Iowa '07-'08

[gack1224]

Is there anyone out there from Iowa?

[Scott Nystrom]

Yo.

[Strongside]

I am from Minnesota, but am a student at Drake University.

It would be nice to see more high school quiz bowl meets in Iowa. Minnesota has a league with matches over the course of several months, as well as several invitational tournaments, and there is also knowledge bowl.

I don't know of any centralized quiz bowl organization in Iowa. It also seems that there are a lack of meets in Iowa. One thing that can be seen as a disadvantage in Iowa is that the population is more spread out (Des Moines/Ames, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Sioux City, Council Blufffs, Dubuque, and the Quad Cities). This is in contrast to Minnesota and Illinois where the majority of the population is concentrated in the Twin Cities and the Chicago area respectively.

Drake hosted the past Iowa State NAQT state championship in April and the top three teams were Regina, Ames, and Linn-Mar. It appears that the top player on each of those three teams graduated, and neither of them went to NAQT Nationals.

I don't really know enough about any Iowa teams to determine what are the best teams, but I do know that I would like to see more quiz bowl meets in Iowa. Iowa tends to be among the top few states when it comes to ACT scores which I suppose is a good thing.

[ecks]

This is in contrast to Minnesota and Illinois where the majority of the population is concentrated in the Twin Cities and the Chicago area respectively.

Of course, downstate Illinois (i.e., everything south of I-80) still has a lively circuit going. Maybe not so much southern IL, but certainly central has enough "large" cities (B-N, Chambana, Peoria, Decatur, S-field, etc... no to mention Metro East) to sustain that. I'll bet Iowa could have similar liveliness if there were a push for it (even places like Newton, Grinnell, Ottumwa, etc.). Missouri has a similar situation, and even areas that don't have St. Louis/KC still have a significant number of teams (how good they are is questionable, but competition is competition).

Speaking of, does anyone know if Davenport North HS still has a quizbowl team? I played their school once three years ago when I was a senior in HS at Bloomington IL, but it was all freshmen and the coach had said it was their first year of playing.

[gack1224]

What I know of is that Iowa State has a couple NAQT qualifiying tournaments but not much else. Our team in Bettendorf prefers to go to Rock Island, Moline, Sterling, and sometimes Rockford just because our coach gets all kinds of stuff from their "organization." But we need more and I think it will be difficult to get anything going until there's definite interest from Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and suburbs. So far, I know of only Sioux City as a competitor along with those others that were mentioned.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

There are a number of schools from Iowa and Nebraska who come to the Savannah tournament, which is near St. Joseph MO, with some regularity. The Savannah tournament is a remnant of ASCN, and is really speed based, which seems to be these teams' focuses. This is no surprise as there used to be some kind of ASCN circuit in Iowa where Lipschutz would bus all of his base teams around to a number of events in the general region. I think this circuit is pretty far removed from anything else that anyone else does, and in general I think there is little communication in Iowa. The Iowa and Nebraska teams at Savannah last year were Fairfax A & B, Lewton-Bronson, Lewiston, Nebraska City, South Page (I think). Even on the speed questions they weren't very impressive statistically and were eliminated fairly early in the day if I recall. With the void left by ASCN screwing up and being revealed as pretty crooked, this could be the time to try and contact those types of teams, if there is any way to find them out.
There are a number of decent tournaments in Missouri that teams in Iowa could come to, such as Truman State, Wash U, Rolla, NKC, among (maybe) others. You would probably run into decent enough questions, although the teams aren't that amazing generally (just being frank).

[STPickrell]

Nebraska has something called ESU quiz bowl. I think it is mostly speed-oriented, it may even be coach-written as is the Kansas state series. Charlie is correct in that there were several Iowa teams in ASCN and there was some sort of Lipschutz circuit there (it is his home state.)

[gack1224]

Does anyone know how Iowa has done nationally?

In addition, I know Iowa has some form of NAQT tournament, but does it participate (as a state) in PACE or other national events?

[David Riley]

Just a note from an Illinois Interloper:


For years, members of our coaches' association have considdered hosting some sort of "Midwest Championship" similar to what Culver Academies does, inviting teams from IL, IN, IA, MN, MI, MO, OH and WI. We've just never been able to coordinate such a tournament.

[First Chairman]

Does anyone know how Iowa has done nationally?

In addition, I know Iowa has some form of NAQT tournament, but does it participate (as a state) in PACE or other national events?

I have to go back to records (which you can do at http://www.pace-nsc.org). I'm pretty sure we have had one school from Iowa and one from Nebraska who has competed over the 10 years of the NSC.

[Byko]

Does anyone know how Iowa has done nationally?

In addition, I know Iowa has some form of NAQT tournament, but does it participate (as a state) in PACE or other national events?

I have to go back to records (which you can do at http://www.pace-nsc.org). I'm pretty sure we have had one school from Iowa and one from Nebraska who has competed over the 10 years of the NSC.

Ankeny (Iowa) competed at the 2003 NSC.

Louisville (Nebraska) competed at the 1998 NSC, earning an automatic qualification at Peru State's tournament that season.

Regina (Iowa) was going to come to last year's NSC and probably would have done quite well, but something came up late that prevented them from attending.

[vandyhawk]

Gack, does Pleasant Valley compete at all anymore? I graduated from PV in '99, and we pretty much just went to random Illinois events when there was space, plus the occasional tournament hosted by U Iowa or Drake, in their previous incarnation. We weren't really a set team that practiced or anything, but we did pretty well and went to in New Orleans b/c we didn't know any better. Anyway, I haven't had any contact with PV people in quite some time, and haven't seen them in any posted results. I have to believe they have people who would be interested though, and their website makes it look like they still do academic decathlon.

[gack1224]

I'm not really sure, but I don't think they compete in Quiz Bowl anymore. They are not listed anywhere, so that's a bit of an assumption.

Also, I think what they do do is some sort of essay-writing question contests, mostly science-based. I really have no idea otherwise, but I agree that there probably would be some interest there. It really depends heavily on a dedicated teacher willing to take people to tournaments. Is your adviser still there?

[vandyhawk]

It really depends heavily on a dedicated teacher willing to take people to tournaments. Is your adviser still there?

I think that was the problem. The long time academic team advisor, Ms. Schwarz, retired after my junior year. Mrs. Stangler, who appears to still be there, took over, but she didn't really seem willing to travel around too much. Anyway, she would probably be the one to contact if you guys or others in the area try to get them to resurrect the program.