The Quizbowl Resource Center

This crossed my mind the other day.

I don't know how this works in other states, but in NY, someone can, if they do poorly in high school, stay until they turn 21. It's not unheard of for someone to be in their fifth year of high school (repeating the 12th grade), and it actually happens quite a lot. Now say one of these people was, for some odd reason, an excellent quizbowler. Would he or she be able to continue playing at the HS level? I know it's unlikely that this will ever happen, but hey, you never know!

Snoopy wrote:This crossed my mind the other day.

I don't know how this works in other states, but in NY, someone can, if they do poorly in high school, stay until they turn 21. It's not unheard of for someone to be in their fifth year of high school (repeating the 12th grade), and it actually happens quite a lot. Now say one of these people was, for some odd reason, an excellent quizbowler. Would he or she be able to continue playing at the HS level? I know it's unlikely that this will ever happen, but hey, you never know!

This has definitely happened.

In states that don't have quizbowl overseen by a state activities organization (e.g. NY), I don't see anything in the PACE/NAQT eligibility rules that would prevent super seniors from playing. In states that do have a state activities association (e.g. MO), there may be some limitations - for example, MSHSAA says that a student has only 8 semesters of eligibility in a given activity.

From NAQT's HS eligibility page (http://www.naqt.com/hs/high-school-eligibility.html):

E. Affiliation

Students may only compete at high school tournaments for schools with which they have an affiliation.

A player automatically establishes an affiliation with a school for a given competition year by enrolling in an academic term the majority of whose days fall within that competition year.

It also says that grades beyond 12 are ineligible. (Don't Canadian schools have 13th grade?)

Ben Dillon wrote:From NAQT's HS eligibility page (http://www.naqt.com/hs/high-school-eligibility.html):

E. Affiliation

Students may only compete at high school tournaments for schools with which they have an affiliation.

A player automatically establishes an affiliation with a school for a given competition year by enrolling in an academic term the majority of whose days fall within that competition year.

It also says that grades beyond 12 are ineligible. (Don't Canadian schools have 13th grade?)

The Ontario Academic Credit aka 13th grade was indeed a thing in Ontario schools until 2003, although many students still choose to return for a fifth year.

Magtymguly Pyragy wrote:

Ben Dillon wrote:From NAQT's HS eligibility page (http://www.naqt.com/hs/high-school-eligibility.html):

E. Affiliation

Students may only compete at high school tournaments for schools with which they have an affiliation.

A player automatically establishes an affiliation with a school for a given competition year by enrolling in an academic term the majority of whose days fall within that competition year.

It also says that grades beyond 12 are ineligible. (Don't Canadian schools have 13th grade?)

The Ontario Academic Credit aka 13th grade was indeed a thing in Ontario schools until 2003, although many students still choose to return for a fifth year.

It's called a victory lap now, and there are several schools/areas where it's fairly normal (e.g. Waterloo Collegiate Institute IIRC).

So there wasn't a general consensus on this: are super-seniors allowed to compete? I attend a middle college which basically means I go 5 years to work on an associate's degree.

Masked Canadian History Bandit wrote:
It's called a victory lap now, and there are several schools/areas where it's fairly normal (e.g. Waterloo Collegiate Institute IIRC).

It's only a victory lap if you actually have all the credits of course.

It's worth noting that a recent national tournament of the Canadian non-quizbowl game that will not be named was won by a team (my high school) that included a 5th year that had played for 5 years. A quizbowl equivalent is definitely possible.