Pennsylvania '08-'09

Terrible Shorts Depot · Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:10 pm

Lots of other states get one, so why can't we have one?

Shady Side- We should be decent. Perhaps a little bit better than last year, but that would require a bit of luck. Losing Josh and Laura was big because they both happened to have very good knowledge of the one thing I have absolutely no knowledge about (SCIENCE!). Replacing Josh's music knowledge will be tough, as well. However, the cupboard is not bare! I've been working reasonably hard all summer and have been more than holding my own at Pitt practices. Pat also returns and he seems to be getting better every day. Also, there appears to be some new talent. A sophomore, David, and a freshman, Campbell, dominated the competition at our first practice of the year. I am excited for the new year.

State College- They are going to be good, probably really good. Ben and Ruilong are both really good, and I hope to see them a couple of times this year.

Moravian- The loss of Ben will really hurt. I'm not sure if they return anybody of consequence.

North Allegheny- They will continue to do well at Western PA tournaments, partially because they are good, and partially because Western PA is terrible. However, they graduated their top scorer. However, there are always smart people to be had when you are the largest school in the WPIAL.

Do any other PA people read this board?

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:25 pm

From an Illinois Interloper:

Welcome to the boards!

Once word gets out other Pennsylvanians should start to contribute.

Maxwell Sniffingwell · Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:29 pm

Posts: 79, coach.

The Laughing Man · Post by **The Laughing Man** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 6:20 pm

I hope that this thread survives (if Illinois can have hundreds of posts, we should at least be able to field a board!), but I suspect that because there isn't really a circuit, there won't be too much to talk about (I mean, I've only seen you twice in my whole quizbowl career Charlie!)
Still, I'll give my two cents:
I think you mentioned all of the teams of consequence. There are some other teams that play the local TV show and I'm sure the same is true for the Pittsburgh version of "Scholastic Scrimmage", but I think only Hollidaysburg went to HSNCT. It was their first nationals so hopefully they will become more active.
North Allegheny: I don't really know anything about them, and I've only played them once.
Moravian: They should be decent, as they return all of their HSNCT players, but Ben Schenkel. Although Ben had most of their points, they do return the overwhelming majority of their powers. Raymond Price of Moravian had the strangest stat line I've ever seen at HSNCT (16 powers, 3 tens, 9 negs.) It would seem from his powers that he has pretty deep knowledge, although I'm baffled that anyone could have 16 powers but only 3 tens.
Shady Side--
You know better than I do obviously. Last year you guys seemed pretty unbalanced-- really strong in some areas, but really weak in others (biology?)
State College--
Hopefully we won't sully the State College name
Hopefully, people from other Pennsylvania teams will read this board and be active on the circuit-- (Shameless plug: save a spot on your calendars for our NAQT tournament on April 4)

jbarnes112358 · Post by **jbarnes112358** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 7:36 pm

So how is State College looking? They always seem to come through with a highly competitive team.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Mon Sep 15, 2008 7:52 pm

I know last year I was most impressed with the State College B at the HSNCT when they gave us a real run for our money by buzzing in early off real knowledge a whole bunch of times. Given that they were all int heir first 2 years of high school, the sky seems to be the limit for that group, which could be really deadly next to Ben G this season. Not to mention their coach rocks.

Terrible Shorts Depot · Mon Sep 15, 2008 8:34 pm

Most of Western PA plays Hometown High Q, a television show structured like It's Academic, hosted by the utterly incomparable Ken Rice, but there are a few teams who try NAQT (most notably North Allegheny and Sewickley). The Pitt and CMU tournaments a usually full of random teams from the wierdest corners of the state.

We were really unbalanced last year. Wicked literature knowledge, but pitiful bio knowledge. This year should be an adventure in that regard, because we aren't exactly getting more balanced. Assuming I can read the young'uns, all 4 members of what is, at the moment, our A team have the same general interests (history and literature). I think we have an outside shot at 30ing exactly zero science bonuses that aren't on topics of personal interest (unfortunately, biology, chemistry, and physics are not personal interests of any team members).

Upon actually bothering to look at the HSNCT stats, my predictions of Moravian's demise were greatly exaggerated. Losing Ben will really hurt, but losing a player of that quality would hurt any team. Ben and Raymond seem to be more than competent. I hope they remain competitive, because PA needs all the good programs she can get.

I am greatly excited to see how you all at State do this year. As mentioned earlier, from the HSNCT stats and from playing y'all, Ben, Ruilong, David (is he Barry's little brother?), and Graham all are quite good. Will we see you guys anywhere this year? Assuming that there is a State Championship, we will attend that. We also plan on going to SCAT and Harvard.

(also, Ben, by my count, we've met in person 3 times: HSNCT, SCAT, and the State Championship.

)

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:37 am

Cornfused: yes, but I don't there's ever been a Penn forum before, hence my post.

And I have always found State College to be at the top, Coach Gittings has a great program there.

TheKingInYellow · Post by **TheKingInYellow** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:02 pm

I'd say as a team we have a lot of potential, and some up-and-coming players, but the loss of Laura Gabrovsek has left some chinks in our knowledge. If those can be rectified, I'd say we could put together a fairly successful season.

Also, April 4th, SC will be having a NAQT tournament, in case some people missed Ben's announcement. Should be a good time.

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:01 am

Last Saturday (9/27) we (Moravian) hosted a "scrimmage day" with some of our local schools. It was a good opportunity to introduce the other teams to the NAQT format, which none of them had played previously. Our showing looked promising, with both our A and B teams (teams were mixed, not separated by strength) going undefeated.

Also, Freedom High School, who attended our event, is making their circuit debut at PHSAT. Hopefully they enjoy themselves and decide to go to more tournaments.

TheKingInYellow · Post by **TheKingInYellow** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:42 am

I look forward to seeing Freedom more often; they did quite well at Princeton and I hope they'll keep attending tournaments

TheKingInYellow · Post by **TheKingInYellow** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:52 pm

Scholastic Scrimmage anyone? Who's doing it, and how are they faring?

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:51 pm

slimg wrote:Last Saturday (9/27) we (Moravian) hosted a "scrimmage day" with some of our local schools. It was a good opportunity to introduce the other teams to the NAQT format, which none of them had played previously. Our showing looked promising, with both our A and B teams (teams were mixed, not separated by strength) going undefeated.

Also, Freedom High School, who attended our event, is making their circuit debut at PHSAT. Hopefully they enjoy themselves and decide to go to more tournaments.

I'd be curious to see what teams showed up to this tournament. Are there results anywhere?

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:38 am

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:
I'd be curious to see what teams showed up to this tournament. Are there results anywhere?

Since it was only a scrimmage, we didn't make a big deal about getting results, and some of the scoresheets went missing. The field was:
Stroudsburg (2)
Jim Thorpe
Pius X
Freedom
Salisbury
Moravian (2)

TheKingInYelliow wrote:Scholastic Scrimmage anyone? Who's doing it, and how are they faring?

Yesterday, in our version of Scholastic, we played Stroudsburg and won 275-95.

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 1:33 pm

Is anyone going to the Penn Manor tournament?

The Atom Strikes! · Post by **The Atom Strikes!** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 1:34 pm

slimg wrote:Is anyone going to the Penn Manor tournament?

NO DON'T

mastila · Post by **mastila** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 7:13 am

thanks, forums like this give us a chance to peek back in time, i am glad to read this as i am new here

mhardmanster · Post by **mhardmanster** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:30 am

Yeah, we (Freedom) really would like to attend many more tournaments this year, but due to a lack of funding on the part of the school (there was talk of canceling the activity-- I had to beg the principal to keep it for at least one more year), we might not be able to, unless we can get some of our graduated players to act as our coach pro bono.

Princeton was quite eye opening. We have a Lehigh Valley Conference league where we dominate (26 game win streak played on awful questions ), but we have never seen teams like we saw there.

Hopefully we all can qualify for HSNCT and rep PA, yo.

MrDPMWest · Post by **MrDPMWest** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:06 pm

Hello...first time post from Pocono Mt West High School.

I am waiting to see if interest for other tournaments comes to the Eastern/Northeastern part of the state. As Freedom stated, funding is always an issue. Travel to Pitt or Princeton just isn't possible. (Which are the only NAQT format tounaments I know of in the area.)

For now we compete in our Mountain Valley Conference's (non-televised) Scholastic Scrimmage (with questions provided by Chip at Questions Unlimited.) We also complete in the Knowledge Master Open and Chip's QuizNet. (Both cheap and on-site.)

We do well in our league (for a school that has only been in existance for 6 years), we have made the playoffs in 5 years, won 2 conference championships, and travelled to the NAC where we placed 7th.

We do well...considering the questions..."What time is it when the elephant sits on your clock?" I have the packet and will treasure it forever. My students looked at me in stunned silence when someone buzzed with "Time to get a new clock" and was called correct.

I am morbidly curious to see how badly State College, Moravian, or Freedom would shame us in a match.

Self-incompatibility in plants · Wed Dec 03, 2008 10:59 pm

We do well...considering the questions..."What time is it when the elephant sits on your clock?" I have the packet and will treasure it forever. My students looked at me in stunned silence when someone buzzed with "Time to get a new clock" and was called correct.

Gotta love Chip...

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 11:26 pm

MrDPMWest wrote:Hello...first time post from Pocono Mt West High School.

...

I am morbidly curious to see how badly State College, Moravian, or Freedom would shame us in a match.

Welcome to the board! First of all, for non-Chip tournaments, check out http://www.hsquizbowl.org/tdb/ . There may not be many close to you, but hopefully it will help you find some. Short of that, the best I can suggest is to try hosting your own tournament. There's some excellent guides available on how to host, notably the one authored by Evan Silberman (Evan - could you put this on the front page?). Hopefully you can talk about this issue with some other local coaches and they'll agree that pyramidal questions would be a better option.

You can also find archived packets of quality high school questions (from sources other than NAQT) here. There are also college level questions out there; sets that are labeled as "novice" are typically challenging enough to experienced players. You can find those here and some more dated here.

As for facing off against State College & company - don't worry about that. The important thing in quiz bowl is that the competition encourages bettering one's academic knowledge, which is something I and others here find essential for students. Just keep working at it and if your kids work with you, you can reach that level eventually.

I'd also be happy to help you out with any questions you should have. Feel free to send me an email at [email protected] .

Theory Of The Leisure Flask · Wed Dec 03, 2008 11:44 pm

MrDPMWest wrote:Hello...first time post from Pocono Mt West High School.

I am waiting to see if interest for other tournaments comes to the Eastern/Northeastern part of the state. As Freedom stated, funding is always an issue. Travel to Pitt or Princeton just isn't possible. (Which are the only NAQT format tounaments I know of in the area.)

For now we compete in our Mountain Valley Conference's (non-televised) Scholastic Scrimmage (with questions provided by Chip at Questions Unlimited.) We also complete in the Knowledge Master Open and Chip's QuizNet. (Both cheap and on-site.)

We do well in our league (for a school that has only been in existance for 6 years), we have made the playoffs in 5 years, won 2 conference championships, and travelled to the NAC where we placed 7th.

We do well...considering the questions..."What time is it when the elephant sits on your clock?" I have the packet and will treasure it forever. My students looked at me in stunned silence when someone buzzed with "Time to get a new clock" and was called correct.

I am morbidly curious to see how badly State College, Moravian, or Freedom would shame us in a match.

Welcome!

There isn't a whole lot of active quizbowl in Eastern PA as far as I can tell, sadly. We hosted a tournament at Penn a few weeks ago, and managed a few scattered teams from the southeastern part of the state, but most of our field was actually from out-of-state (Due to Charter bringing eight teams, I think Delaware actually won that race). If Princeton is too far, then we might be as well, but we'd certainly love to have you (and anyone else interested from your area) next time around if you can find a way to make it.

Beyond that, what Fred said. Even if you can't get all the other local coaches to try pyramidal questions, I'm sure there are teams from (at the very least) northern NJ who would be willing to cross the Delaware for an NAQT or HSAPQ tournament. I know my old team (Bloomfield) regularly went as far as High Point back in the day.

btressler · Post by **btressler** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:07 am

Let me also add to the welcome. I actually played against Pocono Mountain in 1990 back when WNEP did its TV tournament.

Regrettably quizbowl in Pennsylvania is scattered and non-uniform. Lancaster has scads of teams who do Chip-ish tournaments. There are TV tournaments in several locales, but those teams tend to disband once their knocked out.

One thing you can consider is to have parents drive you to tournaments. We do that on occasion when I'm not taking all eight teams to an event. Are the events in northern Jersey, NYC close enough to make this feasible?

Although admittedly a few hours away from you, another tournament I will recommend State College's tournament in April.

Blackboard Monitor Vimes · Sat Dec 06, 2008 7:32 pm

Here's the guide to hosting that Fred mentioned (unless Evan's written more than one).

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:17 am

Does anyone know where/when the (NAQT) Pennsylvania state championship will be?

Terrible Shorts Depot · Sat Dec 13, 2008 1:02 pm

I emailed Dwight, and he said that State College has expressed interest in having the championship take place. If I remember correctly, Moravian and State College/Shady Side are in different "states", because I'm pretty sure PA is divided into Eastern and Western. Dwight mentioned something about trying to break

's stronghold in the Lehigh Valley, so that could mean that the tournament will be somewhere more eastern. Out of colleges in the state, only CMU, Pitt, Swarthmore, Penn, and maybe Bucknell and Temple have active teams. 3 of those are Philly area, which isn't really convienient for anybody. Pitt and CMU are only convienient for us, North Allegheny, and State College (kind of). In short, I have no idea where it will be, but the past 2 times that it has been held ('06 and '08), it was at CMU.

Pilgrim · Post by **Pilgrim** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 1:31 pm

CMU will host it if no one else does, but I had heard that State College might.

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 1:37 pm

la2pgh wrote:If I remember correctly, Moravian and State College/Shady Side are in different "states"

Does this mean we are not allowed to attend a State Championship hosted in the western half of the state?

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:02 pm

I recall competing my junior year in Ohio's; you can compete, but you won't qualify to HSNCT from it. (I don't know how much of that is NAQT policy and how much was at Solon's discretion.)

Terrible Shorts Depot · Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:16 pm

everyday847 wrote:I recall competing my junior year in Ohio's; you can compete, but you won't qualify to HSNCT from it. (I don't know how much of that is NAQT policy and how much was at Solon's discretion.)

Are you sure that was the State Championship? I don't think it was.

NAQT wrote:Also note that for the purposes of calculating geographic exclusivity, Northern California and Southern California are treated as separate states; Eastern and Western Pennsylvania are treated as separate states; Rhode Island and Connecticut are considered to be a single unit; and New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine are considered a single unit.

I don't know if that is only for geographic exclusivity, or if it also applies to State titles.

Down and out in Quintana Roo · Sat Dec 13, 2008 3:26 pm

Why do those rules exist? That's ridiculous.

I sure hope that Delaware doesn't get thrown into some other state... if they group NH, VT, and ME then why are we on own own with an NAQT state championship held each year?

Terrible Shorts Depot · Sat Dec 13, 2008 3:39 pm

Caesar Rodney HS wrote:Why do those rules exist? That's ridiculous.

I sure hope that Delaware doesn't get thrown into some other state... if they group NH, VT, and ME then why are we on own own with an NAQT state championship held each year?

I suppose the existance of the geographic exclusivity rules is to prevent two nearby tournaments from using the same questions, thus guaranteeing higher attendance.

I'm pretty sure that New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine sent like one or two teams to the HSNCT last year, while Charter sent 3 teams by themselves. Delaware has a far more vibrant quiz bowl scene than Upper New England.

Down and out in Quintana Roo · Sat Dec 13, 2008 3:45 pm

la2pgh wrote:Delaware has a far more vibrant quiz bowl scene than Upper New England.

Okay well outside of Charter and us... no, it doesn't. A total of 3 schools have traveled out of state other than us this year, only to one tournament each, with a total of 5 wins.

Anyway, sorry to detract from the thread.

rhentzel · Post by **rhentzel** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:28 pm

slimg wrote:
la2pgh wrote:If I remember correctly, Moravian and State College/Shady Side are in different "states"
Does this mean we are not allowed to attend a State Championship hosted in the western half of the state?

Despite the fact that our exclusivity rules treat eastern and western Pennsylvania separately (to reflect typical travel and tournament-attendance patterns), NAQT still only has a single Pennsylvania championship. (And all Pennsylvania schools are eligible and encouraged to attend it.)

rhentzel · Post by **rhentzel** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:34 pm

Caesar Rodney HS wrote:Why do those rules exist? That's ridiculous.

NAQT's geographic exclusivity rules exist to give our tournament hosts a guarantee that they will not be competing against nearby tournaments using the same set of questions. That is, if a school in Iowa is hosting using Invitational Series #N, then no other school in Iowa will be allowed to host using Invitational Series #N because then teams would have to choose between the two.

It is also the "market mechanism" by which NAQT seeks to balance hosts' desire to draw from multiple states against our desire to license a packet set in multiple states.

I sure hope that Delaware doesn't get thrown into some other state... if they group NH, VT, and ME then why are we on own own with an NAQT state championship held each year?

We are not currently considering grouping Delaware with other states for the purpose of geographic exclusivity.

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:42 pm

rhentzel wrote:Despite the fact that our exclusivity rules treat eastern and western Pennsylvania separately (to reflect typical travel and tournament-attendance patterns), NAQT still only has a single Pennsylvania championship. (And all Pennsylvania schools are eligible and encouraged to attend it.)

Thanks for the clarification.

nurgles_herald · Post by **nurgles_herald** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:13 am

Penn State is holding the State Championship, as far as I know. Considering that Zydney and I (okay, mostly Zydney... or entirely Zydney) are organizing it, and we have 26 registered teams, I'd say that it's going down. In the most awesome show of awesome ever. Did I mention awesome?

Terrible Shorts Depot · Wed Mar 25, 2009 5:49 pm

Hey Walker,
Is Shady Side among those 26? I don't know if Dr. Malone ever registered, and, since I won't be able to make it, I'm rather out of the loop.
Thanks.

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:28 pm

I think Moravian's in there. Can we see a field?

slimg · Post by **slimg** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 8:40 am

Who won PAC?