, please let me know. I am very happy that I found this message board. Lastly, do any of you know any other schools in San Antonio that boast a Quiz Bowl team?

While not in the San Antonio area proper, there are a few teams in Austin (including LASA, one of the best teams in the country, along with Harmony Sciences Academy, St. Stephen's, and Travis), which is about 84 miles away

The "official" NAQT Stats for the TQBA Spartan Showdown are here: http://naqt.com/stats/tournament-teams. ... nt_id=3575 (Emery/Weiner A, Bellaire, and St. John's have qualified for HSNCT, Cistercian re-qualified as well)

Here are the stats from the 2010 Houston Holiday Hoedown, played on an IS set:
http://www.texasquizbowl.org/d/10hohoho ... dings.html

Which NAQT IS Set was this played on?

This was played on IS98.

Just something to note (and this is evident in the stats), but Seven Lakes and LASA were both using only half of their players for their six prelim rounds. And because Seven Lakes and LASA played each other in the semifinal of a single-elimination playoff, Seven Lakes never got the opportunity to play Cistercian.

Edward Powers wrote:Which NAQT IS Set was this played on?

IS-98

My comments are removed -- commity has been restored.

User was banned for 1 week for violating the rule "Do not under any circumstances edit your post to change its meaning or the meaning of a subsequent post that responds to it," continuing to disregard forum rules after a warning was issued through both private and public channels, and editing out a moderator note on his post. Do not do this! --the mgmt

I'm pretty sure Benji was just explaining why a Seven Lakes v. Cistercian matchup didn't occur. No offense was meant to you guys.

I see nothing wrong with "just noting" a fact like that since you guys are diligent in "noting" any circumstances in your favor, as this post clarifying your kickoff performance will show:

Somewhat similar to Mr. Flowers' post, I may clear up the team situations for the two tournaments cited that Cistercian participated in.
In an effort to qualify multiple teams for nationals early in the season, for both the Lewis Cup and the TQBA Kickoff, the teams were composed of players from A team to C team.

The Lewis Cup A Team was composed of an A Team Sophomore, two B team seniors and a C team senior.

At TQBA Kick-off The "B-team", which was the highest placing Cistercian team, was composed of an A Team Sophomore and two C Team players (senior and sophomore). The "A-team" was composed of an A Team Junior, and 3 B Team Players (two seniors, one sophomore).

You guys are a really good team, probably top 25, but we really were just clarifying what happened.

Repeat Post.

You guys are a really good team, probably top 25, but we really were just clarifying what happened.[/quote]

I appreciate the observations and the compliments. They are warmly recieved.
As far as I am concerned, the matter is closed.
I will be removing my previous comments in the interests of commity.

Knot Gneiss wrote:This was played on IS98.

Just something to note (and this is evident in the stats), but Seven Lakes and LASA were both using only half of their players for their six prelim rounds. And because Seven Lakes and LASA played each other in the semifinal of a single-elimination playoff, Seven Lakes never got the opportunity to play Cistercian.

Just to be clear: What's being said is these teams played 2 against 4 for 6 games, not that it was 4 against 4 (but not the real A team). Is that correct?

Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad wrote:I have no idea why LASA chose to play "only half of their players"

My impression is that readers were needed to run the JV tournament. Confirm?

Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad wrote:it strikes me as a bit of 'sour grapes' to be making such observations while calling it merely 'something to note'

You disagree that a result on paper with no context is aided and well-informed by the information that a match was 2 vs. 4? I would regard that as objectively "noteworthy." Do you disagree?

Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad wrote:If LASA "A" -- or anyone else -- chose to play with "half of their players"

... so that the tournament actually could be held while they read for JV matches ...

Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad wrote:Why should that factoid carry with it an implication which tends to devalue what Cistercian "A" did, in fact, do -- which was win in a prelims match against LASA.

Just to be clear: You are denouncing the inclusion of pertinent facts because the truth (inconvenient as it may be) does in fact greatly devalue said accomplishment? You would prefer to obscure the actual accomplishment with the incorrect presumption that a 4-on-4 match was played? Please let me know if I've mischaracterized your intentions here.

Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad wrote:Whatever motivates this penchant to devalue the hard work, good sportsmanship, and success of Cistercian varsity

Journalistic integrity, perhaps?

Father Gregory, I would suggest that you are doing yourself (and those you represent) a disservice with this argument. There are people here for whom your posts are serving as a first impression; those who have not experienced examples of your good sportsmanship dating back 16 years, as I have. Please keep those newer readers in mind.

Well, this is what I get for ignoring the forums for a couple of days and actually having a life...

Not having seen Fr. Gregory's original post, I will not comment directly on what he may or may not have said. I will, however, comment on a few things to make LASA's position clear.

1. LASA's A team played 2-handed in the prelims of HoHoHo at the request of the tournament organizers to provide two moderators (Aaron and Daniel) for the JV games. We had a reasonable expectation of Thomas and Benji being able to win enough games to qualify for the playoffs, so we agreed to this arrangement. I apologize if this arrangement resulted in the impression that LASA was being smug or unsportsmanlike or anything of the sort. It was certainly not our intention, and had I known it would be perceived this way, I would not have allowed it to take place.

2. Benji made a post in the immediate wake of the tournament to clarify the team composition of LASA A during the prelims. This was done in an effort to give those on these boards whose passion it is to compare statistics across question sets and tournaments complete information about LASA A's stats. No other purpose (including diminishing Cistercian A's victory over LASA in the prelims) was intended.

3. Thomas's post in response to Fr. Gregory was, in my opinion, somewhat outside the bounds of civil discourse that we at LASA try to maintain in our board posts. I understand his frustration, but his tone was (again in my opinion) not particularly appropriate. I apologize again on behalf of LASA Quiz Bowl for this.

4. There has been a lively debate in both this forum and in the rankings forum about the relative placements of Cistercian, St. Marks, LASA, and Seven Lakes and all their various teams. I think the rankings are fun and they give people something to talk about. Cistercian A (if indeed what we saw last weekend is Cistercian's entire A team) is a formidable quiz bowl team, and easily deserves a top-25 ranking. St. Marks is also a formidable team and may or may not be better than Cistercian. Personally, I will leave this question to people who have more of a passion for it than I.

In any case, these are my thoughts on our current little issue. I am hopeful I have not violated any board rules by this post, and I am also hopeful that this has made LASA's position on this debate clear.

Cassian wrote:1. LASA's A team played 2-handed in the prelims of HoHoHo at the request of the tournament organizers to provide two moderators (Aaron and Daniel) for the JV games. We had a reasonable expectation of Thomas and Benji being able to win enough games to qualify for the playoffs, so we agreed to this arrangement. I apologize if this arrangement resulted in the impression that LASA was being smug or unsportsmanlike or anything of the sort. It was certainly not our intention, and had I known it would be perceived this way, I would not have allowed it to take place.

Thanks for the confirmation, and thanks to your team for helping everyone get to play. Wish I was in a position to help moderate more often.

In my somewhat limited experience, your school's students have always represented themselves well, as competitive but sportsmanlike.

the mgmt wrote: User [Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad] was banned for 1 week for violating the rule "Do not under any circumstances edit your post to change its meaning or the meaning of a subsequent post that responds to it," continuing to disregard forum rules after a warning was issued through both private and public channels, and editing out a moderator note on his post. Do not do this! --the mgmt

Hopefully, Fr. Gregory is reinstated soon
EDIT: For one week, it appears, I will be the only one posting from Cistercian, because of Sacagawea's hiatus from posting and Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad's suspension

Any details on Winter Rodeo? What I've seen has been dangerously vague, especially considering how close it is to the 15th

Your coach has been sent two email invitations. If you need to contact me with additional questions I am available via email at romeroc at gmail dot com.

Romero

Thank you sir. Problem will be transportation, but I will attempt to rally the troops.
No matter what, see you at St. Mark's and thanks again

Stats for the latest Texas Quiz Bowl Regular Season tournament have been posted.

http://texasquizbowl.org/d/10rodeo/

Congratulations to Cistercian who won both the Varsity and Junior Varsity division. This event was played on IS-100.

Romero wrote:Stats for the latest Texas Quiz Bowl Regular Season tournament have been posted.
http://texasquizbowl.org/d/10rodeo/
Congratulations to Cistercian who won both the Varsity and Junior Varsity division. This event was played on IS-100.

St. John's was without Charlie Caplan on Saturday, while Seven Lakes lacked both Jiawei Li and Daniel Chapman. The closest call Cistercian (11-0) got Saturday was from Austin St. Stephen's, whose Shair Ahmed trailed only Cistercian's normal leading duo, Vimal Konduri and James Yoder, in the individual stats.

LASA was absent as its players were moderating the tournament, but the 'A' team from Kealing, a middle school which feeds LASA, looked pretty strong for middle-schoolers playing in the varsity bracket.

Highland Park made its first appearance at a TQBA event, while Harlandale, Yes Prep and Harmony continue to show progress.

Below are stats from the Terrapin mirror at Seven Lakes High School in Katy on 1/22/11.

http://www.texasquizbowl.org/d/10Terrapin/

Hitting the main points:

Rice and LASA played a three-match sequence at the end of the day. Rice won the first 330-300 with five tossups to Henry Gorman. LASA won the following two, 310-240 (with Benji Nguyen powering four times) and 310-135 (with Aaron Pellowski taking five tossups). When they met earlier in the day, LASA posted victories of 355-280 and 570-55.

LASA's only other loss of the day came to Seven Lakes, 310-245 (with 60 points to Jiawei Li). They later avenged that loss 380-105. Seven Lakes finished 5-4 on the day, losing to LASA, Rice (twice) and the UT alums before two late forfeits due to a staffing shortage.

Cistercian played the whole day with two players, Vimal and Collin, both sophomores.

LASA B lost its meetings with Seven Lakes and Rice, then ran the consolation bracket table to finish 8-2.

The team labeled Bellaire was Bellaire-Plus augmented with Andrew from George Ranch and Shair from Austin St. Stephen's.

Talk about not talking can be found here.

Cistercian Prep is looking forward to a clash of Titans on Feb. 5th at St. Mark's - Dallas. With 16 teams, it will be small enough, yet with LASA, Seven Lakes, St. Mark's, etc PLUS CISTERCIAN, well, it will be FUN!

Remember-the-Alamo-Remember-Goliad wrote:Cistercian Prep is looking forward to a clash of Titans on Feb. 5th at St. Mark's - Dallas. With 16 teams, it will be small enough, yet with LASA, Seven Lakes, St. Mark's, etc PLUS CISTERCIAN, well, it will be FUN!

Can you provide a field update? Since it's not TQBA, and St. Mark's doesn't really frequent these boards, there's not a lot known here about next weekend's event.

LASA is sending a hybrid team - we're split between swimming regionals and Science Bowl Regionals in College Station. Not sure about anyone else.

The full field is

Cistercian 4
Parish Episcopal 2
Prosper HS 2
Seven Lakes High School 2
St. Andrew's Episcopal 1
St. Mark's School of Texas 3
Ysleta HS 1
LASA 1

We don't have a full strength team either. School musical, FBLA, and AcDec are taking students.

sacagawea wrote:The full field is

Cistercian 4

We have 3, not 4

For those for whom it's not already clear, the event that was to occur at St. Mark's was scuppered by inclement weather, and has been rescheduled for April 2. This coming weekend's TQBA event is at Yes Prep Southeast in Houston, and State is March 12 at Seven Lakes. In addition, the Texas Invitational will be held in the Houston area on April 22 and 23.

Here is a link to results from Feb. 19th's Wizard Challenge held at YES Prep Southeast in the Houston area. The event was played on the VCU Winter set. 11 teams from six schools participated.
http://www.texasquizbowl.org/d/11Wizard/

Seven Lakes A, using two juniors, a sophomore and a freshman, edged out a LASA representative using two sophomores and two freshmen, winning on the final question of the second game of the advantaged final.

Kealing A finished third, with losses only to the two finalists.

Below are the results from the TQBA-hosted ACF South Plains Regional, held March 5 at Seven Lakes High School in Katy.

http://texasquizbowl.org/d/11Regs/

LASA's traditional A team of Benji Nguyen, Thomas Littrell, Daniel Chupin and Aaron Pellowski went 8-1 on the day, including a 2-1 series (355-200, 205-320, 305-255) against a Seven Lakes squad featuring regular A-teamers Jiawei Li and Daniel Chapman, along with B-teamers Carlo DeGuzman and Alex Corbin.

Cistercian's top two players, Vimal Konduri and James Yoder, played as a duo, going 3-5.

We look forward to seeing you (hopefully with full-strength squads) this weekend for TQBA High School state.

As a sidenote, it's likely that next year will see an increase in university-program participation in such college-targeted events, with a number of seniors graduating from LASA, Seven Lakes, Bellaire, and St. John's. Hopefully some of them will be staying in the vicinity.

etchdulac wrote:Below are the results from the TQBA-hosted ACF South Plains Regional, held March 5 at Seven Lakes High School in Katy.

http://texasquizbowl.org/d/11Regs/

LASA's traditional A team of Benji Nguyen, Thomas Littrell, Daniel Chupin and Aaron Pellowski went 8-1 on the day, including a 2-1 series (355-200, 205-320, 305-255) against a Seven Lakes squad featuring regular A-teamers Jiawei Li and Daniel Chapman, along with B-teamers Carlo DeGuzman and Alex Corbin.

Cistercian's top two players, Vimal Konduri and James Yoder, played as a duo, going 3-5.

We look forward to seeing you (hopefully with full-strength squads) this weekend for TQBA High School state.

I would just like to note that Carlo and Alex are actually A-teamers.

EDIT: It's come to my attention that while Carlo and Alex have been playing on the top team throughout the season thus far, the lineup is due to change and I could very well be wrong in the future.

etchdulac wrote:Below are the results from the TQBA-hosted ACF South Plains Regional, held March 5 at Seven Lakes High School in Katy.

http://texasquizbowl.org/d/11Regs/

LASA's traditional A team of Benji Nguyen, Thomas Littrell, Daniel Chupin and Aaron Pellowski went 8-1 on the day, including a 2-1 series (355-200, 205-320, 305-255) against a Seven Lakes squad featuring regular A-teamers Jiawei Li and Daniel Chapman, along with B-teamers Carlo DeGuzman and Alex Corbin.

Cistercian's top two players, Vimal Konduri and James Yoder, played as a duo, going 3-5.

We look forward to seeing you (hopefully with full-strength squads) this weekend for TQBA High School state.

What question set was this tournament on?

ACF Regionals.