Alabama 2014-15

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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by kdoss61 »

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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by naesorman555 »

I thought the Gadsden tournament this past weekend was run really well; the readers were pretty competent and we got out at a very reasonable time. I didn't get a chance to see any varsity matches as I followed the JV all day. One of our JV teams played horribly after lunch and complained a little about the question difficulty. I didn't really notice any differences. Did anybody else notice a difference between rounds 1-5 and 6-7?
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

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I wish we could have made it to the Gadsden tournament. What set was this tournament run on?
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by naesorman555 »

SCOP MS 5 was used at the tournament; it's difficulty was somewhere between an A and standard IS set. ASCA rules were used but the high school teams did not do worksheets.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by quizbowllee »

Actually, the varsity division used the GSAC XXII set by Maggie Walker's team. It was a bit tougher than IS and the questions were much longer.

The tournament went fairly well for a first-time host. I strongly would have preferred doing a straight 20 TU/20 Bonus format with all three parts of the bonuses and no bouncebacks on that set.

Hoover A won the tournament, beating West Point A 330-210 in the final. I'm not sure who placed 3rd and 4th. I know that West Point beat Springwood in the Semi-Finals. But I don't know who the other team in the top 4 was.

In JV, Hoover C and Hoover D took first and 2nd and West Point C took 3rd. I was pleased with this, as our JV team was lacking our strongest player.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by naesorman555 »

Thanks, I accidentally looked at the middle school info
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by quizbowllee »

State is this Friday.

Pools:

Pool A:

Brindlee Mountain High School
Covenant Christian School
Enterprise High School
Gadsden City High School
Huntsville High School
Oak Mountain High School

Pool B:

Donoho School
Hoover High School
JCIB High School
LAMP High School
Russellville High School
Springwood School

Pool C:

Altamont School
Buckhorn High School
Dothan High School
Evangel Classical Christian School
Spain Park High School
West Point High School

Pool D:

Alma Bryant High School
Good Hope High School
Grissom High School
Holy Spirit Catholic High School
James Clemens High School
Sparkman High School

Top 2 from each pool move on to the 8-team playoffs.

Predictions?
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Predictions? No.

I will say two things.

1) If Hoover, Spain Park, West Point, and Gadsden City don't advance to the playoffs, it will mean a MAJOR upset has taken place.

2) Pool D is almost completely up for grabs, and I have no idea who will emerge from it.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by quizbowllee »

I think Pool D is fairly obvious. It will be Grissom and James Clemens.

I think our pool is probably the hardest to predict. I think West Point and Spain Park would be favored to come out of that pool. But, we are 1-1 against Buckhorn this year and barely beat them at Regionals. Spain Park is the only team in Alabama that has beaten us without us also beating them. We are 0-2 against Spain Park. And, Altamont is the kind of team that could pull an upset.

I predict the following:

Gadsden City and Huntsville from Pool A.
Hoover and Springwood from Pool B.
Spain Park and West Point from Pool C.
James Clemens and Grissom from Pool D.

It should be fun.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Two reasons I don't totally agree with you on pool D, Lee:

1) Sparkman and James Clemens are 1-1 each head to head this year. Both beat the other team by a significant margin one time.

2) If you compare performance on IS sets, not A sets, you have no data for Sparkman (unfortunately), but James Clemens only put up 278 PPG on IS-140 in NAQT standard format--that's with the powers and negs, 3 bonuses, no bounce or worksheet--and Holy Spirit put up 246 PPG -- not far behind when you consider that Holy Spirit only lost to Woodford County KY and to Gadsden A, two good teams, and that JC had a significantly easier pool. JC had a quality win against Grissom, but went 1-3 in the playoff flight overall after clearing a pool heavy with B squads. Grissom is strong, and upset Huntsville in the Regionals, but they are all young, and I think a lot of their power is speed, not depth, which may set them back against the senior heavy teams on an IS set. I think that all four of these teams are very much in play against each other, and that Good Hope, if Krystian has a game where he goes nuts, can upset any of them. I have a hard time seeing him single-handedly carrying GH past the other four teams, but he could play spoiler for someone and would be happy to do so. Alma Bryant is unlikely to cause a bump for anyone on an IS set.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by quizbowllee »

But, you're not taking into account that James Clemens's best player is a Freshman who didn't play on varsity at all until - I think - Regionals. This kid is GOOD. He almost single-handedly beat our full A-team at CCA.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

He is good. That's Sharath Narayan, who was nearly the MS scoring champ at Liberty Middle last year. He's made some good strides since last year, and took advantage of QB camp as well to continue to climb. I agree he can be a factor, but I still think those teams are pretty even right now.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by naesorman555 »

Stats for the state tournament on the ASCA page. There was a lot of parity this year; I wouldn't have thought the playoffs would have turned out the way they did. Congrats to all of the state qualifiers, playoff teams, and the Final Four. This year was really special for us
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Full stats with bonus conversion, etc. in SQBS format:

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... ey_report/
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Just a note for those looking ahead:

Spain Park, the 2015 runners-up, will return all six players they brought to State.
Buckhorn High School will return all six players they brought to State.
Gadsden City will return two of their strongest players, Harry and Justin.
Huntsville will return their entire starting 4.
Oak Mountain will return 4 of their 6.
Russellville will return all six players from State.
Springwood will return Venu Reddy for a third year, plus a rising player in Anica Choi.
Altamont returns three of their four players from State.
Evangel Classical will return all six players from State.
West Point returns two of their starting four and will add two from their extremely strong JV.
Grissom will return two players from State.
James Clemens will return one player from State, but that player is Sharath.
Sparkman returns three players from State.
Hoover returns one player from State.

Early frontrunners should be Spain Park, but next year is going to be a tough one for any team in Alabama.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by JosipOfKumrovec »

Grissom will return 3 members of their state team, not two.

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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by naesorman555 »

I know these teams are planning on going to nationals: Springwood, LAMP, Huntsville, West Point, Cordova, and Hoover (two teams). Did I leave anybody out or is anybody else hoping to get in on standby? From what I've seen from them this year, I really think Hoover, Springwood, and West Point could have good weekends. I wouldn't be shocked if Springwood upset somebody, and I know that West Point will be ready to go after small school nationals. I think Hoover's got a good chance of getting a team in the playoffs this year if we don't get tired or unfocused.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Important Bird Area »

West Point's B and C teams are currently on the standby list for HSNCT.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by quizbowllee »

It seems like every time we host a tournament, regardless of the date, there are several Alabama teams that can't make it because of "mandatory Saturday AP Study Sessions" on that Saturday. What is the deal with that? Is it because of A+ College Ready? I ask because we (West Point) just got on board the A+ grant as a "Pipeline" school. Is this what I have to look forward to? Also, just how "mandatory" are these things?

There's no way my team is going to miss a major tournament for an AP study session.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by billysport »

This is a little off topic, but what did you guys think about Bumpus placing T29 at NAQT's Middle School Championship? We had the luck of playing them first at district and it wasn't a contest.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by kdoss61 »

I can't speak to the difficulty of MSNCT questions, but it seems like Bumpus put up pretty good stats, especially for nationals. It's not very often that Alabama has teams place in the top quarter of the field at a national event. Good job Bumpus!
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by quizbowllee »

The pipeline of talented students coming up from Bumpus is going to keep the Hoover machine running strong for years to come.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by kdoss61 »

Shameless plug

Coaches, if you have any players that will be attending USA this fall, please give them my email ([email protected]) and have them contact me. Trying to find 10 dedicated members will be difficult, so any help is appreciated.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by tktennis »

I know I'm a little late to the party, but next year, Bayside Academy is ready to break into the top of the state scene. We had a 30-5 record this year in our league (which we won over Spanish Fort, who had won it the last few years), the Enterprise Weevil Bowl (our first major tourney - 3rd behind LAMP and Enterprise), UMS (second place finish after Gadsden City, who we led at the half), and the NAC New Orleans phase, where we made the quarterfinals and were up after two quarters against eventual champion Lusher before they beat us (although in not as dramatic of a fashion as they beat Pingry).

Not only did we rep quite an excellent record last year, but we had strong individual play as well. Captain (and sophomore) Trent Kannegieter was the second-highest scorer at the Weevil Bowl behind LAMP's top player, as well as the top scorer in-league. We will be returning EVERY SINGLE PLAYER from ALL of our teams next year as well. Our A team is two juniors and two sophomores, and our B team was a freshman, a junior, and three sophomores. We will also add a new 8th grader who shows promise.

We would love the chance to compete against the top teams in the state next year. But, we need to know what we need to do to get there!! Can't wait to see more of y'all in the future!!
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by tktennis »

Cody wrote:
naesorman555 wrote:To facilitate the tryout process, maybe each team or school could be limited to sending one player for try outs.
This is a poor idea -- what happens if 1 school has more than 1 player who should be on a NASAT team? This is very common in many states.
naesorman555 wrote:My concern with the all star teams would be finding an ideal composition of players. A good team must have chemistry and several opportunities to practice with each other, and a coach needs time to find the best combinations. This is hard to do at one school in a year. With limited time and resources, I don't see how a competitive team could be assembled by one day of try outs
Many, many other states have no problem with this. Tryouts aren't hard to conduct and many states's methods of NASAT tryouts have been posted on the boards over the years; there is no shortage of ways to find an "ideal composition of players". "Chemistry" and "several opportunities to practice with each other" were never a problem for past teams, but it has been very well solved by the advent of online practices.

Remember, plenty of states attend NASAT each year. The only hard part about constructing a NASAT team is finding at least 4 interested people.
As far as NASAT goes, I'd be VERY interested. I've been in the top two scorers in every tournament I played this year, and, at NAC New Orleans, no player on any team scored even half the points I did when we competed against them. (This includes Pingry, Lusher, and Conway matches.)

I'd even be willing to organize groups or what not, this seems like a huge opportunity!! Plus, I am always looking for chances to play that my team per se might not want to go to.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by tktennis »

By the way, because I didn't add it earlier, here is Bayside's spread:

Seniors:
NONE

Juniors:
Steele Partridge (A Team)
Kennedy Jones (A Team)
Maggie He (Alternate)
Madison Stevens
Mackenzie Ross
Will Smith

Sophomores:
Trent Kannegieter (Captain, A Team)
Wesley Thompson (A Team)
Steve Chen
Erin Brown
Sam Grey
Tommy O'Hara
Jacob Hartley

Freshmen:
Grayson York
Megan McCrory
Ahmad Al-Salem
Trent Kannegieter
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

tktennis wrote:I know I'm a little late to the party, but next year, Bayside Academy is ready to break into the top of the state scene. We had a 30-5 record this year in our league (which we won over Spanish Fort, who had won it the last few years), the Enterprise Weevil Bowl (our first major tourney - 3rd behind LAMP and Enterprise), UMS (second place finish after Gadsden City, who we led at the half), and the NAC New Orleans phase, where we made the quarterfinals and were up after two quarters against eventual champion Lusher before they beat us (although in not as dramatic of a fashion as they beat Pingry).
Not to rain on your parade, Trent, as these are big steps forward for your team, but that last step into the top tier in the state is a doozy, especially next year. Your record is great, and i'm glad to see Bayside getting active, but until you start playing more regularly against teams from the Birmingham and Huntsville area, it will be hard to judge the quality of your program, as some of the state's best teams are located in the north half. To see why I say this, look at results from South Alabama over the last few years at state--teams qualify and make it to the big show, but very few have managed to crack the state championship playoff bracket once they end up seeded into a statewide pool.
tktennis wrote:Not only did we rep quite an excellent record last year, but we had strong individual play as well. Captain (and sophomore) Trent Kannegieter was the second-highest scorer at the Weevil Bowl behind LAMP's top player, as well as the top scorer in-league. We will be returning EVERY SINGLE PLAYER from ALL of our teams next year as well. Our A team is two juniors and two sophomores, and our B team was a freshman, a junior, and three sophomores. We will also add a new 8th grader who shows promise.

We would love the chance to compete against the top teams in the state next year. But, we need to know what we need to do to get there!! Can't wait to see more of y'all in the future!!

This argues strongly for your teams future, and is a big reason why ASCA made a strong push to get into the Mobile area this year and get teams more active. To answer your question, though, about "what we need to do to get there", the answer is simple and hard at the same time. You have to play better teams and travel more. It's simple, because it is a relatively easy answer, but the hard part is your location, which is far from ideal for hitting events on the Alabama circuit. LAMP's big tourney is a must for you guys--its probably the closest state major in your area barring the actual ASCA state tourney. Making it to the Hoover Invitational next year would also be huge for you, though its another hour to the north--you'll play top teams from your state and others there, and that's how you really start to measure yourself. Look for a tourney in the West Florida University area or on the panhandle--Florida is getting better. South Georgia might be an option as well. You can check ASCA's web site, NAQT's site, and this board for tourney notices that your team can choose to travel to. If I recall correctly, Bayside is private, which means you guys won't have the same horrid travel restrictions and bureaucracy we have in the public system, plus you may have a school minibus that you can get your sponsor to drive on trips that allows you to bring two squads.

All of this would go a long way to helping your team make a push to the top in the near future. I wish you luck for next year--it is going to be a brutal one in our state--and in the future, and if you need more information or your sponsor is looking for help, feel free to put him/her in touch with me.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by tktennis »

Joshua Rutsky wrote:
tktennis wrote:I know I'm a little late to the party, but next year, Bayside Academy is ready to break into the top of the state scene. We had a 30-5 record this year in our league (which we won over Spanish Fort, who had won it the last few years), the Enterprise Weevil Bowl (our first major tourney - 3rd behind LAMP and Enterprise), UMS (second place finish after Gadsden City, who we led at the half), and the NAC New Orleans phase, where we made the quarterfinals and were up after two quarters against eventual champion Lusher before they beat us (although in not as dramatic of a fashion as they beat Pingry).
Not to rain on your parade, Trent, as these are big steps forward for your team, but that last step into the top tier in the state is a doozy, especially next year. Your record is great, and i'm glad to see Bayside getting active, but until you start playing more regularly against teams from the Birmingham and Huntsville area, it will be hard to judge the quality of your program, as some of the state's best teams are located in the north half. To see why I say this, look at results from South Alabama over the last few years at state--teams qualify and make it to the big show, but very few have managed to crack the state championship playoff bracket once they end up seeded into a statewide pool.
tktennis wrote:Not only did we rep quite an excellent record last year, but we had strong individual play as well. Captain (and sophomore) Trent Kannegieter was the second-highest scorer at the Weevil Bowl behind LAMP's top player, as well as the top scorer in-league. We will be returning EVERY SINGLE PLAYER from ALL of our teams next year as well. Our A team is two juniors and two sophomores, and our B team was a freshman, a junior, and three sophomores. We will also add a new 8th grader who shows promise.

We would love the chance to compete against the top teams in the state next year. But, we need to know what we need to do to get there!! Can't wait to see more of y'all in the future!!

This argues strongly for your teams future, and is a big reason why ASCA made a strong push to get into the Mobile area this year and get teams more active. To answer your question, though, about "what we need to do to get there", the answer is simple and hard at the same time. You have to play better teams and travel more. It's simple, because it is a relatively easy answer, but the hard part is your location, which is far from ideal for hitting events on the Alabama circuit. LAMP's big tourney is a must for you guys--its probably the closest state major in your area barring the actual ASCA state tourney. Making it to the Hoover Invitational next year would also be huge for you, though its another hour to the north--you'll play top teams from your state and others there, and that's how you really start to measure yourself. Look for a tourney in the West Florida University area or on the panhandle--Florida is getting better. South Georgia might be an option as well. You can check ASCA's web site, NAQT's site, and this board for tourney notices that your team can choose to travel to. If I recall correctly, Bayside is private, which means you guys won't have the same horrid travel restrictions and bureaucracy we have in the public system, plus you may have a school minibus that you can get your sponsor to drive on trips that allows you to bring two squads.

All of this would go a long way to helping your team make a push to the top in the near future. I wish you luck for next year--it is going to be a brutal one in our state--and in the future, and if you need more information or your sponsor is looking for help, feel free to put him/her in touch with me.
Sounds good, I will definitely be working hard to get our team there! We have been trying to play as much of the top competition as possible this year, and we have improved exponentially. My freshman year, our team placed fifth in our local league. This year we won it undefeated. We did get to the Enterprise tournament, over three hours away from us, and were able to play LAMP close early on in the season, within which we have also gotten much stronger. We also barely lost to Gadsden (by one toss up) in the finals of UMS, and we did make final 8 at NAC, where Altamont did not make playoffs and Gadsden made either QF or SF (we left before the tournament ended, but if they made semis then they lost to the same team we did.) Which of the events would you consider as "majors" that we should give priority to get to? We have a few variables of whether we can get to tournaments. Unfortunately, our board is quite stingy, especially for a private school. Also, getting much of our team to go above and beyond is a struggle.

We would love to try to make it to Montgomery events though, and also implore all the top Alabama teams to come to the UMS Wright invitational, which, although an hour away from us, is basically our home tournament! Thank you for your feedback.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by ryanrosenberg »

tktennis wrote:I know I'm a little late to the party, but next year, Bayside Academy is ready to break into the top of the state scene.
Not to put too fine of a point on it, but your best route to becoming the best team in the state (and heck, one of the better teams in the country) is to get better at quizbowl. Going to more tournaments with better competition helps, but there's no substitute for studying and improving yourself and your team.

The "Theory" and "New High School Teams" sections of this board are full of good advice on how to study and how to improve. In particular, Max Schindler's "So You Want to Study Quizbowl" post (which actually isn't in either of those fora since it's been moved to the "Best of the Best" section) should be required reading for anyone serious about becoming a top-notch quizbowl player.

When I first discovered the boards in high school, I was in a similar situation to you -- my team had done NAC for as long as anyone could remember, and we had an administration pretty resistant to changing that. We went to our first pyramidal tournament at the end of the year and did pretty well, although we lost to more experienced teams and missed the playoffs. Over the summer, though, I decided I wanted to get better at pyramidal quizbowl, and started reading something like 2-3 packets a day, writing down clues that I didn't know and Googling things that sounded interesting. That practice routine, plus some strong category specialization from my teammates, was enough to get us a 21st place finish at HSNCT the next year (my senior year).

You have a much better situation than I did, though: you all have two years where we had one, and more experience on NAQT questions than we did. Take advantage of it; you don't have to copy any specific practice regimen, but if you're reading past packets from good sets, learning about clues that come up frequently, and focusing on doing better as you gain experience, you'll find that this quizbowl thing becomes a lot easier.

Welcome to the boards, and best of luck!
Ryan Rosenberg
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by kdoss61 »

Good Hope will return three of our players from state, and one who couldn't attend due to scheduling conflicts. Two of next year's players will be attending ACE Camp in Tuscaloosa, so I am fairly certain that they are dedicated enough to try to step up and fill my place. Unfortunately, our sponsor has retired. I am not completely sure who has/will take that role; out of the list of potential candidates, none of them (to my knowledge) have any experience with quiz bowl. Even though I will be 5 hours away this upcoming year, I will still serve in an advisory role for the team. If any of you can help our sponsor out next year, I would greatly appreciate it.

If I am able to revive USA's team and recruit a decent amount of dedicated players, I would like to help strengthen the pyramidal quiz bowl scene in the Mobile/Southern Alabama region and host some tournaments. I'm hoping that we could run an invitational or two, but that all will depend on how long it will take me to get the program up-and-running again.
tktennis wrote:I know I'm a little late to the party, but next year, Bayside Academy is ready to break into the top of the state scene. We had a 30-5 record this year in our league (which we won over Spanish Fort, who had won it the last few years), the Enterprise Weevil Bowl (our first major tourney - 3rd behind LAMP and Enterprise), UMS (second place finish after Gadsden City, who we led at the half), and the NAC New Orleans phase, where we made the quarterfinals and were up after two quarters against eventual champion Lusher before they beat us (although in not as dramatic of a fashion as they beat Pingry).
Trent, until we are able to run tournaments (if at all), you will definitely need to travel. You may have performed well this past year, but let's be real; a couple of good finishes on A-set tournaments doesn't prove that you have what it takes to take on top teams like Hoover and Spain Park. Neither does NAC. Trust me; the questions DO get harder, and Questions Unlimited (regardless if you're at the national level or not) won't help you out.

If you are aiming for the top, Trent, you will definitely need to come to some of the larger tournaments this year. Like Mr. Rutsky said, LAMP and Hoover Invitational will be some of the more accessible tournaments for you. The largest tournament of this past year was the Covenant Christian Invitational in Huntsville, but that would be an even further drive for you guys. Some good out-of-state tournaments for you guys that aren't as far would be the QuizCats tournament in Bainbridge, GA; Mount Carmel Open in New Orleans, LA (also Tulane hosts some tournaments); and the Mustang Invitational in Murrah, MS (also one at Miss. State). NAQT's High School National Championship Tournament will be in [Dallas] in 2016, and you should definitely plan on attending (assuming that you would qualify again).

Let me, or anybody on this thread, know if you have any questions. Good luck to you next year.

Edited for location of 2016 HSNCT --JTH
Krystian Doss
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Maury Island incident »

HSNCT will be in Dallas this year, not Chicago. PACE NSC, however, will be in Chicago at the same hotel that has hosted the last two HSNCTs.
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by kdoss61 »

Generating Steam Heat wrote:HSNCT will be in Dallas this year, not Chicago. PACE NSC, however, will be in Chicago at the same hotel that has hosted the last two HSNCTs.
My bad. Looked at the wrong forum topic before I made my post. Nonetheless, start making plans to attend, Trent.
Krystian Doss
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by JosipOfKumrovec »

I thought that ACE camp 2015 was a success. Thanks to all the Coaches, Volunteers, and Staff for making it a great week. Hopefully, the success of the camp will bring up the overall quality of Alabama Quiz Bowl, I'd definitely like to see us form a team for NASAT next year.



Cheers, and thanks for all the help

Chris Carter
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Re: Alabama 2014-15

Post by Zealots of Stockholm »

Hello everyone, I am Chandler West and I will be the captain for Good Hope High School this upcoming season. Our sponsor has retired, but unless the new sponsor completely shoots the idea down, we would like to run a tournament between November-mid December.(We are located less than a mile off of I-65 exit 304). I know that both Hoover and West Point run an invitational in that time span (usually), and we would still like to attend both, so we are wanting to schedule around their dates, once announced. I know ASCA runs everything except the state championship on an A-set, so I'm wondering if its possible for Good Hope to run on an A-set and still be able to attend all of the other tournaments, or are we going to have to run on an IS set? The main problem we are looking to avoid is running on the same set of questions as a nearby tournament, because we are looking to attract as many teams as possible.

Also-- this is not an official tournament announcement, which is why I'm posting it here instead of the announcing forum. View it as more of a "when would be the best date" and "show of hands on interest" post.
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