Tennessee '13-'14

Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin · Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:27 pm

So, since HSNCT is over and no TN team attended PACE, I am starting this date claim/predictions thread now. All tournament announcements can go on this calendar if coaches/Tracy would kindly inform me.
Predictions and ideas for next year are welcome. I am looking forward to increased participation and a more competitive/extensive TN circuit!

High school teams planning to host:

George Berry said: I would like to remind high school teams that are going to host tournaments that in addition to having to schedule around other high school tournaments, many tournaments hosted by college teams have to also schedule around college tournament schedules. As such I'm going to strongly urge high school teams to wherever possible host their high school tournaments to coincide with major college tournaments such as ACF Regionals, NAQT Sectionals, and both nationals. I've included some of the major college events on here, to make balancing high school and college tournament scheduling easier and slightly more effective (hopefully).

Important: Tennessee has 3 Grand Divisions which I emphasised on the chart. Each one can host a tournament at any given Saturday/Sunday, so don't feel like you TD's can't host tournaments on the same day as other out-of-state/faraway tournaments! Most TN teams prefer in-state tournaments, so high schoolers and coaches should take advantage of that. (One reason I put surrounding states was for the teams far from Vandy/hosting centres to have opportunities to go to nearby tournaments.)

NOTES: The Quizbusters season has tapings throughout the year. There are other Academic Bowl and Knowledge competitions across the state, but only WNAB uses IS-A questions. I might factor these into predictions, but I'm not going to post dates here since they are too extensive.
Vanderbilt's hosting dates are contingent on many things and I will wait for confirmation on possible dates before posting.
All the out-of-state events come from the forum post and are liable to change. Other out of state things I see while browsing forums have and will continue to be added.
All events listed on this chart are in the "Regular Season Tournament Announcements" section of the forum.
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Updated as of 11/24/13.
(You might have to zoom out in your browser OR right-click on the image and hit "View image" to see the whole schedule; thanks for bearing with me!)

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AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:43 pm

Could you add the University of Kentucky's dates? Thanks!

Rococo A Go Go · Post by **Rococo A Go Go** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:48 pm

Same thing for WKU:

October 12 (Mirror of Michigan Fall Tournament)
October 19 (WKU Fall JV Tournament)
November 23 (WKU Hilltopper Invitational)
April 5 (WKU Spring Tournament TBD)

Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin · Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:18 pm

Done; Nick, you may want to edit your own calendar for the Michigan Fall mirror.
I might as well add predictions while at it.

Predictions:
Mid-State
Ezell-Harding: This team, traditionally the strongest of Mid-TN teams, retains all their key players. If Griffin can improve his bonus conversion and ever master science, this team has a good chance of improving its 33-t ranking at HSNCT. Of course, this is nearly all contingent on the team's ability to support Griffin. Go to NHBB please. They should definitely try PACE for a change, and I think they would be better on ACF-format, but that's Dr. Rummage's decision.
USN: This team retains almost all of its scoring ability in Jesse, Case, and Lauren. A character named "Matthew" will also be there to get science apparently. But yes, significant participation leads to improvement and these guys are pretty balanced scorers. They will all be able to attend HSNCT since graduation does not conflict with it, but not PACE.
Hume-Fogg: Pavel, the lead scorer, is the only person remaining on this team. I don't know if their JV players will be able to provide as much support as they hope, since those are the only people with experience. But HFA is a good school, and I'm sure Pavel can find smart kids.
MLK: Nice one. By this, I mean that my successors are buzzer-shy and inexperienced, but we'll see what happens.
BGA: These guys did well at state and attend a fair number of events yearly- they can improve a lot. Unless many of them graduate/d, they are still fairly balanced from what I hear.
Webb School: After most of their players graduated last year, they've been struggling to do well, but they made it to the finals of Quizbusters, showing potential on an IS-A set. They will also be fairly balanced.
Gallatin: As Nick said, some of their players are underclassmen and they have a lot of potential. They show up to many events and likely have a lot of experience- and apparently they now have 3-6 seniors on the squad.
Central Magnet: Similar to Gallatin, except I know some of their players are MS/JV and that they have smart kids.They attend a fair number of events annually.
Pope John Paul II: They've been attending a few events recently but are underperforming.

West
White Station: This team has recovered from a relative slump in participation in past years, and Victor and Zach will be able to get many tossups. Since they are fairly new to it, I believe they need to participate the most or at least study a lot, so they can hopefully attend HSNCT and/or PACE. They are hosting an HS and an MS tournament, and if either of those were housewrites that would be great (apparently not though). But it's ok; I think they will be motivated enough to get better.
MUS: If MUS would quit dabbling in the dark land of AUK and both them and St. George's would host on real questions/attend real tournaments, they would have a good shot at becoming a better team. They have 5 coaches already and will likely have enough interest/money to go to HSNCT next year if they qualify. On the other hand, I have no information or responses from their coaches.
Lausanne Collegiate: They won the Knowledge Bowl competition, Chris Chiego tells me, and thus they have a lot of potential.
Bolton: They did quite well at WUHSAC last year and many of their B team members survive (note that B placed higher than A at WUHSAC). So they also have a shot at doing well at state/whatever they choose to attend.
Houston: They had a 400+ PPG at Bolton's invitational before being upset by St. Benedict and I think they have younger players for next year. Once again, potential.
Others including Collierville (qualified for HSNCT), upsetting MUS and St. Benedict (attended HSNCT, going 4-6): I don't know these teams personally or their motivation, but I both have potential in smart kids and event attendance.

East
Oak Ridge: They retain Will Mason, Aram, and Gaibo, who are all experienced. It's notable that Will will have less support since Katie and Sirui were excellent players, but they can definitely repeat their HSNCT placement if they study. These guys should surely attend PACE. [Edit: they might go to one or the other]
Farragut: They lose Lawrence and MJ, who comprised the majority of their scoring. But knowing Lam and Kai (most likely lead scorer this year), they will not let Oak Ridge dominate the East, absorbing some of their former JV players/B Teamers like Don and Shreyas to get back a little scoring and bonus conversion. They will likely attend HSNCT, and should definitely try PACE. EDIT: They have depth OK I get it.
McCallie: They went 5-5 at HSNCT but I think their entire squad this year is graduating- they tell me that they do have sufficient interest-and maybe a new coach?- to keep their program alive. They also attended numerous events this year (TN/GA).
Columbia Central/Lincoln County: These two schools attend most events in the state, and both have much experience with IS or IS-A quizbowl. However, some of their A-team members will graduate this year. I don't know how much experience their younger players have, but I know they have the motivation and understanding to have programs that last.

Edited repeatedly for new information

Rococo A Go Go · Post by **Rococo A Go Go** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:46 pm

Gallatin did OK with a bunch of young players this year, so I could see them doing well next year. Everybody is chasing Ezell-Harding right now though.

asdfryan123 · Post by **asdfryan123** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:58 am

Agree with the posts above regarding Oak Ridge, but just want to add they'll be adding JV players Albert and Tina, who will be set to contribute especially in the science department (Will is more of a social sciences/humanities player).

A potential problem is that HSNCT will potential quasi-conflict with graduation - since it's in Chicago, they'd have to spend Friday driving up, and Oak Ridge's graduation is on Thursday night with a potential raindate being Friday night.

gimmedatguudsuccrose · Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:25 pm

Rohan, you missed some crucial details about Farragut. We will be losing Lawrence and MJ, but Akshay is here to stay, and at HSNCT I was the second scorer. In addition, our rising sophomores are looking very very fearsome (Yongyu, Daniel) as well as our rising juniors. Cheers!

kidclone · Post by **kidclone** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:52 pm

Akshay is returning this year; he's in my grade.

Also, Kai is trying to steal my thunder.

Zach Billett · Post by **Zach Billett** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:49 pm

FYI, St. Benedict at Auburndale is referred to as "St. Benedict," not "Auburndale." I think their principal players were juniors last year, but I'm not entirely sure. MUS's A team (which came in second to us at Bolton) were all either juniors or sophomores, so you're certainly right about their potential. Collierville had a good team last year (they beat us twice, and they even had a good lead for a while on Ezell in the finals of our tournament), but I think most of their players were seniors. I did have one of their players ask me about the logistics of trips to Nashville, so perhaps they're looking to travel more.

johntait1 · Post by **johntait1** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:59 am

karlsmith223 wrote: In addition, our rising sophomores are looking very very fearsome (Yongyu, Daniel) as well as our rising juniors. Cheers!

Haha, you mean our rising sophomores look very fearsome at History Bowl.....right? Because our History Bowl team is stacked with Yongyu, Kevin, Ronik, Will and me for JV next year but for scholars bowl Yongyu's the only one with a chance of going to nationals......
Also, Farragut will probably host History Bowl again. Not sure when though.

tnormfrank · Post by **tnormfrank** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:37 pm

I've received a few e-mails in the last few days from coaches in east and west TN lamenting the lack of tournament opportunities in those parts of the state. Any one in the east and west grand divivions of TN planning on any tournaments this year?

ryanrosenberg · Post by **ryanrosenberg** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 1:22 pm

tnormfrank wrote:I've received a few e-mails in the last few days from coaches in east and west TN lamenting the lack of tournament opportunities in those parts of the state. Any one in the east and west grand divivions of TN planning on any tournaments this year?

Adventurous coaches in eastern Tennessee could consider coming over to some North Carolina tournaments. This year there are two tournaments planned at Wake Forest and one at South Caldwell, which is only three hours from Knoxville. It's a little far, but it might be a nice chance to play some new teams.

Zach Billett · Post by **Zach Billett** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 1:48 pm

White Station will definitely host a HS tournament in the fall, with a tentative date of 11/30, and we'll probably host a MS tournament in the spring. Bolton, just outside of Memphis, hosted a HS tournament last season in January, and I would assume that they'll do the same this year.

Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin · Mon Jul 15, 2013 3:33 pm

tnormfrank wrote: I've received a few e-mails in the last few days from coaches in east and west TN lamenting the lack of tournament opportunities in those parts of the state. Any one in the east and west grand divisions of TN planning on any tournaments this year?

Yes, and that's why I included/am updating feasible out-of-state tournaments (as Ryan indicated) in the columns to the right (note: you may need to right-click and hit "View image" to see all the columns) that are a feasible distance from schools in East and West TN.

Zach, thanks. I'll wait for Bolton's confirmation in email before putting up tentative dates.

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:20 pm

I'd appreciate you adding our Hoover Invitational to the out of state listing for 10/12/13. We generally get 45-60 teams, including teams from as far as Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia each year. Hoover is about 3 to 3.5 hours from Nashville, Memphis, or Knoxville--no more than the regular treks we make over to Atlanta area tourneys or to Ezell or Vanderbilt.

Thank you!

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:46 pm

tnormfrank wrote:I've received a few e-mails in the last few days from coaches in east and west TN lamenting the lack of tournament opportunities in those parts of the state. Any one in the east and west grand divivions of TN planning on any tournaments this year?

Out of state tournaments are great (University of Kentucky! It's in Lexington! Conveniently to semi-conveniently located for large chunks of eastern and central Tennessee! A fun trip to a beautiful area! Experience horses (ebooks not included)!), but the best thing for these teams to do would be to host their own tournaments if there aren't any/many in the area.

tnormfrank · Post by **tnormfrank** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 9:37 pm

One East TN coach mentioned the days (10-15 years ago) when there were tournaments at UT, Lee College, Halls, West, Oneida and CAK in addition to the Knoxville tv tournament. Now aside from Charlie at UTC, there's not much in-state in the eastern time zone.

Zach Billett · Post by **Zach Billett** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:14 am

White Station's hosting plans have changed somewhat. We're hosting a HS tournament almost certainly on 11/23 and a HS/MS tournament on either 3/22 or 3/29.

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 8:24 am

tnormfrank wrote:One East TN coach mentioned the days (10-15 years ago) when there were tournaments at UT, Lee College, Halls, West, Oneida and CAK in addition to the Knoxville tv tournament. Now aside from Charlie at UTC, there's not much in-state in the eastern time zone.

West Virginia's been through a similar situation over the past five or so years. The best thing interested parties could do would be to encourage people to host and provide as much help as they can. Tournaments don't have to be 30+ team affairs; getting people to hold smaller, possibly more casual 10-16 team tournaments (or less!) is great, because you're having tournaments then, at least.

tnormfrank · Post by **tnormfrank** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 9:27 am

The TACA state tournament at Tennessee Tech will most likely be on March 28-29.

thomasgnd · Post by **thomasgnd** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:11 pm

Spartanburg, South Carolina, is not a long drive from any part of East Tennessee, and it is convenient to the Nashville area as well. We would love to see as many Volunteer State teams as possible at our Cavalier Challenge on January 18, 2014. West Tennessee teams, we would love to have you as well. Come all!

vinteuil · Post by **vinteuil** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:00 am

The Predictable Consequences wrote:
tnormfrank wrote:I've received a few e-mails in the last few days from coaches in east and west TN lamenting the lack of tournament opportunities in those parts of the state. Any one in the east and west grand divivions of TN planning on any tournaments this year?
Adventurous coaches in eastern Tennessee could consider coming over to some North Carolina tournaments. This year there are two tournaments planned at Wake Forest and one at South Caldwell, which is only three hours from Knoxville. It's a little far, but it might be a nice chance to play some new teams.

Even Greensboro and Chapel Hill, where there are sure to be good tournaments this year aren't all that far!

johntait1 · Post by **johntait1** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 2:04 pm

thomasgnd wrote:Spartanburg, South Carolina, is not a long drive from any part of East Tennessee, and it is convenient to the Nashville area as well. We would love to see as many Volunteer State teams as possible at our Cavalier Challenge on January 18, 2014. West Tennessee teams, we would love to have you as well. Come all!

Hmmmm, I would be interested but is there JV? Our school has a strong team of rising sophomores for History Bowl an we would certainly welcome the chance to test our skills in a JV competition.

normfrank wrote:I've received a few e-mails in the last few days from coaches in east and west TN lamenting the lack of tournament opportunities in those parts of the state. Any one in the east and west grand divivions of TN planning on any tournaments this year?

Farragut will probably host History Bowl again, Madden suggested late October and late January which might happen but its all preliminary because we haven't talked to our teachers yet. As for regular quiz bowl, I heard someone mention interest in hosting at our school? Correct me if I'm wrong Kai and Lam.

thomasgnd · Post by **thomasgnd** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:56 pm

Would you be willing to list the Dorman SC (Jan 18, 2014) Cavalier Challenge on your schedule? We have been fortunate to have many Volunteer State teams at our event in the past, and we would love to see that number grow going forward.

Additional information may be found at viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14609. Please direct any questions to me via private message on this site or email at [email protected]. If you would like to register, please contact me through one of those two means with the specifics or to request a transmission of formal registration forms. For the purposes of insuring all communications are received, please limit your contact to private messages or emails, not posts on this thread.

Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin · Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:11 pm

Geoffrey, I've listed every Dorman tournament (along with every major update on these forums, including posts). The reason you may not see it is because the image is too large, so right-click and "View image" to see an entirely new column for SC- in this case, Dorman.

thomasgnd · Post by **thomasgnd** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:15 pm

Thanks, Rohan. That is much appreciated. We love having Tennessee teams at Dorman. Please make sure to check the right-most column in the schedule chart, folks!

mithokie · Post by **mithokie** » Mon Aug 26, 2013 2:24 pm

Blacksburg HS is hosting the Blacksburg High Academic Invitational II on Saturday 10/19/13. Blacksburg is a close drive, particularly for teams in Northeast Tennessee. The tournament will be held on NAQT question set IS-127A. More info can be found at viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14705 .
Additionally, if you would like to be added to our contact list for future tournaments, please send an e-mail to me: [email protected], and I will add you to my contact list.

Great Bustard · Post by **Great Bustard** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 8:59 am

NHBB is likely to have 4; definitely at least 3 tournaments in TN this year. First Assembly Christian in Cordova, near Memphis is hosting for us on C set on 11/16 (our first ever high school event in the Memphis area). I'm in touch with Farragut regarding at least 1 E TN regional. The state tournament will likely be in February on A set, possibly at Waverly again. I'm working on that too - I'll post here and on historybowl.com as dates get confirmed.

scottkim · Post by **scottkim** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:44 pm

Thank you for including GA events in the calendar. I hope to see more Tennessee teams at GA tournaments this year including our Spring Tournament at Collins Hill. We had a strong field (including Farragut) last year so I hope to see more TN teams this spring!

cchiego · Post by **cchiego** » Sun Sep 29, 2013 5:29 pm

Germantown High School (West TN) would like to claim either Jan. 11th or Feb. 8th for a tournament. If any potential attendees have a preference for one date or the other, let us know before we get final clearance for one of those days. Look for a full tournament announcement out soon.

tnormfrank · Post by **tnormfrank** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 6:55 pm

University School of Nashville is planning a tournament on January 11th.

tnormfrank · Post by **tnormfrank** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 7:01 pm

The deadline for joining TACA is less than a month away. Only member schools can compete in the state tournament.
TACA Schools
BGA
Blackman
Camden Central
Central Magnet of Murfreesboro
Columbia Academy
Columbia Central
Cookeville
Ezell-Harding
Farragut
Gallatin
Hendersonville
Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet
Lawrence County
Martin Luther King Magnet
McCallie
Oak Ridge
Portland
University School of Nashville

cchiego · Post by **cchiego** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 2:17 pm

I'm still unsure what West TN teams have to gain out of joining TACA other than to fulfill a requirement to attend the state championship. It would be much easier to recruit West TN teams to the state championships (and hopefully good quizbowl) without having them go through these hurdles of joining TACA and attending some set number of TN tournaments. As I've pointed out before, West TN is more of a geographic fit for Arkansas and Mississippi than Central or especially East TN (St. Louis is closer than Knoxville or Chattanooga to Memphis; Dallas, TX is just a bit further than Knoxville!). There's still a lack of quality quizbowl tournaments here, but those problems can improve with time if a good circuit is allowed to take root in its natural boundaries and teams aren't forced to drive to Nashville or Knoxville for tournaments.

We'll go with Feb. 8th as our tournament date at Germantown. Look for an announcement after fall break.

tnormfrank · Post by **tnormfrank** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 11:36 am

TACA was formed almost 20 years ago and at the time there was a robust roster of tournaments. It was not unusual then to go to tournaments in Murfreesboro, Nashville and Cookeville where 50 or more in-state teams competed representing schools from upper east TN to Memphis. Sadly, the participation of schools in east and west TN has dropped dramatically as well as opportunities to compete in in-state tournaments. One purpose of forming TACA was to encourage state-wide competition and that was one of the reasons we added the four-tournament in-state minimum to qualify for state. I am glad to see that some of our middle TN schools have been travelling to the Memphis-area to compete in the past couple of years and also that our east and west TN schools came to Vanderbilt last spring. Hopefully, the west TN circuit will continue to grow with the help of new schools and coaches.

cchiego · Post by **cchiego** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:03 pm

Rather than require an arbitrary number of in-state tournaments, why not have regional "qualifying" tournaments, then one smaller but very competitive (perhaps double RR?) state tournament featuring the best teams? This would make the travel burden easier for teams from West TN since we only have a handful of announced pyramidal tournaments in the area for the whole year (hopefully Bolton will host again in January, but I haven't heard anything from them) and would be a nice way to recognize the best teams from each of the grand divisions. It also wouldn't penalize teams near the borders for choosing to go to out-of-state tournaments that are closer than in-state ones.

On that note, do History Bowl and non-pyramidal tournaments count towards the total requirement?

I noticed that White Station has claimed March 22nd for a combined High School/Middle School event, bringing the total number of pyramidal events in West TN to three for the year (we may host another at Gtown in April). I'd love to see more West TN teams step up and host on good pyramidal questions, especially since Knowledge Bowl will be over by February.

EDIT: The more I think about the three grand divisions qualifying tournaments idea, the more I like it. Take the top two from each division tournament for a "Super Six" state competition. It'd be a great chance for some friendly regional rivalries to form and would be neat to PR to a wider audience.

OliverSpringsQuizBowl · Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:43 pm

Tennessee teams!! We would love to see as many of you as possible attend the Bobcat Challenge in at Oliver Springs High School on 2/15/14. We've reached a tentative agreement to mirror the Maggie Walker GSAC, and as of now are the only competition in TN who are doing so. We have limited space, so please let us know ASAP if you would like to attend. All the important info can be found at the link below.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15000

Regards,

OSQB

tnormfrank · Post by **tnormfrank** » Thu Oct 17, 2013 7:29 pm

History Bowl counts as a tournament toward the 4-tourney minimum, as do non-pyramidal tournaments. Even KMO counted as one of the four before it went belly up. I'm not sure the middle TN crowd would go for limiting the area to only two teams at state seeing as how that would involve taking only two of schools like USN, Ezell-Harding, Hume-Fogg and MLK all of whom regularly place very highly at Nationals each year. Qualifying requires finishing in the top 25% at an in-state tournament which usually means in the top 8 or so. The field at state has ranged from eight to as many as 16 in the years I can remember.

cchiego · Post by **cchiego** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 5:32 pm

Alright, so what's the process then for joining TACA? The website doesn't give many details.

There's a tournament using AUK questions, the wait-to-be-recognized rules, single-part bounceback bonuses, round pairing by scores, and other interesting elements at MUS tomorrow. Not many teams in the area seem to know about this website, so I'm still discovering new tournaments and rumors of tournaments in the area.

Also, Victor/Zach, can we get a field update for the WSHS tournament? And perhaps a push to get some other teams to host on good questions in the area? It sounds like HSAPQ is offering a cool set that features TUs and 1-part bonuses that teams in the area might like. I'll ask around tomorrow.

cchiego · Post by **cchiego** » Fri Oct 25, 2013 3:10 pm

Top total scores from the prelim rounds of the MUS tournament (very much AUK questions) with each round power-matched by points:
1430 Houston (Won Tournament)
1150 Collierville (Runner Up)
900 Collierville B
880 White Station A
860 Cordova
830 St Mary's
830 Briarcrest A
830 Briarcrest B
820 Bolton A
770 Arlington
750 CBHS A

Nice field shaping up at the WSHS tournament.

I also have heard that Bolton is hosting on 1/18 and Briarcrest on 2/23. No word on question sets or official announcements though.

cchiego · Post by **cchiego** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 5:55 pm

The West TN History Bowl happened yesterday. Final results were:
1st- WSHS A
2nd- Lausanne
Semis- Germantown A and St Benedict

The scheduling was a little weird and the delays were pretty bad, but the teams really seemed to like the pyramidal questions and the competition was quite good. I think this may have been Lausanne's first pyramidal tournament and they adjusted quite well to the questions. Too bad they can't make White Station's tournament next week--that's going to be really interesting with all of the other top local teams attending plus Itawamba and Hoover.

I've been getting some invitations to Middle TN tournaments but they're all with the strange worksheet + 10 TUs with no bonuses format and single-elim playoffs. Aren't there any other tournaments in TN that will use 20/20 and have rebracketed playoffs?

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:08 pm

Oak Ridge is 5th in the country.

Citizen Snips · Post by **Citizen Snips** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:43 pm

cchiego wrote:The West TN History Bowl happened yesterday. Final results were:
1st- WSHS A
2nd- Lausanne
Semis- Germantown A and St Benedict

The scheduling was a little weird and the delays were pretty bad, but the teams really seemed to like the pyramidal questions and the competition was quite good. I think this may have been Lausanne's first pyramidal tournament and they adjusted quite well to the questions. Too bad they can't make White Station's tournament next week--that's going to be really interesting with all of the other top local teams attending plus Itawamba and Hoover.

I've been getting some invitations to Middle TN tournaments but they're all with the strange worksheet + 10 TUs with no bonuses format and single-elim playoffs. Aren't there any other tournaments in TN that will use 20/20 and have rebracketed playoffs?

Vanderbilt tournaments will follow a regular 20/20 format. I would assume that Oliver Springs' tournament will follow a regular format as well. USN's tournament will try to guarantee more than five games. We will follow the state format, though. All other tournaments, with the exception of those at Germantown and White Station, will probably follow the state format and have single elimination playoffs.

Rococo A Go Go · Post by **Rococo A Go Go** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:00 pm

We always get a good number of Tennessee teams at our events (which is only 20 miles from the state line) and they don't seem to mind using a proper quizbowl format. I don't know if that's making any positive impact, but there at least seems to be some market for playing good quizbowl.

Tournaments saying things like "we will follow the state format because ????" are harmful to the spread of good quizbowl, because they legitimize bad quizbowl. Single elimination playoffs are bad quizbowl, and do not help your circuit improve. Not keeping stats is annoying and keeps your teams from properly assessing their performance and set reasonable goals for improvement. Tournaments not using full packets for games devalues those games and keeps teams from improving by getting the experience of hearing full packets like the rest of the country.

Citizen Snips · Post by **Citizen Snips** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:02 pm

Sulawesi Myzomela wrote:We always get a good number of Tennessee teams at our events (which is only 20 miles from the state line) and they don't seem to mind using a proper quizbowl format. I don't know if that's making any positive impact, but there at least seems to be some market for playing good quizbowl.

Tournaments saying things like "we will follow the state format because ????" are harmful to the spread of good quizbowl, because they legitimize bad quizbowl. Single elimination playoffs are bad quizbowl, and do not help your circuit improve. Not keeping stats is annoying and keeps your teams from properly assessing their performance and set reasonable goals for improvement. Tournaments not using full packets for games devalues those games and keeps teams from improving by getting the experience of hearing full packets like the rest of the country.

How does one go about talking to one's coach about this without angering the coach?

Rococo A Go Go · Post by **Rococo A Go Go** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:32 pm

intheshadowofgreatness wrote:
Sulawesi Myzomela wrote:We always get a good number of Tennessee teams at our events (which is only 20 miles from the state line) and they don't seem to mind using a proper quizbowl format. I don't know if that's making any positive impact, but there at least seems to be some market for playing good quizbowl.

Tournaments saying things like "we will follow the state format because ????" are harmful to the spread of good quizbowl, because they legitimize bad quizbowl. Single elimination playoffs are bad quizbowl, and do not help your circuit improve. Not keeping stats is annoying and keeps your teams from properly assessing their performance and set reasonable goals for improvement. Tournaments not using full packets for games devalues those games and keeps teams from improving by getting the experience of hearing full packets like the rest of the country.
How does one go about talking to one's coach about this without angering the coach?

There are probably better people than myself to give you advice on this, but in general when I talk to coaches/TDs about these things I emphasize the fact that these are the practices prevalent on a national scale. That means that when teams go to a national tournament, or travel out of state to an event like Hilltopper or UK, or even face out-of-state teams that come down and win tournaments in Tennessee, they need the proper preparation to compete on a level playing field with teams from other circuits. Single elimination gives teams less games and therefore less ability to learn and gain experience, not playing full packets (or not playing on the same packet formatting i.e. 20/20 with no worksheet) is also poor preparation for important games in addition to keeping teams from hearing questions and learning from those questions for future tournaments. The stats issue is probably less of a problem, as I think you're planning to keep full stats already.

Great Bustard · Post by **Great Bustard** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 12:49 am

NHBB TN States on A Set will be on 3/15 at Gallatin High School. St. Benedict may host a second West TN (B set) site for us. Still no confirmed leads for NHBB in East TN - there was initial interest from Sullivan South, but I haven't heard from them in over a month. Any takers to host? Host high schools play for free, as always.

Great Bustard · Post by **Great Bustard** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:07 am

Actually, just saw on NAQT.com that White Station is hosting that day. I'll see if this can move to 3/8 or 3/22, but those are the only 2 other viable dates for this. If neither works, we'll need to stick with 3/15.

Zach Billett · Post by **Zach Billett** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:29 am

White Station is actually looking to move our tournament to 3/22, as 3/15 is during our Spring Break. It's not confirmed yet, but it's likely that we'll go with 3/22.

Citizen Snips · Post by **Citizen Snips** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:17 am

Zach Billett wrote:White Station is actually looking to move our tournament to 3/22, as 3/15 is during our Spring Break. It's not confirmed yet, but it's likely that we'll go with 3/22.

I believe a lot of schools in the state of Tennessee will be out on spring break on March 15. USN would likely come, but I'm not sure how many teams you could get.

cchiego · Post by **cchiego** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:45 pm

We still have a couple of slots for our Dec. 7th tournament open if anyone who hasn't yet heard the JAMES set wants in. If I don't hear from anyone else by Thanksgiving, I'm going to open it up to C teams.

Germantown's February tournament (on IS 133A) is going to have to move to Feb. 1st due to the ACT on Feb. 8th, but the good news is that we should have a much higher field cap for this tournament (probably 30+).

I heard that Houston wants to host something on Feb. 8th and Bolton confirmed for hosting on January 18th, but has not yet decided on a question set. Briarcrest is rumored to be wanting to host on Feb. 22nd, but I haven't heard anything else from them recently.

That still leaves PLENTY of room in the West TN schedule, especially since the only other event scheduled right now is WSHS' March tournament.

I'll reserve more detailed comments on the relative strength of the West TN teams until WSHS posts stats, but from what I saw Houston A, Germantown A, and MUS A are all solid, although maybe still a bit behind WSHS A (though I would love to see a Houston A-WSHS A match now). Bolton has also definitely improved from last year. Some schools, notably St. Benedict, were missing top players at WSHS due to a Model UN and Lausanne bailed entirely to go MUN, so we still do not yet have a good idea of all the West TN contenders.