The Quizbowl Resource Center

In recognition of the upcoming 18-team NASAT, I thought I would bring to the board a popular discussion topic from IRC, namely a discussion of the theoretical best four-person teams comprised of all players who ever graduated high school in a given state.

Assume that they are playing on questions of ACF Nationals style and difficulty. Again, the criterion for representing a state is the physical location of the high school the player graduated from. Who do you have finishing atop this tournament? How many legitimate four-person teams can we fill out of the 69 states, provinces, and territories of the US and Canada -- more than 50?

It would be tough to beat Virginia, as they would have had bare minimum Andrew Yaphe and Matt Weiner, not to mention any number of other myriad Gov and TJ folks.

Question: Are we assuming these people are at their peak--should we extrapolate this, in some cases? For example, if you were a dominant HS player in like 2000 but completely fell off the map in college, are you worth considering?

California has some tough choices to make. Teitler and Vinokurov are in the team. But who do you pick out of the rest: Selene, Dwight, Charles Meigs?

Also what state did Zeke attend HS in?

West Virginia is easy to start with Nick Brumfield from Parkersburg a couple of years ago and Ryan Humphrey from George Washington this year. After that, the debate is Jess McDaniel (this year's GW's 2nd scorer) and assorted players from a long time ago who I've mostly forgotten. I suppose Weston Pallay from Bridgeport 2012 is in the discussion as well, since he played well for a 4-6 HSNCT team that year.

A New York team of John Lawrence, Richard Yu, Doug Yetman, and Guy Tabachnik would be good, although probably not on CA/VA/MD level.

Obviously, a tournament composed of these teams is impractical, but if the rumored NASAT online mirror happens, it might be fun to have people form state teams for it.

MN might conceivably just be the 2010 Minnesota squad. Trevor Davis has a strong argument.

Two other people from Minnesota to consider would be Paul Drube and Aaron Kasthan. I don't know much about the Minnesota College Bowl teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but maybe some of them could warrant discussion as being members of a B team.

My guess is the top 5 teams in no order would be Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, California, and Illinois.

Strongside wrote:I don't know much about the Minnesota College Bowl teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but maybe some of them could warrant discussion as being members of a B team.

Your most likely candidate would be Ben Weiss, and I think Matt Marta graduated from Shattuck even though he's not a native Minnesota. Neither of them, nor I for that matter, are anywhere near Andrew/Rob/Brendan/Trevor on modern Nats-level questions.

The Predictable Consequences wrote:A New York team of John Lawrence, Richard Yu, Doug Yetman, and Guy Tabachnik would be good, although probably not on CA/VA/MD level.

Obviously, a tournament composed of these teams is impractical, but if the rumored NASAT online mirror happens, it might be fun to have people form state teams for it.

Adam Kemezis bumping one of those guys off the NY team would help.

For Illinois, I'll suggest Ben Cohen, Subash Maddipoti, Mike Sorice, and Lloyd Sy.

Susan Ferrari also went to high school in Illinois.

A Missouri squad of Charlie Dees, Max Schindler, Ben Zhang, and perhaps a Wehrman brother would hold its own quite nicely.

(Also, if we're talking just in terms of HS performance, a Pennsylvania team of State College 10/11 could wreak some havoc as well.)

Here's a reference guide, beginning with the people on the Faber lists and then including people who appeared on various player polls in the last five or so years . People who know for sure start filling in the dunno pile.

CALIFORNIA: David Farris (Edison), Auroni Gupta (Torrey Pines), Kevin Koai (Mission San Jose), Selene Koo (Alhambra), Stephen Liu (Torrey Pines), Ray Luo (Mark Keppel), Charles Meigs (Los Alamitos), Seth Teitler (Albany), Jerry Vinokurov (La Jolla), Dwight Wynne (Capistrano Valley). This team is certainly loaded; its B team could beat most states. My front four is probably Seth/Jerry/Selene/Auroni, but lots of other folks here have arguments.

COLORADO: Michael Arnold (Niwot). MARNOLD.

DELAWARE: Henry Gorman (Wilmington Charter). That Charter team was very good.

FLORIDA: Chris Borglum (Lake Brantley). I'm sure there are more.

GEORGIA: Adam Silverman (Centennial), Tom Waters (I don't know), Don Windham (I don't know). I actually don't know if Tom and Don went to high school in Georgia, but they are from that state. The old and the young.

ILLINOIS: Bruce Arthur (Roycemore), Billy Busse (Lyons Township), Susan Ferrari (Benet Academy), Paul Gauthier (Wheaton North), Subash Maddipoti (Quincy), Garrett Ryan (Lincoln-Way East), Mike Sorice (Fenwick), Andrew Ullsperger (Bloomington). There are way more players you could add here, especially recent graduates...a kind of icily mercurial team. The top folks here could take down even pretty much anyone. Really good science knowledge.

IOWA: R. Robert Hentzel (Ames), Randall Maas (I understand he moved around a lot though). Still somewhat of an uncharted frontier.

KANSAS: Eric Mukherjee (Washburn Rural). As is this.

KENTUCKY: Richard Mason (?). Some talented recent grads from places like Dupont or Dunbar could easily make it on here.

LOUISIANA: Chris Romero (New Iberia?). Not sure who else is from here--are Jake and Matt?

MARYLAND: Dave Hamilton (Rockville), Shantanu Jha (Walt Whitman), John Kenney (Richard Montgomery), Jonathan Magin (Blair), Chris Ray (Richard Montgomery). A very good foundation, not quite sure if there's enough firepower to beat the top states.

MICHIGAN: Mike Cheyne (Kent City), Kurtis Droge (East Lansing), Neil Gurram (DCD), Matt Lafer (Plymouth Salem), Sudheer Potru (DCD), Ryan Westbrook (Port Huron), Libo Zeng (Troy). This ain't gonna win, but come on, imagine the comedy of this team. Lots of negs.

MINNESOTA: Brendan Byrne (Mounds Park), Rob Carson (Chaska), Trevor Davis (EP), Paul Drube (I don't know), Andrew Hart (Chaska), Gautam Kandlikar (EP), Aaron Kashtan (St. Louis Park). A team obviously well equipped to win on modern questions.

MISSOURI: Charlie Dees (NKC), Charles Hang (Francis Howell Central), Max Schindler (LADUE?!). Will definitely place more people on this list.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Jordan Brownstein (I forget). A rising young star.

NEW JERSEY: Aaron Cohen (Bergen County), Dave Madden (Ridgewood), Marshall Steinbaum (dunno), Chris White (Bloomfield). There are others.

NEW YORK: Adam Kemezis (Dalton), John Lawrence (I don't know), Guy Tabachnick (Hunter), Richard Yu (Hunter). You could add others, but this is probably your top four (and it's pretty good although not as good as you might expect from NY).

OHIO: Jarrett Greene (South Range), Ike Jose (Stow Munroe Falls), Saajid Moyen (Copley), Ashvin Srivatsa (Sycamore). Certainly many others you could add here as well--I would say, this is a fairly deep team that with the exception of Ike, lacks a MVP.

OKLAHOMA: Eric Bell (Broken Arrow). An active but not overly prolific state.

PENNSYLVANIA: Jeff Hoppes (Manheim Township), Dwight Kidder (Chartiers-Houston), Andy Watkins (Shady Side). The various State College alums all deserve some love. Andy will help this team win the All-Fiendish State.

TENNESSEE: Chris Chiego (White Station), Dallas Simons (MLK). A state on the rise.

TEXAS: Chris Frankel (St. John's). Lots of other possibilities here as well, especially with the hot LASA and co. teams rising.

VIRGINIA: Evan Adams (Maggie Walker), Sam Bailey (Charlottesville), Will Butler (Maggie Walker), Tommy Casalaspi (Maggie Walker), Ahmad Ragab (Blacksburg), Aaron Rosenberg (Langley), Matt Weiner (Maggie Walker), Andrew Yaphe (Thomas Jefferson). Very dangerous and also the master of pithy insults.

WASHINGTON D.C.: Matt Bollinger (St. Anselm's), Ted Gioia (Gonzaga), Matt Jackson (GDS), Aidan Mehigan (St. Anselm's). Not super deep but very dangerous.

WISCONSIN: Nick Jensen (Lafollette). An uncharted state.

ONTARIO: Will Nediger (London Central), Sinan Ulusoy (Woburn)

I got tired of this about halfway through of looking up lists of people, so if your name is not on here, this is not meant to be an offense (unless your name is Saul Hankin, then it was deliberate).

I DUNNO: Zeke Berdichevsky, Billy Beyer, Josh Boorstein, Elliot Brenner, Fred Bush, Ed Cohn, Kristiaan De Greve, Jim Dendy, Arthur Fleming, Peter Freeman, David Goodman, Eric Hillemann, Jason Hong, Pat Hope, Adam Humphries, Jeff Johnson, Ramesh Kannappan, Jason Keller, Matt Keller, Jason King, Brian Lindquist, Dominic Machado, Wesley Matthews, Kelly McKenzie, Mike Musgrove, Joon Pahk, Victor Rosenberg, Brian Rostron, Seth Samelson, John Sheahan, Eric Smith, Mike Starsinic, Marc Swisdak, Eric Tentarelli, Charles Tian, Vik Vaz, Steve Watchhorn,

Cheynem wrote: NEW YORK: Adam Kemezis (Dalton), John Lawrence (I don't know), Guy Tabachnick (Hunter), Richard Yu (Hunter). You could add others, but this is probably your top four (and it's pretty good although not as good as you might expect from NY).

I went to Dalton too. Adam Kemezis didn't play quizbowl in high school, right? (I was under the impression that our school never had a quizbowl team.)

Since the hypo is about who does well on ACF Nats questions, people like Seth Teitler who didn't play in high school should obviously still be eligible. They went to high school somewhere, and ultimately we're using that as a way to sort people into states and then presumably using collegiate performance (or estimated collegiate performance) as a way to sort lists of people from states into 4-person teams.

I'll add a few more to the barren states:

- Matt Bruce for Oklahoma
- Evan Nagler to Tennessee. I know Dallas Simons has a brother who I think played in high school?
- Hannah Kirsch to Florida
- Ray Sun to New Hampshire
- Ed Cohn is from Massachusetts. Julia Schlozman is from Massachusetts. No clue if either of them actually went to high school there, but if so you have 50% of an all-red haired MA team
- Pericles Abbasi, scientist, should not be left off the list of contenders for the 4th slot on Illinois

Universities in Kentucky have had a number of decent players over the years. I have no clue how many of the Seth Kendalls, Kelly McKenzies, or even Nick Condors of the world actually went to high school in Kentucky but that could be a state that overperforms relative to expectations.

I didn't know Hannah K. went to HS here in Florida. Others:

Billy Beyer, Raj Dhuwalia (I'm pretty sure, at least for last year or two), Dallin Kelson, Paul Kelson, Jim Baker, Kevin Comer.

America's Wang probably wouldn't be top ten or anything, but I would like our chances against Idaho, Wyoming, and Nunavut!

Charles Tian is from Texas.

GEORGIA: Adam Silverman (Centennial), Tom Waters (I don't know), Don Windham (I don't know). I actually don't know if Tom and Don went to high school in Georgia, but they are from that state. The old and the young.

Looks like Tom and Don did indeed go to HS in Georgia.

KENTUCKY: Richard Mason (?). Some talented recent grads from places like Dupont or Dunbar could easily make it on here.

I'd add Matt Reece, a not-so-recent Dupont grad.

MARYLAND: Dave Hamilton (Rockville), Shantanu Jha (Walt Whitman), John Kenney (Richard Montgomery), Jonathan Magin (Blair), Chris Ray (Richard Montgomery). A very good foundation, not quite sure if there's enough firepower to beat the top states.

Chicago had a whole horde of MD folks at one point, including Seth Samelson (Richard Montgomery), Kannan Mahadevan (Eleanor Roosevelt), Laura Kirkpatrick (Holton Arms), and Jared Sagoff (Montgomery Blair). Perhaps more saliently, I had thought that Ezequiel went to high school in Maryland.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Jordan Brownstein (I forget). A rising young star.

Also Peter Onyisi (Exeter) and Ray Sun (Lebanon HS), who is also some form of a star.

Some gaps filled in: Josh Boorstein (GA?), Fred Bush (NY), Ed Cohn (MA), Kristiaan De Greve (Belgium), Jim Dendy (TN?), Peter Freeman (NJ??), David Goodman (MD), Eric Hillemann (WI), Jason Hong (SC), Pat Hope (ND), Adam Humphries (SC), Jason Keller (NJ), Matt Keller (IA), Jason King (GA), Dominic Machado (NJ), Mike Musgrove (FL?),John Sheahan (DC), Eric Smith (TX?), Charles Tian (TX?), Vik Vaz (TX), Steve Watchorn (MI)

We'll see how they develop as college players, but Grace Liu and Jack Mehr deserve consideration for the New Jersey team. I'd probably have Watson Ladd ahead of Aaron Cohen for players from BCA, but Watson pretty well dropped off the face of the earth come college, didn't he?

Lily Chen is likely under consideration for the New York team, though given John and Adam, I guess it's a matter of 3 Hunter kids for 2 spots at that point.

Delaware is almost surely all Charter people. Might as well just throw their entire double-winning team up there and say they've got team chemistry.

Zeke did go to HS in Maryland, according to what he said last week.

Cheynem wrote: LOUISIANA: Chris Romero (New Iberia?). Not sure who else is from here--are Jake and Matt?

Matt is a graduate of Episcopal School of Acadiana (Cade) and I am a graduate of Westgate (New Iberia). Chris graduated from Catholic High NI quite a long time ago. We all happen to be from New Iberia, which is somehow the #1 producer of good college quizbowl talent in Louisiana. Nobody knows how.

Did Dan Passner go to high school in NJ?

Cheynem wrote:ONTARIO: Will Nediger (London Central), Sinan Ulusoy (Woburn)

Would probably be filled out by Raphael Kirchevksy (UTS) and Jordan Palmer (Westdale). Only Sinan actually played quizbowl in high school, but all of them are involved in quizbowl now.

North Carolina would probably be a hyper-modern team of Jacob Reed, Natan Holtzman, Will Holub-Moorman, and Peter/Will Schultz. They'd certainly be well acclimated to modern questions and have lots of music depth, but don't have the experience yet to rise above mid-pack.

pandabear555 wrote:

Cheynem wrote:ONTARIO: Will Nediger (London Central), Sinan Ulusoy (Woburn)

Would probably be filled out by Raphael Kirchevksy (UTS) and Jordan Palmer (Westdale). Only Sinan actually played quizbowl in high school, but all of them are involved in quizbowl now.

Eric Smith needs to be on this team. I don't know who would be dropped.

I think from Kentucky I'd pick Kelly Mackenzie (if he did actually go to high school in Kentucky), Matt Reece, Richard Mason, and Austin Brownlow. If Kelly is an out-of-stater like Kendall than maybe there's an older player I don't know about that could start, but if not there are decent current players from Kentucky like Luke Maupin, Ramapriya Rangaraju, Nick Neuteufel, Cory Smith, Alex Malone, and myself.

Washington State = Kyle Haddad-Fonda and his former HS teammates reunion tour?

NickConderWKU wrote:I think from Kentucky I'd pick Kelly Mackenzie (if he did actually go to high school in Kentucky), Matt Reece, Richard Mason, and Austin Brownlow. If Kelly is an out-of-stater like Kendall than maybe there's an older player I don't know about that could start, but if not there are decent current players from Kentucky like Luke Maupin, Ramapriya Rangaraju, Nick Neuteufel, Cory Smith, Alex Malone, and myself.

I'm pretty sure Kelly was indeed from Kentucky and that Seth went to high school in Tennessee.

Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:Did Dan Passner go to high school in NJ?

I was born there and went to HS there. I didn't know Marshall was also a Jersey-ite.

On the two most lauded all-round players of the 90s:

Cheynem wrote:Jeff Johnson

I believe he is from Tennessee.

John Sheahan

As mentioned by Susan, a DC native. Specifically, he was from St. Anselm's. DC has three of the most accomplished #1 scorers in quizbowl history, and if they add either science from Dan Suzman or someone, or additional core humanities support from Ted Gioia, is a very formidable team in this hypothetical tournament.

West Virginia is easy to start with Nick Brumfield from Parkersburg a couple of years ago and Ryan Humphrey from George Washington this year. After that, the debate is Jess McDaniel (this year's GW's 2nd scorer) and assorted players from a long time ago who I've mostly forgotten. I suppose Weston Pallay from Bridgeport 2012 is in the discussion as well, since he played well for a 4-6 HSNCT team that year.

As someone who has only played in West Virginia during the last four years, I can't really comment on any players before 2010, but I think you might be forgetting about Bruce from Nitro 2012 on your team. I never had the chance to play against Weston or Nick, but I definitely remember Bruce being an excellent player, especially in history, who most likely belongs on any All-WV team. Matt Massie from South Charleston and Sam McClung from my team should probably also be honorable mentions.

Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:Washington State = Kyle Haddad-Fonda and his former HS teammates reunion tour?

Chris Grubb and Mike Bocek (both UW players, although I think Bocek is at Stanford now) would probably join this team with Kyle. Steven Diamond (Stanford) probably the 4th player on that team.

Mike Bentley wrote:

Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:Washington State = Kyle Haddad-Fonda and his former HS teammates reunion tour?

Chris Grubb and Mike Bocek (both UW players, although I think Bocek is at Stanford now) would probably join this team with Kyle. Steven Diamond (Stanford) probably the 4th player on that team.

I suspect that Ben Bishop is still the second best player to come out of the state of Washington.

Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:Susan Ferrari also went to high school in Illinois.

At ACF Nats level, an IL team would be remiss in leaving off Kelly Tourdot (Stillman Valley).

For Missouri, the A team I would probably choose would consist of Charlie Dees and Mike Wehrman (North Kansas City) and Max Schindler and Ben Zhang (Ladue).

If we're looking at B, C, etc. teams, some other players to consider, in no particular order: Andy Wehrman (North Kansas City), Charles Hang (Francis Howell Central), Kent Buxton (Notre Dame), Jacob O'Rourke (Pacific), Ryan Stander (Liberty), Sean Phillips (Boonville), Jason Mueller (Lincoln), Paul Nelson (Cuba), Jeffrey Hill (Liberty), and myself (Viburnum). Hopefully I didn't forget too many people.

And yes, I put Sean and Jason next to each other on purpose.

Not sure who else is from here--are Jake and Matt?

Yes. Tom Chuck is also from Louisiana (Caddo Magnet). I also vaguely recall that Susan Mitchell graduated from (or at least attended) Lafayette High School.

ETA: Nick Collins (Byrd High School in Shreveport) deserves mention, as he's one of the better players to emerge from Louisiana in recent years.

Edit2: clarity

mhayes wrote:I also vaguely recall that Susan Mitchell graduated from (or at least attended) Lafayette High School.

Susan Mitchell graduated from Houston Memorial.

Texas is odd in that you either have to take players from the last two years or go way back into the early 2000s or late 90s. Just considering folks who graduated more than five years ago here's what I'd consider:

Susan Mitchell
Chris Frankel
Vik Vaz
Maybe either Eric Kwartler or Eric Whitman Smith?

It would be fascinating to see the results of teams Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania hypothetically playing each other a few dozen times on CO History questions.

Cheynem wrote:NEW JERSEY: Aaron Cohen (Bergen County), Dave Madden (Ridgewood), Marshall Steinbaum (dunno)

Haha, this thread I just noticed is pretty funny. If people enjoy these wild flights of quizbowl fancy (and I know they do--bedtime stories anyone?) it should be known that under the rules laid down here I am apparently playing solo for team Connecticut.

Does anyone know who's from Arkansas besides Jason Loy?

merv1618 wrote:Does anyone know who's from Arkansas besides Jason Loy?

Sure, Dargan graduated from Searcy in like '95 or something.

Other (somewhat obscure) candidates for the Arkansas team would be Jake Kimmerly, Silas Altheimer, and Connor Thompson from the 2008-10 Parkview teams and Tobin Williamson, who played for Central Arkansas and Louisville. It would be a fool's errand to try to predict how the best players of the pre-pyramidal era would stack up on questions of this depth and difficulty.

Noah Rahman should be on team Ohio.

merv1618 wrote:Does anyone know who's from Arkansas besides Jason Loy?

Jordan Boyd-Graber if I'm not mistaken

Among those in consideration for an all-Oklahoma team (aside from the previously mentioned Eric Bell and Matt Bruce) would be: Dan Beshear (McAlester), Jeremy Hixson (Collinsville), Colin Brown (Edmond Memorial), Brian Morrow (Edmond Santa Fe), and myself (Booker T. Washington). It seems like most of the really good HS players in Oklahoma, especially those who attend college out of state, stop competing once high school ends. I know that I am forgetting some good HS players, but those are the ones who immediately come to mind, since with the exception of Dan, I competed against all of them. Dylan Hames (BTW) had the potential to be on this list, but as the collegiate circuit in Oklahoma has all but dried up since I left, he does not have much meaningful collegiate competition to speak of.

Other observations: I would add Josh Hill (who played for the University of Arkansas in the mid-2000s) to the all-Arkansas team. And I would add Grant Volle (my teammate at Tulsa) to the list of Colorado players, as he attended Palmer HS in Colorado Springs and there are almost no other candidates from the Centennial State.

Deckard Cain wrote:For Missouri, the A team I would probably choose would consist of Charlie Dees and Mike Wehrman (North Kansas City) and Max Schindler and Ben Zhang (Ladue).

If we're looking at B, C, etc. teams, some other players to consider, in no particular order: Andy Wehrman (North Kansas City), Charles Hang (Francis Howell Central), Kent Buxton (Notre Dame), Jacob O'Rourke (Pacific), Ryan Stander (Liberty), Sean Phillips (Boonville), Jason Mueller (Lincoln), Paul Nelson (Cuba), Jeffrey Hill (Liberty), and myself (Viburnum). Hopefully I didn't forget too many people.

That A team sounds about right.

While I did decently on IS sets and NAQT DII, I never did particularly well on ACF-style tournaments or DI. Our transition to ACF-style tournaments also occurred right after I had a semester off on co-op, so that certainly did not help. If we're talking ACF Nationals level questions, I think there are plenty of current high schoolers that would do better than me on this team. I'd be better off staffing this hypothetical tournament.

If I'm on this list, I think you'd at least have to put Kyle (my brother) on there too.

ScoBo wrote:

Deckard Cain wrote:For Missouri, the A team I would probably choose would consist of Charlie Dees and Mike Wehrman (North Kansas City) and Max Schindler and Ben Zhang (Ladue).

If we're looking at B, C, etc. teams, some other players to consider, in no particular order: Andy Wehrman (North Kansas City), Charles Hang (Francis Howell Central), Kent Buxton (Notre Dame), Jacob O'Rourke (Pacific), Ryan Stander (Liberty), Sean Phillips (Boonville), Jason Mueller (Lincoln), Paul Nelson (Cuba), Jeffrey Hill (Liberty), and myself (Viburnum). Hopefully I didn't forget too many people.

That A team sounds about right.

If I'm on this list, I think you'd at least have to put Kyle (my brother) on there too.

If half the people mentioned in that B/C grouping are included, you need to include Itamar Naveh-Benjamin without question.

merv1618 wrote:

ScoBo wrote:

Deckard Cain wrote:For Missouri, the A team I would probably choose would consist of Charlie Dees and Mike Wehrman (North Kansas City) and Max Schindler and Ben Zhang (Ladue).

If we're looking at B, C, etc. teams, some other players to consider, in no particular order: Andy Wehrman (North Kansas City), Charles Hang (Francis Howell Central), Kent Buxton (Notre Dame), Jacob O'Rourke (Pacific), Ryan Stander (Liberty), Sean Phillips (Boonville), Jason Mueller (Lincoln), Paul Nelson (Cuba), Jeffrey Hill (Liberty), and myself (Viburnum). Hopefully I didn't forget too many people.

That A team sounds about right.

If I'm on this list, I think you'd at least have to put Kyle (my brother) on there too.

If half the people mentioned in that B/C grouping are included, you need to include Itamar Naveh-Benjamin without question.

Give yourself a little credit, Jeff. Yeah, Kyle and Itamar certainly belong on my (admittedly very broad) list.

OHIO: Jarrett Greene (South Range), Ike Jose (Stow Munroe Falls), Saajid Moyen (Copley), Ashvin Srivatsa (Sycamore). Certainly many others you could add here as well--I would say, this is a fairly deep team that with the exception of Ike, lacks a MVP.

Joe is right, Noah Rahman should definitely be on team Ohio and after 2015, so should Sam Blizzard. Noah was singlehandedly the most dominant player I ever coached against, with Ike not far behind.

A team made of Sam, Noah, Ike and Jarret would be amazing.

aescandell wrote:Texas is odd in that you either have to take players from the last two years or go way back into the early 2000s or late 90s. Just considering folks who graduated more than five years ago here's what I'd consider:

Susan Mitchell
Chris Frankel
Vik Vaz
Maybe either Eric Kwartler or Eric Whitman Smith?

If we're going just in terms of how a player dominated their high school era regardless of quizbowl quality of said era:
Vik Vaz (Alief Hastings '99), Chris Frankel (St. John's '01), Sunny Chu (Plano East '93), Eric Victory (Bellaire ~'89) or Jennifer Hopens (Temple '95)

If we're making this more about modern quiz bowl quality:
Vik Vaz (Alief Hastings '99), Chris Frankel (St. John's '01), Benji Nguyen (LASA '11), Carlo DeGuzman (Seven Lakes - St. John's '14)