NorCal 09-10

[Tanay]

Last year was a breakout year of sorts for NorCal quiz bowl. We qualified 5 teams to Nationals, 4 made it to elimination rounds, and Mission San Jose A (a team of juniors) took 11th. Any predictions for this year?

[Carambola!]

Well, I know that Jordan is definitely gone from San Mateo, but they have an OK b team. Gunn lost everyone, so they're completely out, their b and c teams showed a little promise, but not enough. We (MSJ) only lost one senior, so we should be able to rise to the top. I know you guys have lost much of your a team, but you had relatively good b and c teams last year, but not enough to compete with MSJ A without hardcore studying.. The reason MSJ C is ranked so is because we might be dropping down the ineffectual A teamer (Matthew) to C team captain, but with his 3 years of qb, he should score high on his own. Our A/B team lineups will be almost identical to last year, so I expect a promising year of MSJ quizbowl.

So my predictions are:

1. MSJ A
2. Bell A and MSJ B (tie)
3. San Mateo and Bell B (tie)
4. MSJ C
5. Gunn

[Tanay]

I would rank Gunn and MSJ C about the same.
Gunn still has Ben, who was a one-man destruction squad on Quiz Kids and is a solid player. Obviously, you (Jeffrey) know more about how Mission will arrange its teams, but I feel as though Gunn was relatively consistent last year.

[Carambola!]

So Ben is still there? Dang. Oh well, I still don't see Gunn qualifying for nationals. Berkeley graduated most of their team, I believe. There's still M-A, with their slave driver of a coach; they pose a challenge on occasion.

[yjna4006]

Jeffrey, don't talk about stuff you don't really know about. Berkely kept most of their team, and you don't know how team placements will be next year for MSJ.. So until the first few tournaments, unnecessary speculation is pointless.

[The Kirk Store Called]

I would be pleasantly surprised if MSJ actually knew its own team placements before the morning of the first tournament. :P

In my personal opinion, Quizbowl in Northern California tends to be less formalized, less structured, and therefore unpredictable than Quizbowl in many other circuits, so speculation seems somewhat difficult, and in my personal opinion again, an ultimately fruitless effort.

[Tanay]

Well, the year is all but over.

Bellarmine A and MSJ A haven't faced off at full strength the entire year, but I think it's fair to say MSJ A would win that fight 7 or 8 times out of 10.
MSJ B was also very good this year, as were Berkeley and San Mateo. In other words, the circuit didn't grow, no new schools really joined, and the predictions from the beginning of the year are still essentially accurate.

[nadph]

So, plans/suggestions for next year? Here are some random ones I had:
CJC should move to an IS set.
Somebody should host a housewrite (preferably two, or three, or more).
More people should go to SoCal for tournaments.
SoCal people should come up here for tournaments.
People should go to ACF events (Fall, Winter).
People should go to college regular-difficulty tournaments.
People should go to the CO mirror at Berkeley.

[Carambola!]

CJC should remain as is-a, simply to avoid scaring away the majority of teams that attend.
College tournaments remain useful practice for MSJ and Bell but not many other teams.
Berkeley should host a tournament.
Stanford gets its turn to host States. Yay.
Running a tournament of any sort at MSJ remains difficult as long as our school is kept in the dark about us.
We should ask Stanford to mail something out if anyone plans to run anything; it seems like most schools in our area want a name-brand tournament to attend.

[Auroni]

Try to get schools to make the drive once to a major SoCal event to play a bigger field. WCI sounds perfect.

[Charbroil]

Running a tournament of any sort at MSJ remains difficult as long as our school is kept in the dark about us.

Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason you guys don't seek and sort of institutional support from your school? I realize that high school coaches have a somewhat unfortunate reputation, but it's not as if you guys would end up ceding control, especially if you found a coach who was understanding of good Quiz Bowl, etc.

[Carambola!]

Auroni, making the drive is not as easy as it seems, especially since we must convince parents to drive us. The question is, would the good SoCal teams reciprocate and attend a tournament up here?
The only teacher that would make a decent coach at our school is currently busy with debate. Getting school recognition is annoying given the fact that we would be required to bring a teacher chaperone to every tournament, and have to pay for them if it's a national tournament; our school is quite stingy with money. MSJ is more comfortable going coachless.