SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience" at Webb in Bell Buckle, TN

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SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience" at Webb in Bell Buckle, TN

Post by webbfeet »

:grin:" SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience is scheduled for November 15th at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN. We are using NAQT packet 139A and will follow the standard Tennessee rules. The opening rounds will consist of 10 toss-up questions, the second round will be a worksheet round, and the final round will consist of 10 toss-ups with bonus questions.
Please contact tournament director Raymond Pryor at [email protected] if you are interested in joining us.
I am leaving my teaching and coaching posts at the end of the year; hence the shamelessly narcissistic name change for the tournament. It could change again. Just yesterday TD Raymond Pryor was sticking with SWAG: Ron Has Left The Building.
Some do not particularly care for the Tennessee format, but I am staying with it to continue to honor Carolyn Hawkins, who coached Cookeville HS for many years. Carolyn was always willing to help young coaches and inexperienced teams, and the worksheet round allows even the greenest of teams to at least score a few points.
The only reason I started the SWAG tournament was to encourage new teams to play. My good friend and former colleague Stan Rupley brought BGA to their first tournament ever at SWAG I. In just a few years they were regularly beating us. Did I question my philosophy of inclusiveness? Of course I did. I hate to lose as much as anyone. But iron does sharpen iron, and the more competitive teams we have in the Tennessee circuit the more competitive all of us will be at the regional and national levels.
Webb began competing in 2000, so I was a rookie coach during the glory years of Cookeville's dominance. We never beat them, but over a three or four year period we got stronger and stronger as we tried to beat them. None of that would have happened without Carolyn's support.
Last edited by webbfeet on Tue Oct 14, 2014 2:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Ron Smith
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Re: SWAG V at Webb in Bell Buckle, TN

Post by Important Bird Area »

webbfeet wrote:SWAG V (Sawney Webb Academic Games) is scheduled for November 15th at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN. We are using NAQT questions
IS #139A, to be precise.

(Is this actually SWAG IV? Last fall's event was announced as SWAG III.)
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"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
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Re: SWAG V at Webb in Bell Buckle, TN

Post by webbfeet »

Jeff,
I am an English teacher, and while I am not innumerate by any stretch, details are often lost on me. Sorry. It likely is #4, which is what my wife keeps telling me. (I am reminded of an old joke: If a married man is alone in the forest is he still wrong?)
Because this is my last year of teaching at Webb, Raymond Pryor has now dubbed the tournament, SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience. That could change. Yesterday he was going with SWAG: Ron Smith has Left the Building.
Thank you for the correction.

Warmest regards,
Ron
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Re: SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience" at Webb in Bell Buckle,

Post by webbfeet »

Results: 1. University School 2. Hume-Fogg A 3. BGA. 4. Hume-Fogg B
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Re: SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience" at Webb in Bell Buckle,

Post by tnormfrank »

I believe the tournament should have been called "The Ron Smith Really Really Hates Columbia" tournament since we got to play two of the top three teams (BGA and Hume-Fogg) in our first two matches of the day. :smile:

All kidding aside, thank you for a great tournament experience and your continued use of the much-maligned "Tennessee Rules". We have been enriched by your presence on the circuit and I wish you well in your future endeavors.
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Re: SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience" at Webb in Bell Buckle,

Post by cchiego »

the worksheet round allows even the greenest of teams to at least score a few points.
Well-written pyramidal questions combined with rebracketed playoff rounds based on prelim results allow the greenest of teams to score at least a few points, have more competitive matches, and avoid having matches decided on worksheets of "Within 5 MPH, identify the top speed of these animals:" (An actual worksheet I recall in a championship match I played in). While I understand the motivations behind the worksheet, it's very hard to actually do a fair worksheet round consistently.
I believe the tournament should have been called "The Ron Smith Really Really Hates Columbia" tournament since we got to play two of the top three teams (BGA and Hume-Fogg) in our first two matches of the day.
Far too many tournaments in TN still do not understand the idea of seeded prelim brackets and why it's unfair to teams who get placed in imbalanced brackets. Or, worse yet, some tournaments do randomly generated or completely arbitrary prelim rounds (one actually matched all the A teams against each other, all the B teams against each other, etc.). Given BGA's and HF's excellent previous results, it should have been pretty clear that they deserved to be in different brackets, barring a major roster change.

People don't criticize the "Tennessee Format" because they hate Tennessee or wish to dishonor the memory of the great pioneering TN teams like Cookeville; people criticize the TN format because it's less fair and less rewarding for players than the basic 20/20 (or a well-designed 4-quarter system) format with seeded bracketing and rebracketing.
Chris C.
Past: UGA/UCSD/Penn
Present: Solano County, CA
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