Alabama 2018-2019

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Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Calendar for Alabama Scholars Bowl, 2018-2019:

August 25: West Point Kickoff Invitational (SCOTTIE mirror)
October 6: Auburn (WHAQ)
October 20: ASCA MS/HS Fun Tournament @ LAMP (Montgomery)
October 27: ASCA Fun Tourney @ Liberty Middle School
NOTE TENTATIVE DATE CHANGE: November 10: 14th Hoover Invitational (IS-177)
November 17: Sylacauga Aggie Invitational
January 5: Russellville MS Invitational
January 10/11: ASCA JV Districts
January 12: Covenant Christian Invitational (IS-182)
January 19: LAMP Invitational (IS-179)/Hoover Middle School Melee (NMMS2)
January 26: ASCA MS Districts (MS-29)
February 8: ASCA High School District Tournaments (IS-182A)
February 16: Auburn Winter (IS-181)
February 23: ASCA ES/MS/JV State Championships @ Hoover High School (IS-178A/182A) (MS-29/MS-30)
April 5: Snead State Invitational
April 12: ASCA HS State Championship (IS-183)
Last edited by Joshua Rutsky on Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:14 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

A couple of things to mention here:

1) ASCA coaches should be aware that our Fall Conference will be at the Alabama Power Conference Center in Clanton, AL on Wednesday, October 3. We will offer breakout sessions, open the floor for discussion of rules and changes needed, and talk about our upcoming plans. All coaches are welcome and encouraged to attend! We will also provide workshop certificates for PD credit.

2) There are no major format changes from last year to this year.

3) Plans are in the works for a Women in Quizbowl summit to be held at Sylacauga High School later this year. Expect mentoring opportunities, women from successful teams (past and present) discussing their experiences in the QB world, and an afternoon mini-tournament for attendees. ASCA is proud to be organizing this event, and encourages all interested persons to keep an eye open for further announcements. We hope this one-day event will serve as a model for other states looking to address this issue.


Dates for upcoming events will be posted here as notice is provided.


Regarding ranking discussions and the like for Alabama for this year: At the end of last year's thread, I listed the teams from our state that I thought would be in the hunt for the title this year, and some reasons why I felt that way. After this year's ACE Camp at Huntsville gave me a chance to take a closer look at some of the players, here's my start of year rankings. As always, YMMV.

1. Gadsden City
Sorry, Coach Davenport, but your team gets the kiss of death top ranking to start the year. In many ways, the title is Gadsden's to lose this season. They are fielding a very solid team, anchored by Josh Kelley and Claire Tumlin. Both are good players, and both have valuable experience playing top teams. Claire has continued to improve her lit game, and unless Jenny Baek worked hard over the summer, she's solidified her place as #2 in the state behind Anna Muthalaly. Mustafa looked like he was gaining some momentum as well at camp. This is a good team, and if they can build some confidence during the regular season, they will be very tough to beat this year at state.

2. Hoover
It's hard to rank a team that lost three starters of the four at #2 in the state, but based on what I have seen, Hoover belongs there. This isn't a knock on other teams, but rather a testament to how good Anna is and how talented some of her supporting cast will be. Kapil Nathan finished multiple events at ACE camp in the top five as a rising freshman, and will join a large group of younger players who got a lot of varsity playing time last season. Hoover has three big questions to answer, however, at the start of the year: 1) Who is going to be the science player? 2) Can someone emerge as a consistent history player? 3) Can the team gel into a group that works together? There's a lot of talent, but a lot of question marks as well.

3. Altamont
Vivek Sasse will make this team one that is capable of beating any other team in the state in a given match. His supporting cast will determine how consistently he can achieve that.

4. Indian Springs
Replace Vivek Sasse with Will Smith, and you have the same basic situation at Indian Springs as you do at Altamont.

5. Sylacauga
Will Hughes and company were good enough to make the finals of the ASC TV show last season. They lost Gianna Silva, but they are still going to be solid, especially if Will gets focused in.

6. LAMP
The dark horse team in this group of six. LAMP is very hard to rank, as they have consistently been a solid team, but haven't tipped over into the top tier in recent seasons. This may be the year they do so. They've been travelling to nationals for a couple of years, know what to expect in pressure situations, and have some quality rising players. This may be the year they crack the final four.

7-10. Spain Park, Grissom, Southside, Hewitt-Trussville, in no particular order. These are teams we will need to see before we can judge how far they can go.


That's my best guess for now. There are some very good middle school teams out there as well, but I don't feel like I know enough to talk about middle school rankings.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Zealots of Stockholm »

Auburn will likely host twice this year, once again on an IS set (#177) probably around February, and a fall tournament on October 6th using the WHAQ III set. I'm not sure what we'll call the upcoming tournament yet, but probably something like Auburn Fall Kickoff Tournament. I should have an announcement up in the next few weeks.

As far as teams go, I would imagine Hoover will stay strong in state despite losing 3/4 of last year's team. Anna was a really good generalist as a Freshman from what I remember. Hopefully some other top teams can be persuaded to give HSNCT a shot this year!
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

Just a heads up,(correct me if I'm wrong) most likely either Liberty or Arab will host a MS "fun" tournament sometime in the fall. That's all the information I have.

Also, I hate to post this again, but is anybody interested in making a middle school raking(I saw what Mr. Rutsky posted, so not necessarily talking to him) ?

Edit: Liberty will be hosting the fun tournement on October 27
Last edited by iarehavethestupid on Thu Oct 04, 2018 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Zealots of Stockholm »

Announcement for Auburn Fall Kickoff using WHAQ III is now up: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... 20#p349120. I'll try to send out emails to coaches by Monday afternoon.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

A tweet from the NAQT Middle School National Championship Tournament sparked discussion this summer about the
role of girls in quiz bowl (#girlsinquizbowl). The ASCA board members who met this summer felt
strongly that, while girls are well represented on many of our teams, we could do more to encourage the
participation of girls in our state. To this end, we have created a survey for coaches and players to give
us a better idea of the current situation, and we are offering our first ever Summit on Girls in Quiz Bowl
to give our current and past quiz bowl girls a voice in how to help us move forward. Rhonda Brewer
(ASCA Secretary) will be hosting the event on Saturday, September 29th, at Sylacauga High School.
This event is open to all coaches and to all current and former girls in quiz bowl. We will have as our
keynote speaker Robin Crews Wilson, a former scholars bowler and the senior pastor at First United
Methodist Church in Opelika. She will talk about her experiences in quiz bowl, how they influenced her
life and leadership style, and offer some advice and encouragement to our young women. The rest of the
morning will be an opportunity to talk openly about the experiences of girls in quiz bowl and possible
strategies to combat negative attitudes. The afternoon will feature a mini-tournament for current
players to show off their girl power, and we encourage coaches and former players to help by serving as
moderators and scorekeepers during the event. The registration is free, but we will charge a small fee for a t-shirt and lunch on site.

We encourage students to register for this event at the ASCA website; you can get there by this link.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by yutid »

How exactly does a round-robin tournament work? Is it similar to what we did at ACE camp for the Wild West tournament?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by quizbowllee »

yutid wrote: Fri Sep 14, 2018 11:39 am How exactly does a round-robin tournament work? Is it similar to what we did at ACE camp for the Wild West tournament?
Round Robin means that each team plays every other team exactly once. The team with the best record at the end wins.

This is usually only done when the field is small enough to allow it. More often, though, you will play "Round Robin" within a pool and the top x teams will move on to a playoff with the top x number of teams from other, separate pools.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Adam16 »

Hello quiz bowlers! My name is Adam Williams and I am the president of the Alabama Academic Quiz Bowl Team at the University of Alabama. We will be holding our annual William Rufus King Memorial Tournament on October 20 this year. We are now accepting registrations. For now, we are accepting a maximum of 2 teams per school in order to ensure that a good number of schools can be represented at our tournament. However, if we get closer to the day of the tournament and we still have open spots, we will allow schools to register extra teams. Spots are first come, first served, so if you would like to register please email me ASAP. If you have already emailed me about WRK, please email me to let me know if you would like to bring 1 or 2 teams. Furthermore, I ask that if you commit to bringing 2 teams, PLEASE bring 2 teams on the day of the tournament or let me know at least a week in advance if you will not be able to bring 2 teams. The tournament will be played on the IS-176A set. The tournament fee will be $50 per team, with a $10 discount per buzzer set that a school is able to bring. If you would like to register, or have any further questions, please email me at [email protected] or the club's account at [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you there!
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

I was wondering the other day, is there any reason why MS ASCA still has worksheets? I don't really see a point in having them, especially since they (In my opinion) seem to place emphasis on knowing the definition of words rather than testing quizbowl related knowledge.

I remember at the Russellville tournament last year, one of the worksheet answers could have been "Briny" or "Brackish" for something among the lines of "Salty water" that started with B. I still don't think we ever figured out what it was.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Short answer: Worksheets are the remnants of the old format ASCA used years ago. We voted to eliminate them from the JV/HS level last year, but left them in place in Middle at the request of a plurality of polled coaches. Although they are not good quizbowl as defined within the context of the quizbowl community at large, they serve two purposes - one, they allow teams that play once or twice a year to attend an event without getting bageled by a high-quality team, and some have argued that this helps retain these schools, who might otherwise just quit entirely; two, they allow coaches to let their alternates play in every match instead of sitting idly. Again, this isn't to say that either of these are good arguments, but they have been sufficient that coaches have voted to retain the worksheets. Remember, for a coach at the base level of quizbowl, which is where about 3/4 of Alabama is, the primary purpose of quizbowl is not to promote good quizbowl or to win matches. These are teachers; their primary purpose is to engage students with academic materials and give them opportunities. They do not look at the worksheets and see bad quizbowl; they look at them and see an opportunity for their students, who will never practice or study the way you will, to not be utterly humiliated by the gap between your team and theirs.

The move away from worksheets at the HS level was well-met last year. As a result, we are going to be polling the MS community again this year to see how coaches feel about doing the same at the MS level, and possibly relegating worksheets to ES only.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

Joshua Rutsky wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:30 pm Short answer: Worksheets are the remnants of the old format ASCA used years ago. We voted to eliminate them from the JV/HS level last year, but left them in place in Middle at the request of a plurality of polled coaches. Although they are not good quizbowl as defined within the context of the quizbowl community at large, they serve two purposes - one, they allow teams that play once or twice a year to attend an event without getting bageled by a high-quality team, and some have argued that this helps retain these schools, who might otherwise just quit entirely; two, they allow coaches to let their alternates play in every match instead of sitting idly. Again, this isn't to say that either of these are good arguments, but they have been sufficient that coaches have voted to retain the worksheets. Remember, for a coach at the base level of quizbowl, which is where about 3/4 of Alabama is, the primary purpose of quizbowl is not to promote good quizbowl or to win matches. These are teachers; their primary purpose is to engage students with academic materials and give them opportunities. They do not look at the worksheets and see bad quizbowl; they look at them and see an opportunity for their students, who will never practice or study the way you will, to not be utterly humiliated by the gap between your team and theirs.

The move away from worksheets at the HS level was well-met last year. As a result, we are going to be polling the MS community again this year to see how coaches feel about doing the same at the MS level, and possibly relegating worksheets to ES only.

Will ASCA at least work to improve the quality of worksheets, specifically addressing the issue I brought up in my previous post?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by alexdz »

I am currently working on a project for a MS league in Alabama, and I hope that my worksheets will be well-received. The first event is either this week or next, I believe, and the league runs through November. There may be a handful of vocabulary/definition questions in there, but they are overwhelmingly fact-based questions on the whole gamut of MS-appropriate topics. I think there is definitely a way to make worksheets not be terrible, and I hope this project demonstrates that.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

alexdz wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:24 pm I am currently working on a project for a MS league in Alabama, and I hope that my worksheets will be well-received. The first event is either this week or next, I believe, and the league runs through November. There may be a handful of vocabulary/definition questions in there, but they are overwhelmingly fact-based questions on the whole gamut of MS-appropriate topics. I think there is definitely a way to make worksheets not be terrible, and I hope this project demonstrates that.
Can you insure that the answer to the vocab ones can only be one thing, and not a synonym with the same staring letter? Etc: Briny and Brackish for "Water with a high salinity".
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by alexdz »

I'm not 100% perfect, but I can say that I've looked over my answer lines several times and any of the questions (tossup, bonus, and worksheet) with multiple valid answers have them all listed in the answerline. I don't tend to use "starts with this letter" questions unless absolutely necessary, so that shouldn't be an issue.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

alexdz wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:41 pm I don't tend to use "starts with this letter" questions unless absolutely necessary, so that shouldn't be an issue.
I was referring to worksheets, which typically follow a letter theme. Everything else sounds good though!
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by alexdz »

Nothing in the published rules suggests a letter theme is required, so I haven't been doing that with my sets. Hopefully that avoids some of the issues anyway.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by quizbowllee »

alexdz wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 7:59 pm Nothing in the published rules suggests a letter theme is required, so I haven't been doing that with my sets. Hopefully that avoids some of the issues anyway.
While technically true, we do try to make sure that the worksheets all contain a theme and that said theme is conducive to a broad spectrum of material and topics. In other words, we don't want a worksheet that is so focused on one discipline that it can skew an entire match. For example, a worksheet that asks players to "Name the creators of the following famous paintings" would not be appropriate. Why? Because suddenly a full 100 points is tied into knowledge of one narrow topic. One good art player on a team can completely unbalance a game. So, we try to do things like "All answers begin with the letter ____" so that we can have worksheets that at least come close to mirroring the distribution of the rest of the packet.

That being said, it is very frustrating when you get something like the "brackish/brine" instance. And I feel that frustration. When I write worksheets, I go out of my way to avoid any ambiguity.

And - for the record - I am adamantly in the "Get Rid of Worksheets Altogether" Camp. We got rid of them in high school and the world didn't end. That was a fight I had been fighting for 15 years. I think the days of worksheets in middle school are probably numbered, as well. But, as long as we have them, we need to make sure that they follow a fair distribution and that we don't skew the match in favor of any one topic.

So, Alex, PLEASE take that into consideration when making your worksheets.

Thanks,
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Ethan, I think it is also important for you to note that there is a difference between an ASCA event and an invitational. Invitational tournaments that use worksheets write them on their own or contract with someone; ASCA only writes the worksheets for the ASCA district and state tournaments. I believe that you are talking about the Russellville Invitational, which would be outside of our purview.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by literatureboye »

Joshua Rutsky wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:30 pm Short answer: Worksheets are the remnants of the old format ASCA used years ago. We voted to eliminate them from the JV/HS level last year, but left them in place in Middle at the request of a plurality of polled coaches. Although they are not good quizbowl as defined within the context of the quizbowl community at large, they serve two purposes - one, they allow teams that play once or twice a year to attend an event without getting bageled by a high-quality team, and some have argued that this helps retain these schools, who might otherwise just quit entirely; two, they allow coaches to let their alternates play in every match instead of sitting idly. Again, this isn't to say that either of these are good arguments, but they have been sufficient that coaches have voted to retain the worksheets. Remember, for a coach at the base level of quizbowl, which is where about 3/4 of Alabama is, the primary purpose of quizbowl is not to promote good quizbowl or to win matches. These are teachers; their primary purpose is to engage students with academic materials and give them opportunities. They do not look at the worksheets and see bad quizbowl; they look at them and see an opportunity for their students, who will never practice or study the way you will, to not be utterly humiliated by the gap between your team and theirs.

The move away from worksheets at the HS level was well-met last year. As a result, we are going to be polling the MS community again this year to see how coaches feel about doing the same at the MS level, and possibly relegating worksheets to ES only.
Although I agree that the primary purpose of quizbowl is to promote learning, I don't think worksheets are a very engaging method, as they're not very interesting. However, you do bring up a point in that worksheets prevent steamrolls (which is also why I'm assuming three-part bonuses and powers/negs aren't implemented) but steamrolls shouldn't be happening during higher-quality events like state. If a team gets to state, they've probably dedicated time and effort into quizbowl, and they're less likely to quit. So, would it be a possibility to have a differing format with possibly no worksheets, three-part bonuses, and powers/negs?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

literatureboye wrote: Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:03 pm
Joshua Rutsky wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:30 pm Short answer: Worksheets are the remnants of the old format ASCA used years ago. We voted to eliminate them from the JV/HS level last year, but left them in place in Middle at the request of a plurality of polled coaches. Although they are not good quizbowl as defined within the context of the quizbowl community at large, they serve two purposes - one, they allow teams that play once or twice a year to attend an event without getting bageled by a high-quality team, and some have argued that this helps retain these schools, who might otherwise just quit entirely; two, they allow coaches to let their alternates play in every match instead of sitting idly. Again, this isn't to say that either of these are good arguments, but they have been sufficient that coaches have voted to retain the worksheets. Remember, for a coach at the base level of quizbowl, which is where about 3/4 of Alabama is, the primary purpose of quizbowl is not to promote good quizbowl or to win matches. These are teachers; their primary purpose is to engage students with academic materials and give them opportunities. They do not look at the worksheets and see bad quizbowl; they look at them and see an opportunity for their students, who will never practice or study the way you will, to not be utterly humiliated by the gap between your team and theirs.

The move away from worksheets at the HS level was well-met last year. As a result, we are going to be polling the MS community again this year to see how coaches feel about doing the same at the MS level, and possibly relegating worksheets to ES only.
Although I agree that the primary purpose of quizbowl is to promote learning, I don't think worksheets are a very engaging method, as they're not very interesting. However, you do bring up a point in that worksheets prevent steamrolls (which is also why I'm assuming three-part bonuses and powers/negs aren't implemented) but steamrolls shouldn't be happening during higher-quality events like state. If a team gets to state, they've probably dedicated time and effort into quizbowl, and they're less likely to quit. So, would it be a possibility to have a differing format with possibly no worksheets, three-part bonuses, and powers/negs?
It seems there is no good way out of this situation for the time being. Steamrolls still happen at state, and worksheets work to counterattack them to a certain degree. The solution I think might work best is to tighten the qualifications for state(Example: Keeping wild cards, but only letting the winner of each pool advance, instead of top 2), but at the point Alabama MS quizbowl is in right now, this might only serve to deter teams from trying. You bring up a good point about three-part bonuses and negs, I personally never saw it that way!
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

Joshua Rutsky wrote: Fri Oct 05, 2018 11:26 am Ethan, I think it is also important for you to note that there is a difference between an ASCA event and an invitational. Invitational tournaments that use worksheets write them on their own or contract with someone; ASCA only writes the worksheets for the ASCA district and state tournaments. I believe that you are talking about the Russellville Invitational, which would be outside of our purview.
I did not know this, thank you for telling me!
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Adam16 »

Hello all! My name is Adam Williams and I am the president of the Alabama Academic Quiz Bowl Team at the University of Alabama. We still have spots left in our annual William Rufus King Memorial Tournament to be held on October 20th here at UA. Top finishers at this tournament will qualify for NAQT Nationals! If interested, please email me at [email protected] this week if you would like to register.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by quizbowllee »

Adam16 wrote: Wed Oct 10, 2018 3:49 pm Hello all! My name is Adam Williams and I am the president of the Alabama Academic Quiz Bowl Team at the University of Alabama. We still have spots left in our annual William Rufus King Memorial Tournament to be held on October 20th here at UA. Top finishers at this tournament will qualify for NAQT Nationals! If interested, please email me at [email protected] this week if you would like to register.
Can we get a start time/location? Field update, logistics, etc.?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

Pre-Season Prediction
I suppose to satisfy my personal desires, I'll rank MS to the best of my knowledge:

1. Liberty

(Cue the boos) Am I biased? Yes, but after just barely losing to Discovery last year, Liberty comes back fully loaded. Despite losing 4 state players, both me and Yuti, who has done a solid job of replacing Emily at lit, return, as well as Austen Wyche(Art, American History, and Current Events), who we took to MSNCT. Joshua has filled Minh and Murphree's role of science quite nicely. RMPSS will definitely be a weak spot for us, but overall, this could finally be Liberty's year (after several top 3 finishes in the last few years).

2. Baldwin

Baldwin just barely missed out on playoff's last year, but they come back with a positive outlook this season. They lose Saad Khan, but return Jordan Lee as a Humanities/Bio hybrid. They also add Atindrah Harishankar, who finished top in scoring in the Elementary Open and a solid history player from what I've heard, and Nikhil Pochana, who finished 3rd in scoring. Jordan Dejesus will also add a nice boost in myth. If anybody is going to take first at state from us, bet on Baldwin.

3. Monrovia

To say Monrovia is rebuilding would be an understatement. They lose every member of their T-21 at MSNCT team, but they return players from their B team. At the Liberty Fun tournament earlier this year, they beat Liberty A (a partially Liberty A, albeit), so it seems they will not go gently into the night. I know for a fact that Emily and David are back, as Lit and History players respectively, so maybe we will see something big from them this year, as I certainly would not counted them out.

4. Discovery

Rett Krome is gone, as well is much of his supporting cast. Some do remain however, namely Puja and Colin. Puja is a solid geography player, and Colin is a solid history player. Knowing the Madison area, I doubt they will have trouble finding a science player, however, it seems that literature will once again be a weakness for Discovery. Unless they can find a lit player and unless Puja and Colin can fill Rett's void, Discovery might have a rough year, but I won't count them out.

5. Smith Station

Losing Mackenzie hurt. Best way I can put it. But there is hope. They lose their entire state team, but Jakobe Bibbs leads a team with high potential, and although they're completely rebuilding, they have the potential to still have a solid team. Who knows, they could surprise us.

And that concludes my ranking. Feel free to point out any mistakes, drive home safe folks, and don't forget to tip your waiters.
Last edited by iarehavethestupid on Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Zealots of Stockholm »

Jumping in to say that this year's Auburn Invitational will be on February 16 using IS-181. I'll do my best to post an announcement and email coaches next week.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by minnfinn »

Any way we can get a ranking on the top JV teams in Alabama?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Sure.

Basically, Kuleen Sasse, Lewis Fuller, Kapil Nathan, Mackenzie Ensley, Andy Schwebel, and Joseph Katz are extremely strong players. We didn't get to see what would likely have been the best match of the day at HIT JV, the Altamont/Oak Mountain match, because of the late hour stoppage, but Altamont had 8 more powers in the prelims, plus a PPB advantage of nearly 3 points, so I'm going to call that one in favor of Altamont on the balance.

Altamont barely squeaked past Indian Springs, winning by a single toss-up. This is a great example of how a team beats a solo player, even if Kuleen pulled that one out. The Andy/Joseph tandem finished 5/6 in the prelim scoring, and they got a little help (not enough, but a little) from their two teammates. Kuleen also got solid help from his teammates in the prelims, but that tapered off in the playoffs. Oak Mountain was basically Lewis with a few good buzzes from Veronica scattered in. Edge to Altamont and Indian Springs.

Oak Mountain barely took down Smiths Station, and Smiths had a very good run, too. They also came within a hair's breadth of losing to Liberty Middle, which isn't a knock on Oak Mountain at all; Liberty Middle is arguably the best MS team in Alabama right now, and they proved it playing against JV competition.

Don't ignore Sparkman 9, either. That's Monrovia MS from last year--all of them--and they were the MS state champs, with a nice run at Nationals to boot. Their loss to James Clemens in the playoffs came because of four negs- more than enough to swing a 20 point game, especially on a novice set like SCOP.

Hoover JV? No one has seen Hoover JV play. However, at William Rufus King, where stats are not available, Hoover was basically Kapil, Luke Clark, and two juniors. Kapil won the scoring title for the day, Hoover went 10-0, and they beat Southside's varsity by 300 points and beat Good Hope's varsity as well. Given that the Hoover team was basically Kapil and three science players, I have to think that when the JV fields a full squad that includes a very good lit player and a solid fine arts player, they will be dangerous as well.

So you want a ranking? Here's an arbitrary ranking for you:

1) Altamont, until someone proves otherwise.
2) Oak Mountain, Hoover, and Indian Springs (tie)
3) Sparkman 9
4) Smiths Station
5) James Clemens and Gadsden City

None of this means anything. JV districts are going to be brutal; JV state is going to be a shootout. This is a total tossup, because much of this tournament is going to be decided on who is having a good day on an A set, and this is a year where there are a lot of shootout kids ready to play. Great for the future of ASCA quizbowl, though.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by literatureboye »

What about LAMP? LAMP has two strong sophomores, Ani Harishankar and Jenny Baek, specializing in history and literature respectively.
Last edited by literatureboye on Sun Nov 11, 2018 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by minnfinn »

Joshua Rutsky wrote: Sun Nov 11, 2018 12:34 pm Sure.

Basically, Kuleen Sasse, Lewis Fuller, Kapil Nathan, Mackenzie Ensley, Andy Schwebel, and Joseph Katz are extremely strong players. We didn't get to see what would likely have been the best match of the day at HIT JV, the Altamont/Oak Mountain match, because of the late hour stoppage, but Altamont had 8 more powers in the prelims, plus a PPB advantage of nearly 3 points, so I'm going to call that one in favor of Altamont on the balance.

Altamont barely squeaked past Indian Springs, winning by a single toss-up. This is a great example of how a team beats a solo player, even if Kuleen pulled that one out. The Andy/Joseph tandem finished 5/6 in the prelim scoring, and they got a little help (not enough, but a little) from their two teammates. Kuleen also got solid help from his teammates in the prelims, but that tapered off in the playoffs. Oak Mountain was basically Lewis with a few good buzzes from Veronica scattered in. Edge to Altamont and Indian Springs.

Oak Mountain barely took down Smiths Station, and Smiths had a very good run, too. They also came within a hair's breadth of losing to Liberty Middle, which isn't a knock on Oak Mountain at all; Liberty Middle is arguably the best MS team in Alabama right now, and they proved it playing against JV competition.

Don't ignore Sparkman 9, either. That's Monrovia MS from last year--all of them--and they were the MS state champs, with a nice run at Nationals to boot. Their loss to James Clemens in the playoffs came because of four negs- more than enough to swing a 20 point game, especially on a novice set like SCOP.

Hoover JV? No one has seen Hoover JV play. However, at William Rufus King, where stats are not available, Hoover was basically Kapil, Luke Clark, and two juniors. Kapil won the scoring title for the day, Hoover went 10-0, and they beat Southside's varsity by 300 points and beat Good Hope's varsity as well. Given that the Hoover team was basically Kapil and three science players, I have to think that when the JV fields a full squad that includes a very good lit player and a solid fine arts player, they will be dangerous as well.

So you want a ranking? Here's an arbitrary ranking for you:

1) Altamont, until someone proves otherwise.
2) Oak Mountain, Hoover, and Indian Springs (tie)
3) Sparkman 9
4) Smiths Station
5) James Clemens and Gadsden City

None of this means anything. JV districts are going to be brutal; JV state is going to be a shootout. This is a total tossup, because much of this tournament is going to be decided on who is having a good day on an A set, and this is a year where there are a lot of shootout kids ready to play. Great for the future of ASCA quizbowl, though.
Thank you! Much Appreciated
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by LlamaDoomRider »

Yeah I think Hoover JV is gonna be a monster this year with their team composition. Better than us. I feel like we can do good this year but to be honest me and Veronica were the team at the tournament. I’m gonna try to get my other team members better before district. Districts gonna be a slug fest. Problem is that we don’t have like any specialists except for Veronica, who’s better with literature. I’m having to cover by being somewhat of a generalist, but I’m weak in music art and literature. Gonna try to get better in those fields. I got too many negs at the tournament though, but most of them were tricky power lines and me being stupid. Altamont is better than us, Kuleen is a monster and they did better overall stat wise. I do feel like the questions were pretty easy, and district and state will be definitely a toss up with those NAQT questions. This post kinda turned into me rambling so

TL;DR: JV is gonna be extremely interesting and will be worth following this year
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

literatureboye wrote: Sun Nov 11, 2018 1:23 pm What about LAMP? LAMP has two strong sophomores, Ani Harishankar and Jenny Baek, specializing in History and literature respectively.
Both really good players, especially Jenny, who could be neck and neck with Claire Tumlin as 2nd best lit player in state. Still, I haven't seen them play this year, and I'm not going to put them above anyone on this list without a look at their team. It's too tough a field.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

Yesterday was wild, although I do agree Atlamont is a very strong team and that Kuleen is an extremely good player, I’m not sure about ranking them #1 (Even if the ranking “means nothing”, just my opinion), since we beat them by a rather significant margin in the prelims. Oak Mountain and LAMP are definitely very good, and JC definitely has a shot, they not only beat Sparkman 9 this time, but at a previous tourney as well. I only know Kapil from Hoover JV, but it seems he got other contributors too, very scary.

If Lewis can pick up FA, I would put my money on Oak Mountain, but in my opinion, ISS is current the front runner for JV champ (Since we don’t have JV level input from Lamp). Andy and Joseph are both extremely good players, and I think it’ll be team> one dominant player.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by LlamaDoomRider »

I feel like we could've done better in terms of PPG, but we weren't used to no bouncebacks and we would've gotten a ton of points from bouncebacks. I appreciated the no bouncebacks somewhat because it made everyone hungrier for tossups and made it more interesting(but also a lot more stressful). No clue how good LAMP is since they didn't have a JV team but I'm sure they're very good because of Jenny and Ani. Indian Springs is definitely a force to be reckoned with because they are better all around and they aren't just a solo team
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

Making a MS ranking before a single tournament happened was a bad idea.

I will change it to "Pre-Season Predictions".

Edit 1: I'll just adjust it after this Saturday if enough teams come.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by minnfinn »

Can we get a field update for the Sylacauga Tournament?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

minnfinn wrote: Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:55 pm Can we get a field update for the Sylacauga Tournament?
I haven't seen anybody on this site with Sylacagua in their signature, might not be the best place to ask.

Edit: Nvm
Last edited by iarehavethestupid on Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Last update from Sylacuaga on field -


Arab High School- 1 team, 1 buzzer set

Hoover High School- 4 teams, 3 buzzer sets

Shelby County High School- 1 team, 0 buzzers

Smiths Station High School- 2 teams, 2 buzzers sets

Southside High School- 1 team, 0 buzzers

Spain Park High School- 2 teams, 0 buzzers

Westbrook Christian- 1 team, 0 buzzers

Altamont High School- 1 team, 0 buzzers

West Point High School- 1 team, 2 buzzers
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by LlamaDoomRider »

Calling it right now, Liberty will win middle school state. If they are good enough to compete in JV and make it to quarterfinals at HIT, they'll destroy at state.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by literatureboye »

Currently, Liberty is definitely the best middle school team in AL. At today's Decatur Middle School tournament, Liberty finished prelims with ~550 ppg, and the closest competitor was Baldwin with ~440 ppg. Liberty continued to sweep the playoffs and got 1st, even without Ethan Xu, one of their core players.
Last edited by literatureboye on Sun Nov 18, 2018 11:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by LlamaDoomRider »

Was there a neg5 for the tournament?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

Regarding the Decatur tourney today (assuming anybody cares), I wouldn't really care about Baldwin's lose to Discovery. It was a 50 points margin, and by chance, Discovery had a good category (I believe it was bands) for the worksheet. If they had played with a letter based worksheet, things might have turned out differently.

While I'm on the topic, they only this that irked me today was the worksheets. As long as worksheets have to exist, I will put up with them as long as they are a letter category and academic. I recall worksheets today with the themes of games, Fortnite, and the bands one(The only one I actually played was the games, the other two are from secondhand sources. I had to leave from the tournament early). Who knows what other categories there were.

Would it be plausable for ASCA to write good, letter categorized worksheets and distribute them to tournaments that use worksheets? I feel like that this would be a good way to make sure that at least we have good quality worksheets (for however long we still have to have them).
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by literatureboye »

According to the ASCA MS Rules,
The moderator shall not read the correct answers.
At the LAMP Fun Tournament last month, there was a particular worksheet where the question was looking for Black Thursday, as in the beginning of the Great Depression. However, the answer was listed as Black Friday. If my team had not asked for correct answers (I was not aware at the time that this was against the rules) and protested, we would not have been able to have gotten that worksheet question correct.
Is there any reason that the moderator shall not read the correct answers?
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

iarehavethestupid wrote: Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:25 pm Would it be plausable for ASCA to write good, letter categorized worksheets and distribute them to tournaments that use worksheets? I feel like that this would be a good way to make sure that at least we have good quality worksheets (for however long we still have to have them).
Short answer: No, for several reasons. First, ASCA already writes worksheets for State and Districts, which means that we write 12-14 each year. For these to be good, letter-categorized sheets with good distribution (and we have guidelines for that, incidentally), we have to limit the number we produce. Even when we do produce these sheets, we get complaints from players that the worksheets have answers or clues that are the same as a question during the tournament. That is utterly unavoidable, as we simply cannot write 20-item worksheets with a good distribution and not have some repeats. Frankly, the only solution to this issue is to stop using worksheets, which is opposed by a number of ASCA members. Unfortunately, most of those members also don't have to write the worksheets annually.

I can tell you that I produce a number of these sheets independently each year, and it is time-consuming. Remember also that all ASCA board members are working without salary, and doing this in their "spare time." Organizing, preparing, and running the MS/JV/ES tournament each year takes upwards of 20 hours of prep time and eats three weeks of my life, and I'm not alone. I understand the frustration, but this is a very low issue on the totem pole for ASCA--invitationals are not state, and if a team gets hurt by a bad worksheet round at an invitational, they don't lose their shot at state as a result. I would suggest that you have your coach contact the tournament organizer and suggest changes for future iterations of the event.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

literatureboye wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:26 pm According to the ASCA MS Rules,
The moderator shall not read the correct answers.
At the LAMP Fun Tournament last month, there was a particular worksheet where the question was looking for Black Thursday, as in the beginning of the Great Depression. However, the answer was listed as Black Friday. If my team had not asked for correct answers (I was not aware at the time that this was against the rules) and protested, we would not have been able to have gotten that worksheet question correct.
Is there any reason that the moderator shall not read the correct answers?
Time considerations. Worksheet rounds run about 10 minutes longer than non-worksheet rounds, and when you add in ASCA's use of bounce back bonus, we end up with one round every 45-50 minutes--way too long. ASCA's state worksheets are carefully proofed to ensure we don't have issues of that sort, and we believe that keeping the tournament moving is more important than providing the correct answers to teams at that moment.

As with all ASCA policies, members are entitled to petition for a change in policy, which will be placed before the membership for vote at the annual convention. If you would like to see this changed, I suggest starting with your coach, who may bring such a motion/proposal on behalf of your school, and I suggest you write a short statement as to why you would like this changed and the benefits that would result. We will make sure the proposal is read and considered at the meeting.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Here is an update on the Hoover Middle School Melee, which is near capacity at this time. As we are currently almost full, we are asking coaches to please double-check your reservation on the list below, and update it if necessary. We understand that there are times when you are planning far in advance, and then suddenly people vanish from the "available" list, but we also want to make sure the tourney fills, and that all people interested can attend. For this reason, this year we are requiring that teams send in their payment for the event IN ADVANCE. We will "hold" your registration through December 31st, but if your team's registration payment has not been received by us at that point, we will need to offer those spaces to other teams on our waitlist. REGISTRATION FEES ARE NOT REFUNDABLE. Please make sure you know that you can field teams before you send in your fee. We are happy to allow you to "trade" a registration with another team if you overregister--that is, if you end up with a team slot you can't fill, we will try to put you in touch with a team that wants that spot, and they can pay you instead of us, since you will have already paid, but that's about the best we can do for you, and it isn't a guarantee. We are sorry we have to be so strict on this, but the number of drops and no-shows has gotten out of hand in recent years, and it has a big impact on our events.

Lunch at the MSM will also be presale. Teams will need to place orders for lunch by January 12th to ensure we have food for you on the 19th. More information will follow instructing you on how to order when we get a bit closer to the date of the event.

Regarding 6th grade teams - As we are not as well-staffed as we have been in previous years, the current plan does not include a separate pool for 6th grade. This may change if more readers become available, but we don't want to make a promise we can't keep. Instead, we will award a 6th Grade Champion trophy to the highest-finishing 6th grade team at the event. In the event of equal records, we will use points per bonus average as the method of breaking ties, NOT points per game average.

The following teams have registered for the MSM and are considered part of the field at this time, pending receipt of payment (Payment should be a check made out to Hoover High Scholars Bowl, and sent to 1000 Buccaneer Drive, Hoover, AL 35209, Attn: Joshua Rutsky):

Monrovia Middle : 3 teams, no buzzers
Gadsden Middle : 4 teams, 1 buzzer
Highlands School: 2 teams, 1 buzzer
Thompson Middle: 1 team, 1 buzzer
West Point Middle: 3 teams, 2 buzzers
Haleyville Middle: 4 teams, no buzzers
Opelika Middle: 2 teams, no buzzers
Columbiana Middle: 2 teams, no buzzers
Rainbow Middle: 1 team, 1 buzzer

Total: 22 of 30 maximum spaces taken at this time

Again, these spaces are only reserved until December 31st, after which they will revert to open entry spots if not paid for. The cost per team is $60, with a $5 discount for a FULLY OPERATIONAL buzzer system allowed up to two times per school. PLEASE do not bring buzzers that don't work. The Hoover Invitational nearly was forced into slap bowl because of this.

We will be playing the MSM using tossups with THREE-PART bonuses and bounceback. There will be no powers or negs at the event, nor will we use worksheets.

Teams wishing to register for this event may do so at http://bit.ly/MSM2019Registration.
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by LlamaDoomRider »

Joshua Rutsky wrote: Wed Nov 28, 2018 1:06 pm Here is an update on the Hoover Middle School Melee, which is near capacity at this time. As we are currently almost full, we are asking coaches to please double-check your reservation on the list below, and update it if necessary. We understand that there are times when you are planning far in advance, and then suddenly people vanish from the "available" list, but we also want to make sure the tourney fills, and that all people interested can attend. For this reason, this year we are requiring that teams send in their payment for the event IN ADVANCE. We will "hold" your registration through December 31st, but if your team's registration payment has not been received by us at that point, we will need to offer those spaces to other teams on our waitlist. REGISTRATION FEES ARE NOT REFUNDABLE. Please make sure you know that you can field teams before you send in your fee. We are happy to allow you to "trade" a registration with another team if you overregister--that is, if you end up with a team slot you can't fill, we will try to put you in touch with a team that wants that spot, and they can pay you instead of us, since you will have already paid, but that's about the best we can do for you, and it isn't a guarantee. We are sorry we have to be so strict on this, but the number of drops and no-shows has gotten out of hand in recent years, and it has a big impact on our events.

Lunch at the MSM will also be presale. Teams will need to place orders for lunch by January 12th to ensure we have food for you on the 19th. More information will follow instructing you on how to order when we get a bit closer to the date of the event.

Regarding 6th grade teams - As we are not as well-staffed as we have been in previous years, the current plan does not include a separate pool for 6th grade. This may change if more readers become available, but we don't want to make a promise we can't keep. Instead, we will award a 6th Grade Champion trophy to the highest-finishing 6th grade team at the event. In the event of equal records, we will use points per bonus average as the method of breaking ties, NOT points per game average.

The following teams have registered for the MSM and are considered part of the field at this time, pending receipt of payment (Payment should be a check made out to Hoover High Scholars Bowl, and sent to 1000 Buccaneer Drive, Hoover, AL 35209, Attn: Joshua Rutsky):

Monrovia Middle : 3 teams, no buzzers
Gadsden Middle : 4 teams, 1 buzzer
Highlands School: 2 teams, 1 buzzer
Thompson Middle: 1 team, 1 buzzer
West Point Middle: 3 teams, 2 buzzers
Haleyville Middle: 4 teams, no buzzers
Opelika Middle: 2 teams, no buzzers
Columbiana Middle: 2 teams, no buzzers
Rainbow Middle: 1 team, 1 buzzer

Total: 22 of 30 maximum spaces taken at this time

Again, these spaces are only reserved until December 31st, after which they will revert to open entry spots if not paid for. The cost per team is $60, with a $5 discount for a FULLY OPERATIONAL buzzer system allowed up to two times per school. PLEASE do not bring buzzers that don't work. The Hoover Invitational nearly was forced into slap bowl because of this.

We will be playing the MSM using tossups with THREE-PART bonuses and bounceback. There will be no powers or negs at the event, nor will we use worksheets.

Teams wishing to register for this event may do so at http://bit.ly/MSM2019Registration.
Is there going to be a neg5 up? I'm interested in seeing how this tournament palys out
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Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Probably, yes.

Field update:

Monrovia Middle : 3 teams, no buzzers
Gadsden Middle : 4 teams, 1 buzzer
Highlands School: 2 teams, 1 buzzer
Thompson Middle: 1 team, 1 buzzer
West Point Middle: 3 teams, 2 buzzers
Haleyville Middle: 4 teams, no buzzers
Opelika Middle: 2 teams, no buzzers
Columbiana Middle: 2 teams, no buzzers
Rainbow Middle: 1 team, 1 buzzer
Discovery Middle: 2 teams, 2 buzzers
Arab JHS: 4 teams, 2 buzzers
Baldwin Middle: 2 teams, 1 buzzer
Liberty Middle: 2 teams, 1 buzzer
= 32 teams

This field is now CAPPED. We will add any additional teams to the waitlist.
Joshua Rutsky
VP for Curriculum and Camp Operations, Qwiz
ASCA Board Member
Hoover High School Coach (Retired)
iarehavethestupid
Lulu
Posts: 66
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:49 pm

Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by iarehavethestupid »

With the dearth of attention MS receives,I supposed there's not much point in asking, but, asking a MS who's participating in the tourney and wanting to hear other peoples opinions about us, if anybody has speculation about the MSM, feel free to share.
Ethan Xu
Liberty Middle School 2017-2019
James Clemens High School 2020-2023
2019 ASCA MS State Champion
Joshua Rutsky
Tidus
Posts: 663
Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:59 am
Location: Hoover, AL

Re: Alabama 2018-2019

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

literatureboye wrote: Sat Nov 17, 2018 7:58 pm Currently, Liberty is definitely the best middle school team in AL. At today's Decatur Middle School tournament, Liberty finished prelims with ~550 ppg, and the closest competitor was Baldwin with ~440 ppg. Liberty continued to sweep the playoffs and got 1st, even without Ethan Xu, one of their core players.
I'm not sure what else you want to see, Ethan. I think there is general agreement that the top MS tier is LIberty and Baldwin, and then everyone else. State will almost certainly come down to who does a better job staying focused. I find that rankings, in general, are more of a distraction than a help. If you know your team, you know who your competition is, and you focus on playing them. If you know quizbowl, you realize that the competition you most need to overcome is yourself--that you are the limiting factor on what you can achieve, and what others can or can't do is secondary to that. Focus on being the best you can be, and the rest handles itself.
Joshua Rutsky
VP for Curriculum and Camp Operations, Qwiz
ASCA Board Member
Hoover High School Coach (Retired)
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