The Quizbowl Resource Center

David Riley

I don't disagree with what you want to do, but how you suggest doing it. The use of good questions is non-negotiable. Several of us have worked long and hard to improve the question quality in Illinois, and I do not want to see this aspect of bad quizbowl (especially) integrated in any way. I'm not ...

David Riley

I wouldn't worry about that. This tournament always attracts a large field.

David Riley

Stats?

David Riley

Welcome to the boards, Alston! Hang in there and don't let those guys scare you. IIRC, this is the first time Bloomington is making any noise since the Kristina Warren / Hunter Fast days. Keep it up! Hope to see you guys up here at some point this year.

David Riley

Some of us still have our turntables because the vinyl recordings we have, have not been released on CD, iTunes or other sources. Harrumph!

David Riley

Not to burst anybody's bubble as I am happy about this....but....get it in writing.

David Riley

Kristin--see Jeff's note above. Because of a recent IESA rule interpretation, Loyola might not be able to host their tournament, at least not in December. I think Matt is awaiting clarification before deciding one way or another.

David Riley

Just curious: In Illinois, the bulk of teams playing quiz bowl are in the Chicago metro area with pockets in Rockford and Carbondale. We are always trying to do outreach with the downstate teams. Is any outreach being done in, say, Pipestone, Bemidji or Twin Ports to convert them from KB to Quiz Bowl?

David Riley

Loyola Academy will host a middle school tournament on Dec 8.

David Riley

I realize that it's still a little early, but if the college counterpart is any indication, does any site have more than eight teams for IHSSBCA novice? Is it because relatively few schools are prepared to field teams this early? Perhaps we might want to choose a later date in the future? (I am havi...

David Riley

I will be happy to do classical music, just let me know the specs.

David Riley

Welcome to the other side! (I think you know what I mean).

David Riley

Any news yet on a set for this tournament?

David Riley

Sunday afternoon (after NTV) will probably work, let me see if I can arrange this. Thanks for the suggestion!

David Riley

I can second Fr. Gregory's comments; we initially stopped going to a lot of tournaments because my students outgrew them. They wanted more challenges, and fortunately NAQT and PACE were there, as well as local tournaments that began to use better questions than what we had been hearing.

David Riley

Location is TBD. And I'll check re NTV, sounds like a good idea.

David Riley

I am looking for how many people might be interested in a pub-less pub trivia night in the north suburbs of Chicago on a week night between Christmas and New Year. Entry would be restricted to college and older, with special emphasis on quiz bowl alums and coaches. Teams of 2-8 welcome. Entry fee wo...

David Riley

Adam: Will you guys be writing your own middle school set this year? If so, perhaps Alabama could mirror it? Just a thought.

David Riley

Again, never underestimate the power of parents!

David Riley

This is great news, and welcome to the boards! Hopefully your coach is on board (no pun intended) as well, and if you go to www.ihssbca.org you will find a schedule of tournaments and other useful information. Check the boards frequently as well!

David Riley

John--I'd rather respond off the boards; send me an email ([email protected])

David Riley

Indeed! Congrats and thanks to all of you who made this possible!

David Riley

Amusingly, I heard that the Memphis area schools kept on overpowering the Mississippi schools at the Ole Miss tournament so they put all the Memphis teams in one bracket to "give the Mississippi schools a chance." Geez, this practice used to run rampant in Illinois with "Chicago area...

David Riley

Back to Barrington. From a (former) coach's perspective, I second Nolan's and Ben's comments. Middle school to high school is not always an easy transition and you will be in a very competitive circuit re Saturday tournaments (I don't know about MSL this year). Obviously I don't know Coach Baker's s...

David Riley

Right now, there is nothing on the Illinois calendar on 10/13, but it's their call. However as IHSSBCA "Keeper of the Calendar", the TDs and I try our best to schedule tournaments that don't conflict. But as more and more people host tournaments, this is getting to be near impossible, and ...

David Riley

What Charlie said.

And re your point #2: BE VERY CAREFUL of this if your state athletic association gets in any way involved. I guess I'm putting the cart before the horse, too, but how regions are defined is the bane of our existence here.

David Riley

Whatever happened to Stuyvesant? They used to be fairly active.

David Riley

Not to nitpick (though we have this same argument relative to Illinois all the time), friends of mine in Brewster (Putnam Co.) consider themselves as downstate. Oddly enough, one is from Manhattan and the other is from western Pennsylvania. On a more serious note: the idea of regional championships ...

David Riley

Check with Jeff Price at Barrington Station, who is familiar with the middle school circuit in the Chicago suburbs.

David Riley

I highly recommend the systems from buzzersystems.com. They are durable (though you'll occasionally need to crimp the broken phone extensions on the cords), we've had ours for over fifteen years. They have excellent service and often have a 48 hr turnaround.

David Riley

Morgan, I feel that I need to refute your comment that we have never had any good comp math people. Quite the contrary. Most recently, Catherine Groden '09, who trumped our ace with a math bonus at Sectionals that allowed us to go to IHSA State that year. Matt McKenna, '03? Math was his major subjec...

David Riley

What is the status of BN's team? Will Mr. Basque be able to coach? Will BN have a team?

David Riley

David--both Vermont (Kevin Commo) and New Hampshire (Bill Murphy) have active high school circuits (though due to budgets they can't travel much) and it would be worth checking out if any of their recent alumni are at Middlebury. Check the "Northeast" forum under "National and Regiona...

David Riley

Any idea yet as to where NASAT will be held next year?

David Riley

but it would be a good idea to involve people from a variety of backgrounds. I'm not sure how you mean this, but be careful here. We started with a very large selection committee (15-20 people) and this backfired on a couple of occasions; for the past several years we've had a committee of 7-8. I w...

David Riley

If you want to send a team to NASAT, and won't be working through a state organization or some such, begin to plan the logistics NOW as much as possible. Have some idea if you want the team chosen by a tryout, a committee of coaches, etc. Begin to scout out host schools (we do ours at U of I, and th...

David Riley

BRAVO!!!!

And I'm totally with you on #3, having been in that position myself in a past working life.

David Riley

In Illinois, converting teams (or rather, coaches?) has been an uphill but relatively successful battle, though we still have a lot to do. Word of mouth whenever possible is always a good idea. The IHSSBCA (our state coaches' association) has also sponsored multi-site tournaments (our Kickoff tourna...

David Riley

I second Andrew, but I also wonder--where were states (with active circuits) such as Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, etc. Is it economics?

David Riley

So, the top bracket represents the East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and South....let's hear it for these United States!

David Riley

In addition to the suggestions above, I would add: don't get into a false mindset. For example, Japanese literature may not come up in your school's curriculum, but it is very much evident (some would say over-represented) in quiz bowl. If anyone on your team (I'm including new recruits here as well...

David Riley

[ Thanks, David. But, schools in Alabama have been out for a few weeks. There is actually a state law that mandates that we be done by the Friday before Memorial Day. But does that include hiring as well? I know several schools in Illinois who are still hiring in July (not necessarily due to sudden...

David Riley

The goat question made my day

David Riley

Don't give up hope....it was almost two months between the time Loyola interviewed me then offered me the job. Keep in mind that many schools move slowly this time of year due to proms, graduations, etc.

David Riley

As a retired librarian, I would say that it depends on the library. Many school libraries can barely afford the luxury of even a part-time cataloger, and when any retrospective conversion (that's library jargon for when you upgrade or switch to a new system) there are usually a lot of mistakes that ...

David Riley

One thing I found with my teams a few years ago is that they were stuck in the belief that every question is going to be American/Western European. Convince them through practice on high quality questions that quiz bowl is much more global. Georgia is certainly a great place for tournaments. HFT is ...

David Riley

Team Illinois will be:

Ben Chametzky (Carbondale)
Alex Kling (Latin School of Chicago)
Lloyd Sy (Rockford Auburn)
Nolan Winkler (Loyola Academy)

David Riley

Ms. Bowen: Welcome! Go to http://www.ihssbca.org and check out the link "Scholastic Visions", our quarterly newsletter. It contains articles galore about quiz bowl and will give you an idea what goes on in an active circuit. If you like, you're welcome to join our organization, and then yo...

David Riley

Thanks,Doug, had not seen that initially.

David Riley

I can't believe that at this late date, only ten teams have registered for this tournament. By my reckoning, there are at least twenty states with regular, competitive circuits that could put together an all-star team. What's going on? Is it the economy? Lack of organization? This is a worthwhile to...

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