NAQT's middle school program

[bt_green_warbler]

NAQT is pleased to announce that, starting with the 2010-2011 competition year, it will add a middle school quiz bowl program to complement its high school, community college, and college offerings. The inaugural 2011 Middle School National Championship Tournament will be held at Chicago's Hyatt Regency O'Hare hotel on the weekend of May 6-8, 2011.

Full details

[dtaylor4]

Paging Jeff Price...

[cvdwightw]

In this first year, NAQT will be producing one "Middle School Series" set of ten question packets, each of which contains 24 tossups and 24 bonus questions. This set will be ready by October 15, 2011, and can be used at any time after that.

I hope that date is incorrect.

I think this is a huge step for the growth and legitimacy of good middle school quizbowl. NAQT A-series length is short enough to not distract middle schoolers, but long enough to allow for a reasonable semblance of pyramidality (personally I think that the IS-set character limit is probably fine as well, given that we used that for CMST and it appeared to work well). Also, a huge plus is that NAQT's MSNCT is run as its own separate event - it doesn't look like it's merely an afterthought run concurrently with a high school event. I worry a little about NAQT's ability to keep the difficulty down, but Jeff did great work on CMST and NAQT's A-series sets are already thousands of times better than any other middle school for-profit provider even with the difficulty caveat.

[bt_green_warbler]

In this first year, NAQT will be producing one "Middle School Series" set of ten question packets, each of which contains 24 tossups and 24 bonus questions. This set will be ready by October 15, 2011, and can be used at any time after that.

I hope that date is incorrect.

Fixed.

[the return of AHAN]

Heh. The IESA State Championship finals will be held Friday, May 6th, 2011. The GOOD news is that if the Friday night of NAQT is just practice rounds, any team that is playing IESA State Finals will be able to make it for Saturday, though they'll be pretty worn out by the time they reach the Hyatt, IMO.

Edit: clarity

[the return of AHAN]

The question has been put to me, though, about whether IESA teams would run into any season limitation by-laws, and my answer is "no," the IESA does not set a date in which the season must end; only when it should begin. Thus no need to invoke the 4 v. 4 end-around IHSA schools use to play national tourneys.

[jonah]

The question has been put to me, though, about whether IESA teams would run into any season limitation by-laws, and my answer is "no," the IESA does not set a date in which the season must end; only when it should begin. Thus no need to invoke the 4 v. 4 end-around IHSA schools use to play national tourneys.

I expect to see Station's Class of 2003 put up an impressive showing at nationals as their 2002-03 season finally comes to a close.

[the return of AHAN]

The question has been put to me, though, about whether IESA teams would run into any season limitation by-laws, and my answer is "no," the IESA does not set a date in which the season must end; only when it should begin. Thus no need to invoke the 4 v. 4 end-around IHSA schools use to play national tourneys.

I expect to see Station's Class of 2003 put up an impressive showing at nationals as their 2002-03 season finally comes to a close.

LOL! I didn't coach that team; but it's still funny.
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

[Coach K]

Jeff,

Is there an estimated date for when places that have submitted bids to host the MS Invitational Set will find out if their bids have been accepted?

[bt_green_warbler]

Our middle school sample packet is now available on naqt.com.

[bt_green_warbler]

Jeff,

Is there an estimated date for when places that have submitted bids to host the MS Invitational Set will find out if their bids have been accepted?

We're working on this and expect to notify hosts and post the full schedule on naqt.com in the near future.

[the return of AHAN]

LIVE from the IESA Coaches Workshop...

I've been passing around copies of your sample middle school set, and posting info about MSNCT on the tournament board.

You're welcome.

PS: (also passing out the link to quizbowlpackets.com, an Olympia Academic Questions set, and a round of the 2009 Jr. Wildcat, lest anyone think I'm playing favorites here. )

EDIT: i spelz gud

[bt_green_warbler]

I just split the timed rounds discussion to a new thread, and posted a separate announcement thread for the inaugural MSNCT.

[the return of AHAN]

I know the ink isn't even dry on the score sheets from the 2012 MSNCT, but......any thoughts on the location of the 2013 MSNCT yet?

[dtaylor4]

I know the ink isn't even dry on the score sheets from the 2012 MSNCT, but......any thoughts on the location of the 2013 MSNCT yet?

My question is, how can the Barrington invite hit 50-60 teams and maybe 10% come to MSNCT, which for most of the BIT teams is in their own backyard?

[the return of AHAN]

We had 52 teams and <6% come. Progress, no?