Alabama '09-'10

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Alabama '09-'10

Post by azngod1992 »

Since every other state now has a thread, I think it's about time to start one.

Rankings:

Tier 1:
Hoover - I think everyone's obvious favorites. Finished very high at HSNCT last year and returns all of their players (right?). Their abilities at NAQT format questions are beyond beastly and I think they should easily capture the State NAQT and ASCA championships. In fact, I'll be surprised if they lose to anyone in tier 2 on an ACF or NAQT packet.

Tier 2: (In no particular order)
Brindlee Mountain - they return all of their players this year, which alone should be an advantage.

DAR - I don't know how many players DAR is returning, but their performance at HSNCT shows that they're for real. With the dedication and hard work Mr. Dennis is putting into the team, I can see them improving by leaps and bounds.

Indian Springs - again, I don't know who their new players are going to be, but they usually have a solid program.

ASFA - we graduated basically all of our varsity team, leaving our math/science specialists behind. We have a solid class of junior varsity kids coming in, and if any of them rises to the challenge and dedicates him or herself to learning literature/fine arts/history, we might be competitive in some tournaments.

Russelville and other schools that I have no idea about - Who knows which school will have that awesome sophomore who owns everyone? Or the senior that suddenly finds himself with too much time and decides to study QB instead?

EDIT: GRAMMER
Last edited by azngod1992 on Mon Jul 27, 2009 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Matthew D »

Thanks for the nod Alvin
Our team will be ok, I hope with most of the varsity team returning.

Hoover has all the pieces in place to be the "team" in Alabama this year with all but one of its team returning... they should make life miserable for the rest of us
Indian Spring, solid again this year
ASFA, I expect to see some good stuff out of them in the next few years. JV team did some good work against my JV team in several finals last year
Brindlee Mountain is going to be solid this year I think with the return of their varsity team but I really hope we can give a few fits this year..

I am wondering what Russellville is going to do with the retirement of Mrs. Daily
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by 49-Mile Scenic Drive »

I figure I'll add my two cents in for now. I have Hoover as the team to beat due in part to their impressive HSNCT showing as well as them returning the majority of their team. As for the ASCA part of Alabama, anything is able to happen. I'm sure Grissom will be decent as always

I suppose I'll copy Alvin and do some sort of tier/caste thing.

I think Hoover is in a class all by themselves. They return all their players and are going to be the team to beat this year in Alabama.

As for my alma mater Brindlee Mountain, I don't think they are quite up with Hoover yet, but they definitely stand a chance if they can play to their potential. I got faith in these guys.

DAR is another team to look out for. I've been practicing with them all summer and they've improved tremendously. They can and probably will make some noise.


Aside from that I'm not too sure what to expect. I have no clue who Indian Springs will have, but as Alvin said they are pretty solid each year. I'm not too sure of Russellville's status since their coach is retiring, but hope they will continue to have a team. ASFA may have a down year, but if that class of JV kids Alvin mentioned improves they will be a force in the coming years.

Other predictions: Grissom will still continue to go to nothing but ASCA tournaments.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Golden Tiger 86 »

Russellville will have a team. How good they'll be depends on

A: How well Nick plays sans the other 3 starters.

B: How much Joe improves (he was a solid player, but him getting better would be nice)

C: What the younger kids do.

I fully expect this group to get to state, but after that, who knows?
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

We're gonna bring it old school. Watch out.

:lol:
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

DAR Tournament tomorrow. We will learn a lot about the state of Alabama, as most of the teams that are in contention for top spots in the state will be present. It's still early in the year, though, so I'm not sure how representative tomorrow's tournament will be of how the teams will stack up at the end of the year, but it will give us a good idea of who have the best starts out of the gate.

For what it's worth, I fully expect Hoover to win the tournament easily. Hume-Fogg will likely be second.

I just want us to make the playoffs.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by AlphaQuizBowler »

Alabama JV Teams are invited to attend the Alpharetta JV Tournament, a mirror of the Fall Novice set, on October 31, 2009. More information can be found in the announcement here.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Tournament at UA showed us a lot about Alabama...

First, it is frustrating that the top two spots both went to out-of-state teams.

Also, Hoover is still the best in the state. But, they did have close matches against both Indian Springs and Brindlee Mountain. This can probably be attributed to a combination of Hoover not having Patrick with them and also the incredibly easy tossups. I'm sure that on a more in-depth set, Hoover would dominate more - especially with a full roster.

DAR did well, barely missing the "Championship Bracket," but dominating the second-tier bracket. They have the potential to be deadly this year, and I anticipate that we will have many epic rounds against them in the coming months.


I would be remiss if I didn't give some props to our "JV" team. Consisting of a freshman, an eigth grader, and two seventh graders who had just started a week earlier, they managed to do pretty well, including defeating Dorman's JV team (and JV trophy winner) 230-70. They will definitely make some noise in the coming years. I've never seen a kid as young as DJ Whitley (11 years old and in 7th grade) start playing quiz bowl with as much unusual knowledge as he already has. After only a week of practice, he already beat out several older players to earn a spot starting on the JV team. His will be an interesting future in this game.

Finally, Congrats to Dorman on the win and to Alpharetta (who gave us our worst beating of the year so far) for 2nd place.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

I posted the following in the "Theory" section of the board. However, I think it is very important that teams in Alabama take a look at this and discuss it. It is getting out of hand:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8663
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

The ASCA website says that the varsity questions are being written by The University of Alabama Mallet Society. Is this something we should be excited about? I gut tells me "no".
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Matthew D »

I'm wondering exactly which club that is and why would they be writing questions for a quizbowl state championship... go figure QG here we come again!!!!!
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

The Mallet Assembly is an honors society at the University of Alabama, and their president is David Satterfield, who runs the Tuscaloosa regional site for ASCA state. Their bid was a comprehensive one, contained a sample packet of questions that were, in my opinion, as good or better than the Jim Garrick questions of past years. From their bid, for example:

-We will split the questions evenly across the major categories provided. With 10 categories, there will be one question per major category per period within a round, with period 2 containing one toss-up and one bonus per category.
-Each category owner* will be responsible for subdividing that particular discipline into sub-disciplines so as to balance each round and the entire body of work across the major category. (For example, the history questions will be split across American, European, Asian, African, etc.)
-With the order being for 28 packets, we intend to produce 3 worksheets for eight of the categories, two for the remaining categories.
-Our database will allow us to classify each question, assign the appropriate difficulty level/question type, and keep inventory of what categories, subcategories, and difficulty levels require more entries throughout the process.
(*Mallet is a large organization with a very diverse membership, and they intend to have majors in each discipline writing for their specialty field.)

Some sample questions:


Period 1:

Besides the Vatican City, what country lies completely within the borders of Italy?
San Marino

On August 6, 2009, what person became the first Hispanic individual confirmed as a US Supreme Court Justice?
Sonia Sotomayor

What process uses high heat and a variety of additives to produce more durable and resistant rubber?
Vulcanization

Period 2:
Born in Scotland in June 1723, he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. name the moral philosopher who is considered to be the father of modern economics?
Adam Smith

Bonus: Identify the South American lake given the following clues:

A. This brackish water lake is the largest lake in South America by surface area.
B. The second-largest lake in South America by surface area and largest by volume of water.

Answers: A) Lake Maracaibo B) Lake Titicaca

A tendency for songlike melodies led to the nickname "the Italian Mozart." His best known works include The Thieving Magpie, William Tell, and the Barber of Seville. Name this composer who wrote the opera Turandot.

Rossini

Bonus: Given the number, provide the commonly used nickname for the following symphonies by Beethoven.
A. Number 6
B. Number 9

Answers: A) Pastoral b) Choral

Period 4:

This African President served from 1971 o 1979 when dissent over an ill-fated war with Tanzania led to his exile to Libya. He was portrayed by Forrest Whitaker in a recent film for which Whitaker received an acting Oscar. Who is this military dictator of Uganda, often rumored to have been a cannibal?

Idi Amin

Pencil and paper ready. Hint: Charles' law may be most effective. A scientist is interested in studying the properties of gaseous hydrogen at various temperatures. He starts with a volume of two liters of hydrogen at two atmospheres of pressure and a temperature of 300 Kelvin. Then at constant pressure he heats the gas to 450 Kelvin. What is the new volume of hydrogen, assuming the experiment takes place under ideal conditions?

3 liters

This English poem takes place in an old house. The main character is waiting for someone who never gets there. The poem is named after a character in the play Measure for Measure. Name the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson that contains the lines "My life is dreary/He cometh not, she said; She said, I am aweary, aweary,/I would that I were dead!"

Mariana


I know that these questions are not the ideal, pyramidal questions we would love to see. They aren't even close. However, the board was not willing to spend the amount of money it would cost to use NAQT's questions converted to their format, and is unwilling to change the format they use at this time. Furthermore, the only other bid besides Mallet's came from Questions Galore, who is just starting to produce HS questions, and whom we were not ready to contract with for ALL of our events, and from :chip: 's company, which is apparently now under new editorial management, but which we agreed that we needed to see a track record for before considering a move.

In short, this was a case of choosing the best among what we had to choose from, and I think Mallet is capable of producing good material if they are guided in that direction. We will be able to give them feedback after they produce the district packets, and we can adjust the level of questions as needed based on that. We are also only in a one year contract with them, so we can always consider other options next year, particularly if someone can get together a bid for a pyramidal set that matches up with ASCA formatting.

The bottom line on this, guys, is that ASCA is going to be slow to change. They have a format that they like, and they have legit reasons they like it. Would I prefer we use NAQT? Absolutely! I brought a bid in from them, and I argued for them. I didn't win. Sorry.

As you know, I'm certainly not quitting on this, and I'm still hoping we can host the NAQT championship. Look at it this way--at least you have an option of playing NAQT and traveling to play other teams in TN and GA. We could be in Missouri, or another state with draconian regulations about this. We know that the ASCA tourney is going to remain essentially a speed check shootout, and while we will continue, I hope, to try to move toward something better, we will simply have to encourage more people statewide to attend and play on NAQT, PACE, HSAPQ, and mirrored event questions. Maybe that means we need to drop costs to bring in new teams, but we have limited funds.

I'm certainly open to suggestions.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

...Name this composer who wrote the opera Turandot.

Rossini
Might want to fact-check these questions before you use them.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Ukonvasara wrote:
...Name this composer who wrote the opera Turandot.

Rossini
Might want to fact-check these questions before you use them.
No kidding... If they didn't even proof-read the questions that they sent it for the freakin' bid, what kind of quality can we expect? Then again, they did WIN the bid. Geez.

I gotta tell you, I've been strongly considering dropping out of ASCA lately. This might do it. I will probably stick with it this year and just see how bad it is, but something has to give. It might be time for ASCA to have competition from another newly-formed organization that promotes real quiz bowl as opposed to - well - this.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Matthew D »

very interesting...
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Oh, for crying out loud, it was my mistake. I have a 10 week old baby screaming at me full time while I'm trying to satisfy people on all sides, and I was typing in the dark. The original material lists the opera as TANCREDI, not Turandot.


Mea culpa, mea frickin' maxima culpa.

Continue suggesting all the wonderful things we could do in Alabama if ASCA ceased to exist.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Matthew D »

well that now is a horse of different color and with the mistake fixed they aren't that bad.
As for the call to pull out or disband ASCA, I still think there is hope in fixing the situation

spelling edit
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Joshua Rutsky wrote:Oh, for crying out loud, it was my mistake. I have a 10 week old baby screaming at me full time while I'm trying to satisfy people on all sides, and I was typing in the dark. The original material lists the opera as TANCREDI, not Turandot.


Mea culpa, mea frickin' maxima culpa.

Continue suggesting all the wonderful things we could do in Alabama if ASCA ceased to exist.
Alright, alright. Chill out. That definitely changes things. I assumed that you had "cut and pasted" the questions verbatim. No harm, no foul.

For what it's worth, I definitely know the stresses of kids screaming. Wait until you have two :wink:.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Matthew D »

LOL.. wait you two till they get older...
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Everyone quiz bowl player/coach in Alabama - particularly ASCA board members - need to take at the letter attached to the following thread: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=7878

It is an open letter sent to Questions Galore by Gregory Gauthier from Vanderbilt. It is a very well-written, thorough critique that points out exactly how and and why Questions Galore is of extremely poor quality. Perhaps if the board members (other than Coach Rutsky - who already knows) realize what an incredibly irreputable business they are currently patronizing, they will finally make a change in regards to the middle school and JV/Small School tournaments.

Tangentially, it might be good for the folks at Alabama's Mallet Society to read the letter and consider the critiques in order to ensure that they don't make the same types of question-writing mistakes in our varsity series.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by geekjohnson »

Wow, Mallet is doing the questions? They have some bright people for sure, but all I ever remember them doing is drinking way too much, having way too many parties, among other "activities." About 49% are cool, decent, brilliant people, the other 51% are like drunk frat brothers, just with a higher I.Q.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

The state NAQT tournament date has now been set for April 17, 2010 at Hoover High School. I would love to see a larger-than-usual representation of state teams at this event this year. Please encourage teams in your region/area to attend. I know that the usual suspects will be there, but I'm particularly encouraged that Alma Bryant has inquired about this event and is participating in a few NAQT tourneys this year--hopefully some other teams from South Alabama will get on board and make an effort to join us as well. I will be sending out a statewide mailing, but if you know any coaches or programs in particular that would be interested, please direct them to us!
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Results from ASCA District (Snead State):

Pool A:
1st - Buckhorn: 5-0
2nd - DAR 4-1
3rd - Bob Jones 3-2

Pool B:
1st - Covenant Christian 5-0
2nd - Brindlee Mountain 4-1
3rd - Grissom 3-2

The pools were SO uneven. Mr. Scott (the coordinator) commented that we should all write ASCA and tell them to quit the "random draw" at district. Pool A was Buckhorn, DAR, Bob Jones, Lee High, Albertville, and Guntersville. Pool B was a killer: Covenant Christian, Brindlee Mountain, Grissom, Randolph, Catholic High, and Sand Rock.

To give you an idea of how messed up this was, Catholic High lost to both Brindlee Mountain AND Covenant Christian on tie-breakers. Also, Randolph is easily one of the best teams we've seen in the state this year - top 10 at least. And they won't even make it to Regionals.

I'm glad that ASCA will be deciding the Regional pools by seeding. However, something needs to looked at in order to prevent pools like this from occurring at District. Honestly, I don't have a suggestion. But it needs to be looked at.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Matthew D »

well one thing that would be nice would that we stop having the 2 killer districts (ours and Bham) and spread the love around..
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Believe me, I'd love to figure that one out, Lee. Pushing the seeding through was a good start, but the only way to seed coming into districts would be to have some sort of pre-tournament ranking system, which is nearly impossible given how many of these schools never leave their immediate area.

One idea I proposed last year was eliminating districts entirely and moving to a four-region system where each region plays a full tournament (prelim pools followed by seeded elimination playoffs. The top four schools out of each region could then advance to play at the state championship tourney. This was met with doubt for two reasons: first, it was suggested that holding said event on a Friday would be impossible because length issues would prevent the use of school buses in smaller districts (they have to be back in time for bus routes to run), and that many schools simply won't come on a Saturday for whatever reason. Second, it was considered to be a problem finding four sites large enough to hold a tourney of that size with competent staffers. It also really wouldn't solve the problem Matt mentioned, which is that there is a big concentration of top schools in those two regions, so inevitably someone gets shafted.
In our district, it was Spain Park, who had an excellent team, but got stuck in a pool with the power teams (ISS, ASFA, Hoover) and had virtually no chance, while the teams in the other bracket scored far fewer PPG and still cruised.

I'm still thinking. If you have some good ideas, let me know.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Since Regionals (and Middle School State) have pools seeded by performance at District, I assumed that the pools would be released before the tournament. I think in the interest of transparency, it would be nice for ASCA to publish the District data and subsequent seeding of pools on the website. Any chance of that happening?
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

I'll see what I can do. I can't see why we couldn't do this.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Our pools for Regionals were e-mailed to us:

Pool A:

Arab
Ardmore
Athens
Bob Jones
Buckhorn
Covenant Christian Acad.
Good Hope

Pool B:

Austin
Brindlee Mountain
Cullman
DAR
Grissom
Hartselle


I'm not sure what to think about these. CCA will have an easy time in their pool. Our pool could be a huge circle of death with DAR, us, and Grissom. I don't know anything about Cullman, Austin, or Hartselle this year. They could be good. Also, while we did beat Grissom at district, I would feel more comfortable with them in the other pool.

Anyway, it's nice to know what we're getting into before hand this year.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Here's our region pools:


Pool 1

Gadsden City
Indian Springs
Southside
Spain Park
Vestavia Hills
Westbrook


Pool 2

Alexandria
ASFA
Donoho School
Hoover
Oak Mountain
Pelham



Early response wasn't strong on getting stats out from district, largely because reporting from districts is a bit spotty. I know that we also had some problems with withdrawals due to budget cuts, schedule, etc.--in our region, two teams dropped out and had to be replaced. (Happily, one of the teams that advanced as a replacement was Spain Park; Todd Parker has done a great job over there.)

Anyway, looking at our region, I'd say that we ought to be a clear favorite in our pool, but Oak Mtn. has some speed and can test us. ASFA may perform better than they did at district, where they seemed out of sync. I don't know anything about Alexandria or Donoho this year; Pelham is still rebuilding from what I've seen.

The other pool looks much tougher. Indian Springs would be a runaway favorite, but word is that they may only have one player at the tourney because of their school's choir tour. Even with one player, Springs can take out a lot of squads in Alabama, but I'm not sure they can get by Vestavia with a singleton. I haven't seen Gadsden City or Southside play this year, but I expect both to be in competition for second in that pool, and Spain Park could sneak into the top two if they get off to a good start and don't let themselves become a one-man panic buzzfest.

I am very much in favor of the new seeding rules; I think we saw them work very, very well in the MS state tourney (the pools were well-distributed, and top seeds advanced consistently), and I hope they work as well here.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

News from our front:

Going to State:

Brindlee Mountain
Buckhorn
Covenant Christian
Grissom
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

From Gadsden City:

Hoover
Indian Springs
Oak Mountain
Vestavia Hills
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Wow... So many great teams left out - DAR, ASFA....

I'm still hoping that maybe we will see the stats from Regionals and the resulting state pools on the ASCA website soon. It will be nice to have that information before the week of the tournaments.

Finally, I wanted to address an issue that really bothered me. That issue is teams dropping out of Regionals. I don't know how much this happened throughout the state, but we had Bob Jones drop out of our Regional Tournament. Apparently this was done so late in the process that a replacement couldn't be contacted. Coming from a district like ours where so many really strong teams (I'm looking at Randolph, especially) were eliminated so early, I can't help but feel that it is in extremely bad form to not attend regionals. Granted, I don't know the circumstances of Bob Jones's withdrawal. If it was some sort of last-minute emergency, death, sickness, etc., then that's excusable. But, if it was "Oh, it's Spring Break and I have better things to do," or something along those lines, then that is incredibly disrespectful to the teams that would likely give anything just to compete. At the very least, they should have dropped out in time for a replacement team to join the field. This apparently happened in the Gadsden Region, allowing Spain Park to enter. Not only did this keep a team from competing, but it also completely threw off the balance of the seeded pools.

Congrats to everyone who made it to state. I can't wait to hear from the other two regions. It should be a very interesting competition.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

ASFA barely squeaked into regionals this year, so I wasn't that surprised to see them go. When they lost Alvin and Jakub, they had a huge space to fill in.

I agree that there's a problem when teams drop from regionals. We actually lost two at Gadsden City, Pleasant Valley and Ranburne. I don't think that really changed much in terms of the pools or the results, as the fill-in teams (Spain Park and Westbrook) were roughly equal seeds (at least to my knowledge). Even so, it is frustrating when teams compete and then drop after knocking teams out in prelims. It makes you wonder why you sign up if you don't plan to make it to the next round.

I do think we'll have some interesting matches at State. Indian Springs is strong, you guys are strong. Vestavia is pretty strong, and on an ASCA set, they can do damage. I don't know about Grissom, but they're always pretty good. I know Covenant Christian was tough last year, and I hear they're strong again. Donny will have Buckhorn ready to play. The other two regions:

Hillcrest High School
Holy Spirit Catholic High School
Paul W. Byrant High School
Russellville High School

Alabama Christian Academy
LAMP High School
Northview High School
Trinity Presbyterian School

As good as Russellville has been in the past, they're still rebuilding this year. Holy Spirit is good, but they've got work to do to get to the top tier. LAMP also has talent, but again will struggle to get to the top four. I haven't seen Northview or Trinity play this year, so I can't comment on them.

I don't really know what the seeds will look like, but I'm assuming that Lee's group won the point count in their region. ISS and Hoover both were 5-0 in the region, but we were ahead on points there, so we'll be #1 out of our region.

If I get more information, I'll pass it on.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Actually, Grissom had us on points. They also managed to beat us at Regionals. We beat them at District; they beat us at Regionals... They are good, but we really didn't play well against them. But, they did mange to rack up more points than us throughout the day. I know they broke 400 in at least one round. The highest we scored was 365.

Despite being second in our pool, we still had more points than even the winners of the other pool: Covenant Christian. This surprised me because they dominated District easily. They did go 5-0 at Regionals, but weren't putting up anywhere near the points they did at District. They were also in arguably a much easier pool, especially considering Bob Jones dropping out.

A lot of the tossups were buzzer races, so really anything can happen. I still predict Hoover will win, but you never know on these types of tossups.

Will the seeding at state only take Regionals into consideration, or will data from District also be factored in?
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Will we be seeing the State Pools and District/Regionals Data any time soon?
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

I have put in a request for the information, but haven't gotten a reply back yet. I will ask again. I don't expect we'll get data, just because it requires more effort, but we should at least be able to get pool information this week. I will also see about amending our rules to make data available.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

I have received word that the pools are being double-checked by board members to ensure mistakes are caught, and that we should get word on them very soon. I will post as soon as I receive anything.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Just reported to me:

Pool A
Alabama Christian Acad.
Brindlee Mtn.
Buckhorn
Grissom
Hillcrest
Hoover
Paul W. Bryant
Trinity Presbyterian

Pool B

Covenant Christian Acad
Holy Spirit Catholic
Indian Springs
LAMP
Northview
Oak Mtn.
Russellville
Vestavia Hills

Obviously, these are in alphabetical order, not in seeding order. I'm told that point totals that led to the seeding will be available at the tournament itself. Meanwhile, this certainly provides food for thought. I can't say I'm thrilled about being in a round-robin pool with Brindlee and Grissom, two very strong squads, but since either the top six or top eight will play for the championship, I have to think that those three teams will come out of Pool A. Pool B will be a tough one to call. CCA is, I hear, very strong this year, and they can really pounce on you in the ASCA format if they get on a roll. ISS is obviously the team to beat in that bracket, and will be at full strength for the tourney. They're the only in-state team that's beaten us on ASCA questions this year. Holy Spirit had a good showing at Bevill State (2nd place) and is always well-coached, and while we clobbered LAMP in a recent tourney, I never count them out. Russellville's coach has said they are rebuilding, but they've been competitive on ASCA questions. Vestavia will be good, too, and could easily play spoiler. I see ISS advancing for sure, CCA 75% likely (only because I haven't seen them myself and can't be certain), and Holy Spirit winning the third spot in a circle of death with Vestavia and Russellville.

This being ASCA, everything will depend on the worksheet topics, the question-to-hose ratio, and how comfortable teams are when the playoffs roll around. Adapting to the style and depth of the questions always takes a couple of rounds. I know that several board members will be checking the set and trying to fix problems, but as always, there will certainly still be issues by the time all is said and done. I just hope that the issues won't be so large as to sway the outcome of a match.

[EDIT: fixed the formatting to improve legibility]
Last edited by Joshua Rutsky on Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

I can't say I'm thrilled about the pools... It looks ours is a bit tougher than the other. But, it could be a lot worse, and - in fact - I have seen it a lot worse in the past. It is interesting that Grissom has been in our pools in all three phases of the competition.

Speaking of Grissom, they are a team that always is an enigma to me. They don't seem to take quiz bowl very seriously. I've never seen them at a tournament that wasn't ASCA District, Regionals, or State (I think they did go to Buckhorn once). But, they are always GOOD. I'm not sure how that works. I can only imagine what kind of powerhouse - on a National level, even - they would be if they had the quiz bowl work ethic of Brindlee Mountain or Hoover. It would likely be scary.

It will be interesting to see if they are still good next year when (and if) ASCA really does use NAQT Questions. I've often wondered how Grissom would perform on more legitimate quiz bowl.

As for state, I think we have a good shot at making the playoffs. If the top 3 teams from each pool advance, we should be ok. I predict Hoover, Grissom, and us in our pool. I predict ISS, CCA, and LAMP or Russellville in the other pool. Then again, there are a few teams that I know NOTHING about (Trinity, ACA, Bryant, Oak Mountain). There could be some sleepers there.

I still wish ASCA would publish scores/data on their website. It would be interesting to see how these teams actually performed and to compare them statistically.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Quick Results from ASCA State:

1st - Indian Springs
2nd - Hoover
3rd - Vestavia Hills
4th - Brindlee Mountain
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by 49-Mile Scenic Drive »

quizbowllee wrote:Quick Results from ASCA State:

1st - Indian Springs
2nd - Hoover
Interesting...........
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by kayli »

49-Mile Scenic Drive wrote:
quizbowllee wrote:Quick Results from ASCA State:

1st - Indian Springs
2nd - Hoover
Interesting...........
Indeed.....
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Usually I'm making excuses for my team... This time, I'll step in and make an excuse - albeit a legitimate one - for Hoover. The questions at this tournament were vile, atrocious, and downright egregious. As such, it was a virtual coin-flip whenever two teams of any real ability or knowledge played one another.

Hoover is by far the best team in the state. No question about it. On legitimate, pyramidal questions, they will dominate anyone. The questions at ASCA State did not reflect true quiz bowl. Therefore, they did not reflect the best team winning.

As I told Coach Rutsky after the tournament: Hoover has bigger fish to fry in Chicago.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Lee and I agree on one thing here--that the questions were a real mess. That said, my hat's off to Indian Springs, who played a great match to beat us on the last question. And since they had to play on the bad questions too, they won the event fair and square, and I'm not going to take anything away from them for doing so.

Nevertheless, I would not want to play my team on Saturday. They are VERY unhappy.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Final (?) field update for AL NAQT 2010:

Varsity
Hoover A
Hoover B
Arab
Brindlee
DAR
Russellville
Vestavia

Format: Round robin play with top four moving to advantaged playoff system.


JV
Hoover JV A
Hoover JV B
Arab JV A
Arab JV B
Brindlee JV A
Brindlee JV B
Vestavia JV?

Format: As above
Last edited by Joshua Rutsky on Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

Joshua Rutsky wrote: Nevertheless, I would not want to play my team on Saturday. They are VERY unhappy.
Great....

Joshua Rutsky wrote: Format: Round robin play with top four moving to advantaged playoff system.
Can you elaborate on the playoff system?

EDIT: Never mind. I just got the email.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

With the death of Panasonic (or whatever replaced it in Orlando), to what National Tournament will ASCA be sending Indian Springs? With both PACE and NAQT full, it can't be a legitimate one....
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

ASCA is not sending Indian Springs to a tourney this year, to my knowledge. The board voted this year that we would offer $750 to the first place middle school team and first place high school teams if they wanted to attend a national tourney of their choice, but neither team, to my knowledge, had plans to do so. Since ASCA's funds dropped this year due to membership cutbacks, probably because Alabama's school systems can't affort squat, we did not extend the offer beyond those first two teams (believe me, we would have gladly taken the extra money!).

We still haven't decided what to do in the future if NATE ends up being permanently disbanded. I did bring up that HSAPQ now hosts a one team per state national tournament, which meets the qualifications required to get state-granted additional funding through the competition grant the state has for Math and Science tourneys, so that may be a choice in the future.

Lee, maybe you guys, Matt's team, and our squad should try to get together during May at some point for a scrimmage or something pre-nationals.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by quizbowllee »

I'd like to see ASCA send our ALL-STARS to the HSAPQ Tournament, as that is how the tournament is designed. However, I'm not sure that simply taking the top scorers at ASCA State would be the best way to choose our representatives.

I never understood the logic behind sending a "school team" to Panasonic against other states' "all-star" teams.
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Re: Alabama '09-'10

Post by AKKOLADE »

West Virginia did the same thing, with the argument that it allowed them to recognize their state champions.
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