Alabama 2015-16

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:09 pm

Well, here we are - Now, where are we going?

A couple of notes for the coming year and this thread--

If you have a tournament date you'd like Alabama teams to be aware of, please e-mail our ASCA website with details at sharon DOT [email protected] with your date, the question set, and details!

You can follow ASCA online at www.facebook.com/ASCAAL or on twitter at asca_al.

Middle and High School Fun tournaments will be Saturday, October 31 at both Arab Jr. High School and LAMP High School.

The ASCA Fall Coach's Conference will be at the University of AL - Gadsden Center on Tuesday, September 29th.

Alabama teams should get their registration forms in by going to home.hiwaay.net/~asca/index.html and downloading the team registration forms from the appropriate page (middle or high school). These forms must be in to register you for the state tournament.

The Hoover Invitational Tournament will be on November 21st this year.

JosipOfKumrovec · Post by **JosipOfKumrovec** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:38 pm

Is it too soon to start the discussion for forming a NASAT team?

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:23 pm

Not necessarily. There are a couple of players I think would be no-brainers for that squad -- Justin Kelley from Gadsden City comes to mind, as do Venu Reddy and Sharath Narayan from Springwood and James Clemens respectively, although I'm not sure a squad with all three is particularly balanced in all areas. Justin is strong in Humanities; Venu and Sharath have had to be generalists for the most part. Not sure who I'd look at as a top science player right now--some other coaches might have a player who is really strong in that area who they would put forward. Lee Henry has two strong seniors at West Point, but I'm not sure what their strongest areas are.

If I was going to put together a NASAT team, I'd probably set up a tryout event at a central school and invite players.

Lee might have some thoughts as well.

Zealots of Stockholm · Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:58 pm

How would the players that would receive an invitation to a NASAT tryout be chosen?

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:02 am

Last year, I put up a Google Form for interested candidates to fill out. I think we would probably do that again, and possibly ask coaches to nominate a player or two. This would let us get a base to invite to a formal tryout.

The main problem for us is that Alabama is a BIG state. Online practice is doable, but meeting everyone in person may be a challenge. It would be great if we could somehow run a tryout in parallel with the state championships, so that we could get a group of the best players in one place together to talk about this, but with it being a one day friday event, it may be challenging.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 2:50 pm

We are hosting a house-written tournament on Sept. 19. Details can be found here:

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=17723

sharathun · Post by **sharathun** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:29 am

What is NASAT? I don't think I've ever heard of that before...

naesorman555 · Post by **naesorman555** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:50 pm

It is essentially a national All-star quizbowl tournament. Each team is composed of players from one state

sharathun · Post by **sharathun** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:54 pm

Thank you.

bhsmatt · Post by **bhsmatt** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 3:42 pm

Coaches: Buckhorn High School in North Alabama is going to host a Scholars' Bowl Invitational on Saturday, December 12. We will Use NAQT set IS148, but will play by ASCA rules. We will use multimedia worksheets rounds. Those are usually a hit with both the players and spectators. If your team would like to attend, please email me at [email protected] for more information. The registration deadline is October 31.

Zealots of Stockholm · Mon Aug 24, 2015 5:56 pm

Good Hope will be running an invitational tournament on October 17th. More details can be found in the post in the tournament forum. http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =1&t=17771

JosipOfKumrovec · Post by **JosipOfKumrovec** » Mon Aug 31, 2015 1:16 pm

Would there be interest in attending a Grissom hosted JV invitational in the weeks leading up to the JV State qualifiers? We would most likely look to use NAQT sets, but may resort to using house written questions.

sharathun · Post by **sharathun** » Tue Sep 01, 2015 9:16 am

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Tue Sep 01, 2015 11:00 am

JosipOfKumrovec wrote:Would there be interest in attending a Grissom hosted JV invitational in the weeks leading up to the JV State qualifiers? We would most likely look to use NAQT sets, but may resort to using house written questions.

We'd possibly be interested, but it would depend on the date. We're already booked pretty solid on weekends. Any chance it could be held on a Friday like the Huntsville City League rounds are?

Zealots of Stockholm · Tue Sep 01, 2015 6:56 pm

JosipOfKumrovec wrote:Would there be interest in attending a Grissom hosted JV invitational in the weeks leading up to the JV State qualifiers? We would most likely look to use NAQT sets, but may resort to using house written questions.

Any chance of this having Novice/Varsity division(s)?
Also, do you know if Grissom will be attending events that aren't ASCA this year?

bhsmatt · Post by **bhsmatt** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 12:00 pm

Sharathun:

We would love to see a James Clemens team at the Buckhorn Invitational on December 12. Let me know if you need more information.

JosipOfKumrovec · Post by **JosipOfKumrovec** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 12:11 pm

quizbowllee wrote:
JosipOfKumrovec wrote:Would there be interest in attending a Grissom hosted JV invitational in the weeks leading up to the JV State qualifiers? We would most likely look to use NAQT sets, but may resort to using house written questions.
We'd possibly be interested, but it would depend on the date. We're already booked pretty solid on weekends. Any chance it could be held on a Friday like the Huntsville City League rounds are?

The Huntsville city league meets are generally held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Do you think most teams would be willing to miss school to come to a tournament?

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 2:33 pm

JosipOfKumrovec wrote:
quizbowllee wrote:
JosipOfKumrovec wrote:Would there be interest in attending a Grissom hosted JV invitational in the weeks leading up to the JV State qualifiers? We would most likely look to use NAQT sets, but may resort to using house written questions.
We'd possibly be interested, but it would depend on the date. We're already booked pretty solid on weekends. Any chance it could be held on a Friday like the Huntsville City League rounds are?
The Huntsville city league meets are generally held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Do you think most teams would be willing to miss school to come to a tournament?

YES! Most students consider that an incentive.

ASCA tournaments are already usually on Fridays. This may be the only way West Point can attend. We just have so many Saturdays booked.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 2:06 pm

We'll get our first look at some of Alabama's strongest teams tomorrow at the West Point SMART I invitational!

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 9:02 pm

Quick Results from today's SMART I - Lee Henry's House Party Tournament:

1st Place - Spain Park
2nd Place - James Clemens
3rd Place - Springwood
4th Place - Hoover A

1st Place JV - Spain Park C
2nd Place JV - Hoover B

Spain Park is quite strong. I don't believe they ever had a close match. They beat James Clemens handily both in the prelims and in the championship match. They are a well-rounded and strong team.

Sharath led James Clemens to a solid 2nd-place finish, defeating strong teams like Springwood along the way. Sharath is a great player and it's scary to think how good he is GOING to be. He's only a sophomore. I do believe the only matches they lost were the two against Spain Park.

I didn't get to see Springwood play at all, but I know that they came very close to beating James Clemens in the semi-final match and that Venu, like Sharath, is a scary-good sophomore.

Hoover struggled a bit today, but I saw a lot of potential the one time I got see them play. I know Josh Rutsky will have them whipped into shape soon enough.

In other news, it looks like Cordova - who won the ASCA Small School Championship last year - is having a bit of a rebuilding year as well. They definitely weren't as strong as they were last year. But, they have a great and dedicated coach in Evan Underwood and I think that they still have a good shot at defending their Small School State Title.

JV is going to be TOUGH this year with both Springwood and James Clemens being anchored by strong sophomores. West Point also has two sophomores that will be starting on the Varsity A-team this year, but neither are nearly as dominant as Venu or Sharath. Hoover B was JV today and ran their pool. Unfortunately for them, they had to play their own A-team in the first elimination match. The difference between Hoover A and Hoover B was negligible in regards to points per game. Hoover A was seeded 4th and Hoover B was seeded 5th. Only 5 points separated them. Spain Park is also a tough JV team and they actually defeated Hoover A in the prelims. So, like I said, JV is going to be really, really tough this year.

So, based on what I saw today, Spain Park seems to be the team to beat right out the gate. Of course, Gadsden City, West Point, and Grissom have yet to get started. We'll see.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the tournament. It went surprisingly well for our first house-write. The next one will be even better.

See you all in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 3.

reddyforquizbowl · Post by **reddyforquizbowl** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 2:27 pm

I am actually a junior this year, but Springwood will have a JV team team this year that will be anchored by two experienced and rapidly improving sophomores who are starting on the varsity team this year

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 9:48 pm

Stats for Prelims are up:

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... s/prelims/

bhsmatt · Post by **bhsmatt** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 3:23 pm

I enjoyed the Alabama tournament yesterday. It looks like there are a lot of really good, evenly matched teams in Alabama this year. It should be an interesting year of competition.

Don't forget about the Buckhorn invitational on December 12. Email [email protected] for more information. Registration forms are due by October 31.

bhsmatt · Post by **bhsmatt** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 3:26 pm

Buckhorn High is also hosting a catered trivia night on November 14. Hundreds of dollars in prizes will be awarded to the top three teams. More information can be found at http://bhstrivianight.weebly.com

Email [email protected] for ticket information.

Zealots of Stockholm · Sat Oct 17, 2015 6:18 pm

I thought the Good Hope Invitational went really well today, especially for our first time hosting. I would like to thank every team that attended for making this possible. I really enjoyed putting together a tournament. Also, a huge thanks to Coach Rutsky from Hoover and Coach Henry from West Point for all of the help/advice they offered, and Chris Carter from Grissom for coming to read. With all that being said, I'm sure there are things we could improve upon and I am open to suggestions/comments/complaints for future tournaments we may run.

As far as things in the state go, at this point it would be a major upset if Spain Park lost to ANY team in the state. They put up some huge numbers today.

tktennis · Post by **tktennis** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:34 am

Not entirely sure where to put this, but, while Bayside Academy hasn't gotten the chance to play the top teams yet, we're putting up some serious numbers at the start of the season.

So far in High School play (on NAQT questions) we're undefeated and averaging 430 PPG as a team. Yes, this is A set, but so was the Lee Henry House Party (which I am very thankful to have gotten the chance to contribute to - we need more house writes to help out distant players!!!) And, yes, the competition isn't as good down here, but we did down UMS-Wright already without blinking an eye, and they are frequently state championship qualifiers.

Also, albeit unofficially, this Friday we begged and pleaded our way into a tournament at Faulkner State with all the top community colleges in the state (Faulkner, Enterprise... Lots of 26 year olds who've played a long time.) Run on NAQT A-Set, a team of three starters qualified for playoffs with a 5-2 record - we couldn't accept this playoff spot due to not being a community college - and I was the top scorer in the whole tournament at 92.857 PPG.

I know this isn't much but mainly I'm posting this to try to get word out that, while we're not Spain Park, we're here, we're working hard, and we're desperately trying to find ways to participate. Our sponsor won't let us go to Hoover alone and she cannot take us. She won't let us play the state championship series because one of the dates is during an administration of the SAT and she boycotts on principle. Of course, this is her decision, as we wouldn't even be around without her, but it makes it hard to "prove" ourselves in any way other than demolishing the local competition. We have a very solid team, but time is sorta running out; I lose my #2 and 3 scorers this year and then I'm gone the next with nobody to replace. We really want to compete with you guys, and this is sorta a call to action towards integrating South Alabama to this circuit.

naesorman555 · Post by **naesorman555** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:07 am

I get that your sponsor is upset about there being tournaments on days of testing, but between the SAT and ACT roughly two weekends a month are already scheduled for tests. It's hard enough trying to find locations and enough people to run decent tournaments for state, and sometimes the only available dates are on the same dates as tests. Most invitationals try and avoid this if possible too. We had players miss a tournament already this year for subject tests, but we didn't punish the whole team by not going. We just took the people that could go. Why is it such a big deal to miss one test day? Is a subject only offered on that day? Also which date is she specifically protesting?

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 1:05 pm

Trent, I'm not sure what you'd like the rest of the state to do for you here. ASCA has a southern regional site for state, and a southern district site as well. We've reached out to SAACA for years to try to bring more South AL teams into the fold, and we have been met with silence. There aren't a huge number of opportunities for South teams to compete with North teams that don't involve traveling three hours. LAMPs major is later in the year, and we are likely to see you guys match up against North teams then. In the meantime, I would suggest that you get your parents and the parents of other team members involved in talking to your sponsor. The ASCA tourney dates are fixed by our bylaws because there is a conflict literally every weekend with something. State and District are both held on Fridays, causing lots of extra headaches for organizing because of finding locations (most schools don't have free rooms on a Friday), so only one day, regionals, is a Saturday. There are multiple SAT dates each year. If your coach is boycotting state over that, he or she is being unreasonable and unfair to your team, and you have every right to ask your principal for permission to travel without her. I promise you ASCA will give you a waiver to compete sans coach for that leg.

Beyond that, I don't think anyone is dismissing Bayside as a legit team, but right now, I don't really care what numbers you are putting up--Spain Park is number one in the state until I see someone prove otherwise. They return every player from a state runner-up team from last year. Your team, plus West Point, LAMP, James Clemens, Hoover, Springwood, Buckhorn, and Gadsden City, are all in the conversation , but in the form of "can they beat Spain Park?" We haven't seen Indian Springs, Huntsville, or Grissom yet, either. There's a long season, and we have no state ranking to worry about. Just keep putting up good numbers and attending anything that you can. You'll be in the conversations. You can't expect, though, that people will put you side by side with the best teams until you get the chance to play them. I understand your frustration, but keep pushing, and wait for LAMP for your team to make a big splash.

Zealots of Stockholm · Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:33 pm

To clarify my earlier post, I did not intend to offend anyone's team or "count them out."

With that being said, yes, the West Point house write was somewhere around the difficulty of an A-set (slightly harder than one IMO), and Spain Park dominated that tournament also. But, yesterday's tournament was run on Maryland Fall, which I would say is at least slightly harder than an NAQT IS-set. Over the course of 10 rounds, a team I read to never scored more than 325. After the tournaments conclusion, it was brought to my attention that Spain Park had rounds of 485, 485, and 515, which is not easy at all on that set. To my knowledge, they haven't played a close game all year.

I also believe that it is too early to count anyone out of the state this early in the year, but Spain Park is definitely the early front runner. Yesterday's top four (Spain Park A, Hoover A, West Point A, James Clemens A) are all likely to be in the state playoffs this year. Also, my team has been missing two of our A-team players in both tournaments we've attended so far this year due to band, but we played West Point to the final tossup the other day in our local league (albeit on terrible questions), so I wouldn't count us out yet either. We should have much more time to practice now that band activities have slowed down, and we will be at full strength at Hoover on November 21st.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:23 pm

A few things:

1) SMART I: Lee Henry's House Party was targeting a difficulty "between A-series and Regular IS sets." That was what my kids were told to write. However, while I feel that they wrote a high-quality set, especially for a first-time house write with less than a month to finish, they did fail miserably at hitting that difficulty level. I'd say that our SMART set was considerably tougher than A-series.

2) Spain Park is really, really strong. Like REALLY strong. They have deep, broad knowledge. But, they also have an intangible quality that I think a lot of teams lack: a great deal of common sense. Watching them play, I can't help but notice how they make impeccable decisions about when to buzz, when not to buzz, and how to figure out and piece together early clues to form highly-accurate educated guesses. My team WAITS until they hear a clue that they KNOW. Spain Park FIGURES things out. That makes them dangerous. It is POSSIBLE that they will go the whole year without losing to a single Alabama team. But, I'm making a bold prediction that they will lose at least once this year. Make no mistake. I believe that they are - by far - the best team in the state. But, upsets happen.

3) West Point just can't beat Hoover. We played Hoover B (a team that didn't make the playoffs) and blew a 120+ lead to lose on the last tossup. We played Hoover A in the playoffs and blew a 90+ point lead to lose on the last tossup. We played Hoover A at WRK and lost - you guessed it - on the last tossup. I'm convinced that we could take four random kids from the hallways of Hoover High who have never played quiz bowl, throw a bowling shirt on them, sit them down against West Point A, and we'd lose. Probably on the last question.

To, to recap:

1) SMART was much harder than A-series.
2) Spain Park is good.
3) West Point can't beat Hoover.

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:52 am

I look forward to seeing the stats from this tourney, and I know Chandler is already on that.

Without getting into specifics, I would love to hear people' s opinion of the set used overall. My understanding is that the questions were VERY long, even for an event housewritten by a college, and that there were a fair number of headscratcher answers of the "THAT'S what they were looking for, and it took five lines to get there?" variety. I also heard that the clues were good ones, and we certainly aren't complaining about quality--i just want to hear other folks' opinions.

Also, it looks like the next in-state tourney is the Hoover Invitational, which is filling up. If you haven't gotten a registration in, let me know if you plan to attend. The next events nearby are the CATT XI and Vanderbilt's SPOOK - Hoover is planning to attend CATT XI. Anyone else going?

Zealots of Stockholm · Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:15 am

Joshua Rutsky wrote:I look forward to seeing the stats from this tourney, and I know Chandler is already on that.

Without getting into specifics, I would love to hear people' s opinion of the set used overall. My understanding is that the questions were VERY long, even for an event housewritten by a college, and that there were a fair number of headscratcher answers of the "THAT'S what they were looking for, and it took five lines to get there?" variety. I also heard that the clues were good ones, and we certainly aren't complaining about quality--i just want to hear other folks' opinions.

Also, it looks like the next in-state tourney is the Hoover Invitational, which is filling up. If you haven't gotten a registration in, let me know if you plan to attend. The next events nearby are the CATT XI and Vanderbilt's SPOOK - Hoover is planning to attend CATT XI. Anyone else going?

Truthfully, it may be about a week or so on stats. The ACT is Saturday, and it will be my last attempt at it, so I will be spending some time studying for it, but I've already started the stats and will finish them as quickly as possible.

As far as the set, the tossups were pretty long (5-7 lines) but also pretty fair in difficulty, in my opinion. There were a few tossups that just seemed too hard, even among the playoff teams. The biggest issue I had with the set was the bonus difficulty seemed to be much higher than that of the tossup difficulty. That may just be to me though, maybe someone else can comment on the difficulty. Also, based on stats from the main site on 10/10, I will be very impressed if any team broke or neared 23 PPB.

Lastly, a reminder that the top 3 teams from this event qualified for PACE NSC. I'm pretty sure it's been awhile since Alabama sent a team.

bhsmatt · Post by **bhsmatt** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 8:26 pm

Be sure to let me know if you would like to enter the December 12 Buckhorn High invitational. We are using NAQT IS 148 questions. I've heard from around 15 teams so far, but would like to have a field of at least 20

Email me at [email protected]
if you would like to enter.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 11:28 am

I want to say something about the Maryland questions that I think we as a state need to discuss. My players complained incessantly about the length of the questions. I love quiz bowl more than just about anyone, and even I was getting glassy-eyed and bored listening to the questions go on and on. We powered very few, so the questions went pretty long.

My players consistently said the tossups were just TOO long. They said they were boring. They said it was hard to stay focused. They said even the bonuses were too wordy. They asked why anyone would write questions that long. Why don't they just get to the point, they asked....

During this barrage of complaints, I had a flashback and a sense of deja vu. These are EXACTLY the same things I heard people in Alabama say when I first suggested that we dump the quick recall one-liners of the past and adopt pyramidal play. It took ten years to drag Alabama kicking and screaming into the era of modern quiz bowl. Now, here we are in 2015. We've established Alabama as one of the best states in which to play quiz bowl. We were the only state in the nation to get an "A" rating for in the current "State of Quizbowl."

However, we continue to struggle on the national stage. Even our best teams can't seem to make the playoffs at HSNCT. As good as Spain Park is this year, I seriously doubt they could crack the top 50 at HSNCT, if they could make the playoffs at all.

We need to accept the fact that these "hardcore," "long" questions are what the GOOD teams across the nation are cutting their teeth on. We may need to reexamine what we consider to be "good quizbowl" in Alabama. I don't LIKE the long questions, but if this is what makes teams better, perhaps we need to be proactive and not drag our feet like we did 10 years ago.

I get the impression that most "hardcore" teams in the nation consider NAQT to be more "casual" - even at the HSNCT level. Is that a fair observation? Look at our best teams' stats compared to the best teams in other states. They pale in comparison. They are doing something different. Perhaps it has something to do with this style of questions. Perhaps we need to take a hard look at it ourselves.

Thoughts?

sharathun · Post by **sharathun** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 11:47 am

Just in my opinion, I actually really enjoyed the longer questions. They provided more opportunity to power, in fact, as opposed to regular NAQT A or IS set. Usually, when I play NAQT sets, I rarely receive bonus points for powering questions, but when playing this set, I actually found it more rewarding, because the clues before the asterisk were more accessible. Again, this may merely be a feature specific to this set, but in the future, I would be willing to try more mirrors like this.

The clues, IMO, were not boring at all. They had unique answer lines (am I allowed to give examples, or is the set still being mirrored?) They were written well, and I felt that the bonus difficulty was where it should be, with one or two easy parts, and a third that's a stretch.

Overall, I actually really enjoyed the set, and despite its difficulty, this would be something that I would love to play again.

1.82 · Post by **1.82** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:12 pm

sharathun wrote:(am I allowed to give examples, or is the set still being mirrored?)

While we would love to hear your input, please do not discuss specific answers here. A private forum will be set up to allow everyone who played or observed the set to discuss individual questions.

Thanks!

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:27 pm

Governor General's Foot Guards wrote: While we would love to hear your input, please do not discuss specific answers here. A private forum will be set up to allow everyone who played or observed the set to discuss individual questions.

Thanks!

Hey, Naveed. I sent you a private message about one particular tossup I think you need to look at.

Also, I wanted to say publicly that the set was excellent and well-written. My comments about the length of the questions are in no way a critique of the quality. We simply aren't used to questions that long. We need to be exposed to more house-writes in addition to the plethora of NAQT questions we hear. Thanks for an excellent set of questions!

Zealots of Stockholm · Tue Oct 20, 2015 5:21 pm

Though very long, I would also be up for more mirrors of this style, and would like to be able to play one for myself. There were lots of the longer questions that I felt like I could've gotten relatively early based on the clues. I have entered in 5/7 of the preliminary rounds, and it appears Spain Park will be the only team to break 20 PPB, whereas the top teams at Maryland's tournament were around 23 or 24 PPB on the set.

Additionally, does anyone know if anyone in/near Alabama is planning to mirror GSAC this year?

Zealots of Stockholm · Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:04 pm

Stats from prelims from Saturday, for those of you who are interested.

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... standings/

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:23 pm

Stats from the HIT will be up soon, but I just want to say that I was very happy with the performance of our teams from Alabama in this event. Despite the extremely strong field, including two teams (Woodford KY and Dorman) who I will be shocked if I don't see in the top 30 nationally, our squads held their own and played respectably.

This is the sort of event that can really go either way. It was possible that having such a strong out of state field would result in our in-state teams feeling like they weren't making progress. I believed, however, that the opposite would happen--that we would see that we ARE starting to get to the point where we measure ourselves not by what is best in the state of Alabama, but by what is best in the NATION, and that we believe that we can get there. Today, I think, did a lot to validate that belief. I really want to single out a couple of teams and coaches for special praise here:

- Lee Henry and West Point, but also for his work at Brindlee Mountain, for proving that any team from any school can be great if they dedicate themselves. You guys have taken away pretty much everyone's excuses in state.

- Wayne Davenport and Gadsden City, who have developed a program that is demonstrating that middle to high school pipelines CAN work in this state.

- Rhonda Brewer and Sylacauga, who came to the event with minimal experience, but whose team cleaned house in the novice pool. Thank you for helping to grow the state's program!

- Keith Hutcheson and Ramsay, especially Joseph and Braxton, who have been better every game they play, and who have breathed life back into the Birmingham city districts. Your team is something special.

- Jennifer Canterbury at Northridge. What did you guys have for breakfast today? Wow. Amazing performance by your team.

- Buckhorn, James Clemens, Springwood - all outstanding programs that made the top ten and played well against top competition today.

- Prestige International -- one of the first times we've had students who wanted to play badly enough to come without a coach.

I'm very proud of our state tonight.

Joshua Rutsky · Post by **Joshua Rutsky** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 3:52 pm

Stats for HIT are up at

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/3135/ for JV/Novice

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/3134/ for Varsity.

JosipOfKumrovec · Post by **JosipOfKumrovec** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:17 pm

After two Huntsville City Schools League Meets, Grissom has narrowly defeated Huntsville twice, albeit on very shoddy question sets. Drew Pendergrass and Kyle Munroe once again look very strong for them and with their supporting cast, they can expected to be back at state this year. I'd like to think we will get to at least one Invitational this year, but with restrictions coming down from Huntsville City School's central office stemming from the desegregation order (We can no longer charge member dues) it has become increasingly difficult for us to travel outside of the city league. For now at least, all we have to go on for these two teams is a couple of matches using non-pyramidal questions, one of which Huntsville was missing Drew.

I'd like for both of us to continue to improve and advance deep into the state field, but playing against increasingly weak competition, using down right embarrassing question sets won't do the trick. Luckily, we practice with pyramidal style questions so our players will not be completely blind when coming into the state qualifiers. There is still a lot of work to do, we have a long road ahead of us just to get back to where we were last year, but I'm optimistic. The biggest challenge is just getting our players to realize that there are many, many teams that are 100x better than the competition we regularly face.

Best of luck to everyone this season.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:42 am

Stats from our Dec. 5 tournament are up:

https://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-t ... nt_id=6755

Congrats to Gadsden City, Buckhorn, West Point, and Gadsden City B for qualifying for HSNCT.

Congrats also to West Point, Good Hope A, and Good Hope B for qualifying for SSNCT!

Matthew D. · Post by **Matthew D.** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 7:25 pm

It was an exciting day at the Buckhorn Invitational. The results:

1st place: Spain Park
2nd place: Hoover
3rd place: Gadsden
4th place: West Point

Congratulations to the tournament MVP, Venu Reddy.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:07 am

Matthew D. wrote:It was an exciting day at the Buckhorn Invitational. The results:

1st place: Spain Park
2nd place: Hoover
3rd place: Gadsden
4th place: West Point

Congratulations to the tournament MVP, Venu Reddy.

Will full stats be posted?

Matthew D. · Post by **Matthew D.** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:28 pm

Yes. We sent them, but NAQT has not yet uploaded them.

Zealots of Stockholm · Mon Dec 14, 2015 11:57 pm

If full stats won't be posted, it might be worth mentioning that Good Hope A should be 2-4 instead of 2-5. There were also a few other teams who had an incorrect number of games played in the stats on NAQT.

Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:12 am

Matthew D. wrote:Yes. We sent them, but NAQT has not yet uploaded them.

Posted here.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 10:59 am

I was hoping for more detailed stats, but it is what it is, I guess....

I'm proud to see our "C" team qualifying for SSNCT. I didn't even think about that possibility. I got them registered. Now to come up with the entry fees.

Also, can any Alabama team beat Spain Park this year? They seem to be totally dominant.

I've resigned to the fact that West Point is pretty much #4 with a bullet. We can't seem to break into the "7A Triumvirate" of Spain Park, Gadsden City, and Hoover. I'm hoping that we can manage to do well enough at state to avoid playing any of those three in the quarter-finals. I'd like to at least get 4th. But, there are a few teams right below that could potentially knock us out of the top 4: Buckhorn, James Clemens, and Springwood come to mind. We've managed to stay undefeated against those teams so far this year, but there have been some close ones. Any of those teams could beat us on the right set.

Also, I don't know what to expect from Grissom or Huntsville High.

The second half of this year will be interesting.

Post by **Important Bird Area** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 5:34 pm

cwest123 wrote:If full stats won't be posted, it might be worth mentioning that Good Hope A should be 2-4 instead of 2-5. There were also a few other teams who had an incorrect number of games played in the stats on NAQT.

I believe these have now been fixed (stats).