Feeling Trapped in Hudson Valley(NY)
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:51 pm
As many of you know Hudson Valley NY, in particular Westchester County, is one of 's greatest strongholds. I've played under this ruleset for three going on four years, and I want to get out. I have only gotten a little taste of pyramidal NAQT tournaments (Columbia Cup 2016, SCOP Novice 2017), but it's just better for what I want to do and I believe that it is the direction my school (and the rest of Westchester) should take.
You may recognize me from this post from two years ago. I still go to BHS.
viewtopic.php?t=19215
Since then, I've taken all your very helpful info and advice to heart, and have become one of the best players in Westchester. But, as I've gotten to know more about quizbowl, I've also come to realize how little that means.
Our plan to transition into pyramidal quizbowl hit a few roadblocks, the most important one being our new advisor. Our new advisor is much less passionate about our team, and was not accommodating to our desire to play pyramidal quizbowl. In an act of defiance, I took the A team to the Hunter Novice tournament last year, and we played under a pseudonym.
This was a very cathartic and fun experience, but eventually the year passed, and we didn't even go to nationals (NAC) even though we qualified many times over (she cited that we had only finished top 2 at the various tournaments we entered). This year, I have a much weaker team, and a lot less zeal to go to nationals. However I still want to move towards pyramidal quizbowl. The only problem is, I have no idea of how I'd realistically go about doing that.
I've come to the conclusion that one of the main issues is also that it's simply too much effort for most Westchester teams to compete in pyramidal style formats, since the closest tournaments are about an hour's transit away and also few and far between. If a local university or larger school would transfer and host NAQT/PACE tournaments that'd be incredibly helpful; however as I've tried to find quizbowl clubs at local colleges, I've turned up empty, and the largest schools in Westchester are deeply rooted in QB (White Plains and Horace Greeley).
That being said, I still want to try.
Last year's seniors and I had a falling out with our advisor over several issues and I've tried to keep my head down (especially since she's now also my calculus teacher and an administrator of sorts), so I'm not terribly comfortable negotiating with her. I have also thought about doing the whole pseudonym thing and going into tournaments unaffiliated, but the current members of my team aren't as committed/skilled and personally close as previous years. I've even contemplated asking some of the better players from Westchester if they'd want to form a coalition team and compete at NAQT tournaments, however the logistics of that are also difficult (although it could work).
If you have any suggestions about how I could make any of these ideas work, experience working with bad advisors, experience creating coalition teams, or perhaps new ideas about how I can escape I would deeply appreciate it.
You may recognize me from this post from two years ago. I still go to BHS.
viewtopic.php?t=19215
Since then, I've taken all your very helpful info and advice to heart, and have become one of the best players in Westchester. But, as I've gotten to know more about quizbowl, I've also come to realize how little that means.
Our plan to transition into pyramidal quizbowl hit a few roadblocks, the most important one being our new advisor. Our new advisor is much less passionate about our team, and was not accommodating to our desire to play pyramidal quizbowl. In an act of defiance, I took the A team to the Hunter Novice tournament last year, and we played under a pseudonym.
This was a very cathartic and fun experience, but eventually the year passed, and we didn't even go to nationals (NAC) even though we qualified many times over (she cited that we had only finished top 2 at the various tournaments we entered). This year, I have a much weaker team, and a lot less zeal to go to nationals. However I still want to move towards pyramidal quizbowl. The only problem is, I have no idea of how I'd realistically go about doing that.
I've come to the conclusion that one of the main issues is also that it's simply too much effort for most Westchester teams to compete in pyramidal style formats, since the closest tournaments are about an hour's transit away and also few and far between. If a local university or larger school would transfer and host NAQT/PACE tournaments that'd be incredibly helpful; however as I've tried to find quizbowl clubs at local colleges, I've turned up empty, and the largest schools in Westchester are deeply rooted in QB (White Plains and Horace Greeley).
That being said, I still want to try.
Last year's seniors and I had a falling out with our advisor over several issues and I've tried to keep my head down (especially since she's now also my calculus teacher and an administrator of sorts), so I'm not terribly comfortable negotiating with her. I have also thought about doing the whole pseudonym thing and going into tournaments unaffiliated, but the current members of my team aren't as committed/skilled and personally close as previous years. I've even contemplated asking some of the better players from Westchester if they'd want to form a coalition team and compete at NAQT tournaments, however the logistics of that are also difficult (although it could work).
If you have any suggestions about how I could make any of these ideas work, experience working with bad advisors, experience creating coalition teams, or perhaps new ideas about how I can escape I would deeply appreciate it.