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ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:12 pm
by the return of AHAN
You have a unique opportunity this year to change the course of Illinois quizbowl. The IESA executive board is mandating a change to how regionals are done, due to the lengthy matches under the 30/20 format wherein the bonus questions are asked all at once, team conferences for up to 30 seconds, then delivers their answers. I don't need to tell you guys that this is hardly the speediest way to run a match. Faced with alternatives such as having single-elimination regional playoffs that still last forever (a la IHSA), some coaches with zero exposure to good quizbowl formats are amenable to trying quizbowl with 3 part bonuses, asked one part at a time, as I have raved about how much more efficiently these matches are completed. I put this in your lap because this movement towards good quizbowl can't happen without the central Illinois coaches buying into it.
This is where YOU guys come in... If a downstate site could run a tournament on, say, a Saturday in April, using the CMST II set, we could win over a lot of converts. I'd like to discuss how to go about this and would be happy to partner with a central Illinois host and help out in whatever way that I can, including the development of the invite list so that the right people attend (that is, long-time IESA coaches/schools who want/need the exposure).

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 4:26 pm
by Irreligion in Bangladesh
This is wonderful news and a great idea. If this tournament is at UIUC, Springfield, or another school within a morning's drive of DeKalb, NIU moderators stand willing to boost your staff numbers so this tournament can expand.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 4:28 pm
by jonah
Same for me, pending availability and with the substitution of "Chicago" for "De Kalb".

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:32 pm
by BGSO
Depending on where this falls in accordance to nationals we might be able to make this happen.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 1:28 pm
by mrgsmath
Since you are calling me by name, I don't know if I should be scared or honored. I am already planning to introduce the NAQT Middle school set in this area for a Feb. 26 tournament and had a lot of excited interest from the 30+ coaches at our annual scheduling meeting. I am not opposed to hosting a second tournament in April but I don't want to appear pushy. I anticipate around 16 schools with A and B teams on Feb. 26 and could most likely get the same numbers for April. If no one else wants the to run the CMST II set I will step in.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 3:35 pm
by the return of AHAN
:grin:
I mentioned you by name as you are the first central IL coach I thought of that handles middle schoolers that seems to be a friend of good quizbowl! So, I must ask, what schools do you expect are likely to attend? Anything we can do to introduce these coaches to the idea of asking 3-part bonuses, answered one part at a time, AND get them comfortable with it, will go a long way towards making the Advisory Committee amenable to such a change for the 2012 State Series and head off any bad changes the Exec Board might impose in the face of inaction.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 4:35 pm
by mrgsmath
Moving Day wrote::grin:
I mentioned you by name as you are the first central IL coach I thought of that handles middle schoolers that seems to be a friend of good quizbowl! So, I must ask, what schools do you expect are likely to attend? Anything we can do to introduce these coaches to the idea of asking 3-part bonuses, answered one part at a time, AND get them comfortable with it, will go a long way towards making the Advisory Committee amenable to such a change for the 2012 State Series and head off any bad changes the Exec Board might impose in the face of inaction.
Nearly every Springfield Area school that is a heavy hitter, Franklin Middle; Christ the King, Rochester, Glenwood Middle, Ball Charter, on and on...was excited and wanted info that day. Other area schools included Pleasant Plains, Jacksonville both Public and Private, as well as Quincy's coach when I talked to them at the SCOP tournament. I am confident that Macomb will be interested as well. No one was negative on the proposal, though some were quizzical about the changes. If you have any schools in mind particularly let me know. I have been talking with area High School coaches in an effort to "nudge" their middle school and Junior high programs in this direction as I work with them on the overall area High School development.

This area is open to change and embraces the idea of "improved" as well as "quality" competition, however the concept of "good" vs "bad" does ruffle some feathers, including my own as many will attest.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 8:36 pm
by the return of AHAN
Cool! And we seem to use "good quizbowl" to describe what we like, but I suppose we can dispense with that here. Let's face it, what likely has the best chance is some form of mACF format with bouncebacks, but with minimal changes in the distribution. We both know computational math isn't popular with the collegiate crowd, but I think people who've been around this level have come to understand there needs to be some computational math at the middle school level, as they're simply unprepared to answer questions about various philosophers and economists. Besides, we'd be asking for quite a shift here and changing the distro might make it too much change at once.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:28 pm
by mrgsmath
I agree, the more my players experience the form the more they enjoy it. We went to Nathan's Albus Doubledore meet last year and it was a great experience. The teams down here in Central Illinois are open to change, they just need the opportunity. I hope these tournaments will provide that opportunity. mACF is the eventual goal, since it is the College form. But the transistion from Middle school to High School to College mACF can be graduated and adapted to the needs and capabilities of the participants. Pyramidal toss-ups, and related bonuses read one at time is what I consider foundational. Distribution, subject areas, scoring, and even the round format are all negotiable and flexible in my opinion since they are conditions most teams would find adapting to relatively easy.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:29 pm
by jonah
mrgsmath wrote:Pyramidal toss-ups, and related bonuses read one at time is what I consider foundational.
You mean bonuses whose parts are related to each other, right? (As opposed to the bonus being related to the tossup whose correct answering earned it.)

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:48 am
by mrgsmath
jonah wrote:
mrgsmath wrote:Pyramidal toss-ups, and related bonuses read one at time is what I consider foundational.
You mean bonuses whose parts are related to each other, right? (As opposed to the bonus being related to the tossup whose correct answering earned it.)
Sorry, yes that is exactly what I mean. I usually refer to them as progressive bonuses (pun intended) but I wasn't sure that would be understood either. I don't really like the bonuses that are extentions of the toss-up that much since it tends to disproportionately reward a team for knowing one subject really well. I also prefer rebounds. In both cases I like teams that may be slow on the buzzer or weak in a particular subject to be able to stay competitive in a match if they have depth in other areas.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:41 am
by jkulesza
Any chance there are still some openings at your middle school NAQT on 2/16? If so, King's Academy would love to play. We played at Nathan's tourney last March and would really like to play in some tourneys this year as well. We're a home school co-op from the Northwest/West suburbs.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 3:50 pm
by mrgsmath
jkulesza wrote:Any chance there are still some openings at your middle school NAQT on 2/16? If so, King's Academy would love to play. We played at Nathan's tourney last March and would really like to play in some tourneys this year as well. We're a home school co-op from the Northwest/West suburbs.
I will include you in the e-mailing, I hope to expand to as many teams as want to participate, you should hear from me right after my Thanksgiving decompression.

Any others that want to be included in the e-mail let me know.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 11:03 pm
by Papa's in the House
BGSO wrote:Depending on where this falls in accordance to nationals we might be able to make this happen.
Assuming no new tournaments pop up (and CMST II is written), we could run this on April 2 or April 23. I would be willing to attempt to drum up the staff if a middle school coach was willing to work with me on finding interested teams.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 1:29 pm
by mrgsmath
Papa's in the House wrote:
BGSO wrote:Depending on where this falls in accordance to nationals we might be able to make this happen.
Assuming no new tournaments pop up (and CMST II is written), we could run this on April 2 or April 23. I would be willing to attempt to drum up the staff if a middle school coach was willing to work with me on finding interested teams.
I will help in whatever capacity you need.

Re: ATTN: U of I Quizbowl people and/or Coach Grant

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 6:07 pm
by Stephen Colbert
I would be willing to contact the coaches/teams that attended the mirror of the 2010 CMST at IVCC. I still have contact information for most of the schools in north/central Illinois. Depending on the date, I would be happy to staff as well.