Alabama '05-'06

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Post by quizbowllee »

Captain Cullman wrote:Sparkman finished second in the other pool at Wallace. Maybe they will extend an invitation to them. However, that still would not be enough teams. There needs to be at least two more teams.

How did our regional end up with two fewer qualifiers than last year?
Normally there are three districts that feed into Arab's Regional Tournament:
Snead, Wallace, and Calhoun. However, this year Calhoun opted not to host a tournament. Therefore, some of the teams that would've gone to Calhoun went to Snead (Buckhorn, Hazel Green, et al.) and some went (or were supposed to go) to Wallace (Bob Jones, Athens Bible, Athens, et al.). So, essentially, the Arab Regional Qualifiers are coming from two districts this year instead of 3. Snead moved 6 teams on to regionals, and Wallace sent 3....

If ever ASCA was going to take a look at a better system for state qualifying, now would be the time. Those nine teams split into some crazy 5-4 pools is a terrible idea. I think that I will e-mail some of ASCA's Board of Directors and make sure that this situation is looked at and addressed.
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

The only way it could be fair is to have a round-robin and take the top 4 finishers. A 5-4 pool would be flat-out terrible.
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Post by quizbowllee »

Golden Tiger 86 wrote:The only way it could be fair is to have a round-robin and take the top 4 finishers. A 5-4 pool would be flat-out terrible.
That's exactly what I would suggest. The problem is that there are only 8 rounds. Also, it is POSSIBLE that they are reserving one spot at Regionals for Tanner High School, the 2nd place team at the Small Schools Tournament. But even so, a 10 team regional tournament split into pools of five is awful. Also, Tanner will be complete fodder to all of the other teams. I hate to be so blunt, but it's true....
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Post by Hobodog »

nt
Last edited by Hobodog on Sat Feb 25, 2006 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Hobodog »

quizbowllee wrote:I thought about Steven's claim that "good teams would keep playing." So, I took a look at all the teams that have made it to state between 1997 and 2004. This is the list of teams that I found that had made it to state at least once during that time and who no longer participate in ASCA:

Andalusia
Bibb County
Bradshaw
Daphne
Clay-Chalkville
Etowah
Shoals Christian
Mountain Brook
Alabama School of Math and Science
Central-Tuscaloosa (the only Alabama team to EVER win a National Championship)
Tuscaloosa County
Hayden
Carroll High

That's 13 teams that have made it to state in the past 10 years that are not in ASCA this year. That proves that "good" teams are leaving.
Our not participating was due to a severe Coaching change and some disorganization. I was able to manhandle us back in this year so take us off the list. CCIB I think had their coach (a great one) get sick and stopped hosting agreat tourney and their program fell apart. Its just so hard to find a decent quiz bowl coach who actually WANTS to coach and isn't tire of it...or so we have experienced.

Other than that...sadly we won't be making the trip to state this year or even to regionals because we managed to blow it against JCIB...It really sucks because I thought we would have a good chance of getting to state otherwise because our pool was definetly tougher at districts.

[*US* being Mountain Brook]
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Post by DVader »

Results for the 10th Annual ASFA Invitational Tournament:
1st place: Mountain Brook
2nd place: Covenant Christian
Semifinalists:
Walton
Pelham

Today's field of 25 teams provided a few big surprises. Mountain Brook started off the day with a crushing loss to Brindlee Mountain but managed to get on fire in the playoffs with successive large victories over Brindlee, Walton, and Covenant Christian to win the championship. Overall, I thought the tournament ran pretty smoothly with only a few delays early on and a few bad questions, but everything ended up coming together greatly. The tournament proved once again that anyone can lose, momentum makes a difference, and teams you beat earlier can come back and beat you when it really counts.
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Post by Hobodog »

Yeah. Once again I really, really enjoyed the tournament. A great school, a great tourney, a great coach...ASFA rocks...that, of course, includes you David. Some awesome teams at the tourney today...though I am still dissapointed no one took us up on our basketball challenge. We have yet to find a team that will take us up on a lunch break Basketball or Football game, it really dissapoints me...last year and the year before we found good pickup games...of course it wasn't pouring down rain. (which, of course meant we all played the playoff rounds soaking wet and squeaking all over the place, my feet are still a bit numb.

Concluding with some more kudos, ASFA is, by far, the most fun tourney I get to go to each year. (may have something to do with convenience and the fact that the team usually does well, though last year we choked in one round and that set us back big time)

-ps-Was ISS there today David? I didn't see their coach but my left-hand man says he did. (not a derogatory name...he just sits to my strong-side/non-buzzing side during matches...;) )
Last edited by Hobodog on Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by DVader »

Yeah, they were there but not at full strength. They got beaten by Walton before you played Walton.
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Post by Hobodog »

Ok, I would like to think though, that, that given the way my right and left hand men played those three rounds, and the way we played Indian Springs at ASCA (hose ourself on the last two questions to lose by a questions, one my teammate buzzed that I knew in the middle and ISS got later, and a GWB question I knew solid but buzzed and blanked...choke job, but we finally closed against a good team, something we haven't been able to do this year. We've led some good teams going in to the 4th...led some good teams but several questions, but we always, guarantee choke haunted by our JVs choke on a 90 point lead over the ISS Varsity with JAMES AND EVAN...(the round was a converted worksheet on saints, talk about quick recall, none of us were catholic nor do they teach religion in public schools))
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Post by Hobodog »

David, I assume you heard all the rounds and probably edited some of them, did it seem to you that there were less specific-"Fine Arts" questions in the three playoff rounds? It felt to me like there were more science questions especially. I don't know, I still haven't gotten over what my team did yesterday. (I know this sounds like bragging, and it is, but after being so dissapointed that the team hadn't gotten so much better than it was when we were sophmores as we had vowed it would, it was great to finally, finally close the big matches, close the big matches in quick succession, and win something tangible. We had nothing to lose, I even dissapeared for long stretches in each playoff match and my team was incredible). Either way, the playoff rounds had a different vibe. Maybe CCA, Walton, and Brindlee all had horrific games. But that would take a more perfect alighning of the stars than for us to have really been as on as we were. I'd be happy right now if I never played another round of quiz bowl.....wtf, no I wouldn't, QB forever.
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Post by quizbowllee »

Brindlee Mountain played the worst I've EVER seen out of them in that round against Mountain Brook in the finals. I'm probably one of those coaches that "scare you with their intensity," but that's OK. I've said before that my goal is to be the kind of coach I wish I had had. Hobodog, maybe that's your calling, too... You sound EXACTLY the way I did my senior year in high school. Unfortunately, our SPONSOR (to this day, I refuse to call her a "coach") didn't take us to enough tournaments for us to have a victory like yours at ASFA.

At any rate, my team is gonna get some tough love from me for a while. I'm not mad about losing. I'm mad about the huge number of questions that we didn't get that I've specifically covered. I mean, you handed us that "Patriot Act" question on a platter... I don't know what they were thinking....

Apgar Test - gone over it.

One of our players is "supposed" to be a whiz in geography, but only made a 50 on that worksheet about waterways... Whereas Mountain Brook got a 60. That's really when I knew that we were defeated.

Anyway, enough venting...

Mountain Brook, that was an impressive feat. For you to go from seeded 7th and having barely half the total points of CCA to winning the whole tournament is incredible. Congrats.
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Post by Hobodog »

Yeah. I was one giant mental brick wall from that one...I knew it just completely lost my mind. Then sat there freaking out trying to figure out why my team wasn't buzzing, much the less, why your team missed it. It seemed almost too easy.

As far as Apgar test, my father is a neonatologist. You probably know what that is, if not get out the latin dictionary, new, baby, doctor. So I just didn't mention that question when we got home.

As far as the worksheet. I know my geography front and back and only got 12 of those. I didn't think we could have missed more than 2...something tells me they were looking for alternate names on some of them. We got lucky on those lightning rounds throughout the playoffs. They were about what I like to call "tangible topics", i.e. stuff I just know offhand. (I can't memorize things worth crap so even though I've gone over so many of these artists and composers, I still can't get more than 10 questions on those sheets). Either way, I was dumbfounded by the way my teammates were buzzing in the final two rounds. They were lightning quick, and not just on math. (the one subject that we never, ever, ever, accept getting beaten on, by anyone) Anyways, this tourney makes me feel a whole lot better about the state I am going to leave this team in. With a move to the ateam we have three upcoming sophmore who I think can contribute immediatly to a bunch of solid juniors and one outstanding junior who absorbs school like a sponge. (its incredible, he's #1 in his class for a reason, a position I can't even comprehend)
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

Dadgum it, Hobo...I'm still bitter over that '03 ASFA Tournament win. Why do you have to taunt me so? :grin:
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Post by quizbowllee »

BTW - To David and the ASFA folks:

After last year's debacle surrounding your tournament, I have to admit that I was a little antsy about coming again. However, I thought that you did a great job. The questions were a 1000% improvement over last year. I really only heard 3 tossups that I thought were bad - and only 2 of them were bad enough that I remember them... That's a pretty good record considering I heard 150 tossups throughout the day.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say in my good intention-laden, backhanded sort of way is: Great Job! It was truly one of the best ASCA-format tournaments we have been to and we will be back for sure.

Thanks for a good tournament.
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Post by Hobodog »

Golden Tiger 86 wrote:Dadgum it, Hobo...I'm still bitter over that '03 ASFA Tournament win. Why do you have to taunt me so? :grin:
Which team were you. I technically didn't attend that match because our High School is only 10-12, but I've heard stories. That was the same year they blitzed the Russelville tournament too...I'm pretty sure of that. In 2004 I am pretty sure Vanderbilt was the same weekend, so we ran away with everything and probaly won every match by 200 points.
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Post by Matthew D »

I have to agree with Lee, the tournament was overall a good experience.. I wish my bunch had done better but I think they got intimidated... playing Mt. Brook then Brindlee Mt was not the best way to start the day off..
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Post by Hobodog »

Hey Matt (if you don't mind) how old is your bunch and do you remember the question one of your guys buzzed in on and missed early and then it ended up being really easy...I'm trying to remember what it was about. I'm pretty sure it was against ya'll, you guy on the far left answered and then the girl did a double take when she realized how easy it was.

To Lee, if it makes you feel any better (an it probably won't) beating you made me so happy that I jumped up to touch the top of the door on the wya out of the room and nearly hit my head a foot above the doorjam. I proceeded to tell my team that that was what it felt like to finally close the big match. I told them we had Walton next, and that they were/are, very, very good, ad If we didn't win I was still extremely happy to have left with just this one upset under my belt. (I still wanted the trophy, but pulling off a big win was enough to leave happy) Other than that, there is nothing better than going through three consecutive matches where you elimenate the other team with multiple questions left in the fourth round...
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Post by Matthew D »

My bunch is really really young. they are all 8th graders, I hope that their participating doesn't cause a problem. They are going to be my HS team next year, if I can convince the HS princpal that it something that he needs to support plus the fact that Scottsboro HS does not have a team at all right now.. Honestly, I really thought they would have done better, they didn't really play like themselves on Sat. The guy on the far left I think was Caleb and he has his moments and the girl is Ashley, she is going to be a good one..
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Post by Hobodog »

I saw it in Ashley...not bad. We not much more disciplined than they are so don't worry about that. With training they could be quite good.
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Post by Matthew D »

I appreciate that.. I just have very high hopes for this particular group and the next 2 that I have waiting in the wings...
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

Hobodog wrote:
Golden Tiger 86 wrote:Dadgum it, Hobo...I'm still bitter over that '03 ASFA Tournament win. Why do you have to taunt me so? :grin:
Which team were you. I technically didn't attend that match because our High School is only 10-12, but I've heard stories. That was the same year they blitzed the Russelville tournament too...I'm pretty sure of that. In 2004 I am pretty sure Vanderbilt was the same weekend, so we ran away with everything and probaly won every match by 200 points.
I went to Russellville High School, Hobo. The '03 Tourney was the year that we beat Springs in one semifinals, and you guys beat (I believe) Altamont in the other. We actually jumped out to a big lead, but a combination of me negging like there was no tomorrow and you guys picking off a lot of questions early led to our ultimate demise. In '03, you did do well at RHS, in fact, you either won it or lost to Bob Jones or Springs in the semis. I remember thinking that team could do some serious damage come state tourney time.

ETA: Matthew, Scottsboro doesn't even have a team anymore? I know I remember you guys having a team at Calhoun my freshman year.
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Post by Matthew D »

Nope, they stopped having one about 2 years ago from what I can gather. I have an eager bunch of junior high kids and a bunch of parents that are willing to help me get this thing off the ground, so we will be back soon. I figure we should be conpeting on a regular basis next year. Right now, I am just having to brow beat the HS principal.
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Post by Hobodog »

Golden Tiger 86 wrote:
Hobodog wrote:
Golden Tiger 86 wrote:Dadgum it, Hobo...I'm still bitter over that '03 ASFA Tournament win. Why do you have to taunt me so? :grin:
Which team were you. I technically didn't attend that match because our High School is only 10-12, but I've heard stories. That was the same year they blitzed the Russelville tournament too...I'm pretty sure of that. In 2004 I am pretty sure Vanderbilt was the same weekend, so we ran away with everything and probaly won every match by 200 points.
I went to Russellville High School, Hobo. The '03 Tourney was the year that we beat Springs in one semifinals, and you guys beat (I believe) Altamont in the other. We actually jumped out to a big lead, but a combination of me negging like there was no tomorrow and you guys picking off a lot of questions early led to our ultimate demise. In '03, you did do well at RHS, in fact, you either won it or lost to Bob Jones or Springs in the semis. I remember thinking that team could do some serious damage come state tourney time.

ETA: Matthew, Scottsboro doesn't even have a team anymore? I know I remember you guys having a team at Calhoun my freshman year.
Ah. '03 was #2 at Russelville I think. I really enjoyed yall's urinal targets...and the tourney, what happened to it? Other than, that, yeah, I remember the stories of beating russelville in the finals...plenty of them.

We have a habit of choking come state tourney time. We have managed some unspeakable losses the past three years. Last year, we weren't a great team but we didn't get to go to districts anyways. Two years ago we had an unspeakable loss to Pelham that knocked us out of the top of the pool. (a heartbreaker to springs in there too). The next week we went to ASFA and tore everyone, including Pelham up. Its just awful the way we play when state districts come around.

btw, I am assume you are "Slade". I use quotes because to most of them it was more of a legendary name of reverence than it was someone's actual name.
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

They do call me Slade around Russellville (and FWIW, it IS on my birth certificate). As for the tourney, Russellville didn't have a team, and we pretty much gave Lee the tournament date we had for ours. I figure in the next 3 years RHS will have their tournament back, probably sometime in February.
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Post by quizbowllee »

This is officially the 10 teams that will be in our regional tournament at Arab:

Cullman
Grissom
Covenant Christian
Bob Jones
Buckhorn
Brindlee Mountain
Tanner
Randolph
Catholic
Austin

This is ridiculous.
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Post by Hobodog »

Yikes. Some fine teams there. Two advance...that doesn't make much sense that CCA, Cullman, Grissom, Buckhorn, Brindlee, etc have to compete with each other like that.

What infuriates me the most is that I think we could easily come in third in our regional had we advanced. We just tanked it in the districts. It didn't help that the four best teams at the Jeff State Regional were ALL in Pool B. Lee...you think if we slit the tires on the Springs minibus and just showed up and claimed to be an "alternate" that they might let us in? ;)
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Post by steven-lamp »

I think Mr. Cooper would come f*ck your sh*t up over something like that, because he's pretty gangsta.
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

I am so staying out of this...I know that Russellville is hosting the West Alabama regional. I'm figuring Holy Spirit, Florence, Muscle Shoals, and maybe Northridge will come out of the region
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Post by Hobodog »

I'm not implying any kind of problem with ISS. Mr. Cooper is pretty intense but he actually came, sought us out, and complimented us bigtime on our match against them at districts (a compliment I'm quite proud of) and more or less implied he was hoping for a rematch at regionals...sorry to dissapoint. (the idea for slitting the tires actually came from Russelville '03, during the lunch break we went to a chinese buffet and ISS went to the KFC next door or something and we had to walk by their bus on the way back to our vehicles and one of the seniors suggested disabling the short bus.)
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

They'd have walked back. It's not like Russellville is a sprawling metropolis or anything.
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Post by quizbowllee »

I don't think Northridge will make it. They were VERY weak at ASFA. I think that the Northridge-Scottsboro match was 95-85 or something along those lines. Matt can tell you exactly.
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

I dunno much about the region, to be honest. I know RHS is extremely young, and they lost to Deshler at Regional. Don't know if that says more for Deshler or Russellville. I'm hoping the former.
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Post by quizbowllee »

I'm actually pretty interested to see what Holy Spirit has this year. Their whole starting team graduated last year, and I haven't seen them at all this year.

I think Russellville has a chance to make it to state. They are young, but they were a good middle school team, and they're not in a really strong region.

I have no idea who will make it out of our nightmare - I mean region. It is going to depend greatly on pools. Though, it will be absolutely impossible to draw a "good" pool. The best we can hope for is:

BMHS
Tanner
Catholic
Austin
Randolph

That's a pretty tough pool, but it's a best-case scenario for us. However, I feel it will end up more like:

BMHS
CCA
Grissom
Cullman
Bob Jones

That will be our luck.
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Post by Hobodog »

Is it just my lack of observance or is there a reason I don't seem to see Grissom or Bob Jones all that much...or is it just alot of UA and TN tourneys I don't know about.
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Post by Matthew D »

It was 75 to 85 with Northridge winning.. we had two chances on the last two questions to pull it out but it was not meant to be...

Dang Lee, that was the worse case situation that we were talking about the other day...
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Post by quizbowllee »

Hobodog wrote:Is it just my lack of observance or is there a reason I don't seem to see Grissom or Bob Jones all that much...or is it just alot of UA and TN tourneys I don't know about.
Bob Jones has been around a lot this year. Grissom never goes to anything, but is always scary good anyway. I'm still not sure what's up with their team's refusal to go to tournaments other than district, regional, state....
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Post by Hobodog »

How does Grissom get so, so good without ever going anywhere? Do they spend their Saturdays practicing and memorizing things from 8to5 instead.
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Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

I've come to that conclusion...my lifetime record against those guys is 1-4, although one of those 4 was a great comeback in the 15 point round in the state championship game my senior year. I'm still not quite over that one.
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Post by Hobodog »

I assume since your not over it that it was Grissom that cameback on yall. Unfortunatly, other than our full video of the state competition about 4 years ago, I have no knowledge at all of Grissom because they won't go anywhere.

Lee, you know of any good NAQT tourney coming up. Preferably less than 2 hours from the center of the state. Hopefully we can still get a team together for Vandy but I highly doubt it. I really want another try at those questions because I feel our team is far, far, far better on NAQT questions. We are quick on the buzzers but I think as far as knowledge is concerned we have a better strength there than with quick recall ASCA style questions. I also want to avenge my negging us into oblivion against LAMP and ASFA (I think the latter) as I did at BMHS. Oh, and how exactly does NAQT handle math? Do they ignore it or include it, if so how do they make it "powerable".
Last edited by Hobodog on Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Chico the Rainmaker »

I know that I probably don't have any business posting in an Alabama thread, but in answer to your question NAQT does contain math questions. While there are some "theory" questions where the answer is "derivative" or "limit" or something similar (it's easy enough to see how these are powerable, start with the formal definition and then go to common applications, for example), most of the math questions are computation. To make these powerable, usually the question is solvable (if that's a word) early on. If you can solve it then, you would power it, but the question will almost always give a hint as to how to solve the question, after which it won't be power. In any case, I'd look at http://www.naqt.com/samples for some, well, samples of NAQT math questions
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Post by DVader »

Grissom always finds good people. Bob Jones has shown themselves to be a strong team this year with lots of high placings. Any way you arrange it, Arab's going to be a crapshoot. I'm willing to bet at least one strong team is going to get the short end of the stick there. As for my regional, I know it's going to be difficult but I think we'll be able to make it through, especially if we perform as well as we did at district.

Thanks for all the positive comments on the tournament y'all. It looks like everyone got at least some positive experience out of it even if they didn't win. ASFA will definitely look forward to seeing y'all again next year.

Northridge was in my pool, and they did not look very strong at all. During the games with them I scored for, I noticed that they could not capitalize on many opportunities to get ahead.
What infuriates me the most is that I think we could easily come in third in our regional had we advanced. We just tanked it in the districts.
Yeah, I know that feeling.

The two Alabama NAQT tournaments are at Snead State on March 31 and NAQT State at Marion Military Institute on April 15. Go to the NAQT website under upcoming tournaments for more information.
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Post by Matthew D »

I think Snead is already full but you can email and ask..
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Post by Hobodog »

I'll get my coach to look into both of them. IE probably me. I guess I can be thankful that the school gives us whatever funds we need because if we had to fundraise we wouldn't ever go anywhere...we are so poorly organized.
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Post by Matthew D »

See I have the other pain.. I am having to fund raise and other things but right now I haven't really involved the players.. I would rather they worry about winning :lol:
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Post by quizbowllee »

It looks like Brindlee Mountain will not be at full strength at regionals... We're gonna have a tough time making it to state this year.
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Post by Hobodog »

Who's missing from your team. If its Andy...yes. Otherwise I think ya'll still have a decent chance, its just Andy that seems pretty irreplacable as far as I've seen from your team.
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Post by steven-lamp »

Andy's good, but it seems to me (from the 4 or 5 times I played Brindlee Mountain last year) that the other team members definitely step up when they need to. Usually when we played Brindlee Mountain Andy wouldn't get a ton of tossups, the other players usually picked a lot of them up.
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Post by DVader »

From what I saw at the ASFA tournament and at our other meetings, Brindlee's Mountain team is pretty balanced with Andy usually scoring slightly more than the others.
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Post by quizbowllee »

I don't want to display our proverbial "dirty laundry" in public too much, but as of right now, I'm not sure which members of our "A" team will be participating in regionals (or any other tournament).

At some point, they apparently forgot that I am, in fact, in charge. The only reason that I'm posting this at all is to assure to my ever-silent (at least on this board) team that I am not bluffing concerning our current situation.

They all read this board frequently, but rarely - if ever - do any of them post. It would seem that I have become little more than their public spokesperson....
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Post by Neel6989 »

Okay, as the only Grissom poster here, I'll answer your questions.

I'm not particularly sure why we don't go to tournamnets other than ASCA very often. I honsetly can't think of a good reason. The only thing I can come up with is that I don't think we care as much as most of you guys, and that's something I very much regret, but oh well. Our coach tells us about tournaments a lot and asks us if we want to go, but most of the time we just forget to give her a straight answser. Our fault entirely.

As to how we seem to be good year after year without going anywhere, I can assure you it isn't from memorizing information from 8-5. I'd say we practice no more than the rest of you, 3:30-4:30 on mondays and thursdays. The best explanation I can come up with is that Grissom just has a very strong academic program. By the time our members get to be seniors, they have at least 2 AP sciences, 2 AP englihses, 2-3 AP histories, and Calculus under their belt. Needless to say, those classes help a LOT. We also have a fairly strong math team and have at least one brilliant math student per year. (This year is probably our weakest math year in a long while.)

And David, it's not that you should be willing to bet that at least one good team will get the short end of the stick, that's guaranteed with 5 very good teams and 4 spots. The only real question here is if more than one great team wlil get shafted.
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