The Current State of New York City Quizbowl
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:36 pm
First of all, let me preface this by saying that I’m a quizbowl novice in the most basic sense: I founded my team in December 2016, and we attended our first tournament in February 2017. All in all, I’ve been playing quizbowl for less than a year. Therefore, I do not claim to write about the sport with any authority or definiteness, and with no accuracy beyond my own experience. Anyone reading this should feel free to correct me in the comments thread below, I will take no offence whatsoever. In this short treatise, I wish only to offer up a picture of my little corner of the world (New York City) and the quizbowl circuit therein. In doing so, I hope to begin a discussion regarding the ways in which quizbowl can be promoted in America’s largest city.
First of all, I would like to make one thing clear: quizbowl doesn’t necessarily have a cities problem. 10% of Americans live in our 20 most populous cities. Keeping this statistic in mind and using the PACE NSC as an example, it follows that a field of 96 teams should have around 9-10 teams from these 20 cities. In 2017, there were 13 such teams from 11 schools, meaning cities were actually slightly overrepresented. Therefore, this is not a thread on quizbowl in urban areas, as I don’t feel I have enough expertise to write such a thread. My major point is that I think that (from my modest perspective) quizbowl has a New York City problem.
On the surface, Greater New York City is a quizbowl wonderland. Fred Morlan’s study of quizbowl and MSAs shows that our area has the greatest number of tournaments in the country (21 tournaments in the 2016-2017 season). Make no mistake, this is really fantastic. Look a bit closer, though, and we can see something troubling. Out of those 21 tournaments, only 5 were located within New York City itself, 3 at Columbia University and 2 at Hunter College High School. In terms of the participants in these tournaments, they are almost entirely suburban. For example, 23 schools participated in Columbia Fall, but only 6 of those were from within city limits. In New York City, most teams, and therefore most tournaments, are suburban. In my opinion, this is incredibly unfortunate.
Taking stock of the currently active teams within city limits is, sadly, a very simple task: Hunter is coming off of two Nats wins and is an excellent and established team by any standard, Regis has been around a while, Trinity’s long established program has been attending tournaments with renewed vigor, Bard has been recently founded (and pretty decent for its age if I can be a proud father for a moment), Cardinal Spellman’s program is also fairly newish, and Bronx Science and Stuyvesant compete irregularly in tournaments (If I’ve missed anyone, or made mistakes in characterizing these teams, which I’m sure I have, please comment below). In other words, the pool of teams in New York City, which has the largest student population in the country, is very low. It’s not difficult to name the nationally-recognized schools without quizbowl. On the public side, we have Brooklyn Tech, HSAS Lehman, Staten Island Tech, LaGuardia, Beacon, Townsend Harris, Eleanor Roosevelt, HSMSE@CCNY, and BHSEC Queens. On the private side, we have St. Ann’s, Packer, Horace Mann, Riverdale, Trevor Day, Dalton, Collegiate, and Poly Prep. There are dozens more schools in New York of intense rigor which are ripe for quizbowl. Our aim should be to put a team in each one of these schools.
It’s not a pipe dream. Last year’s NYC Science Olympiad had around 44 schools participating. Our city’s interscholastic math league has 20 participating schools. The Urban Debate League counts over 100 schools as members (up from less than 10 in 2011). Speaking as the Secretary-General of Bard’s club, Model UN is an almost omnipresent force in the city. This level of participation shows us that New York City schools have a serious interest in academic competitions, and that it is possible to expand quizbowl’s reach dramatically.
The question is, how do we expand quizbowl in NYC? I’ll be perfectly honest: I have no idea! I’m essentially clueless on this front. It’s important to remember that NYC is incredibly fertile ground for quizbowl’s expansion. We have a world-class team in Hunter, a multitude of challenging schools which make up a High School student body larger than Samoa (which is small, but still), and two highly-regarded college teams in Columbia and NYU. Transforming these factors into a thriving circuit will take time, grit, and moxie (not the icky Maine soda, but the thing that’s like determination). Whatever the cost, it’s worth working towards a future where attending a tournament means a 30 minute subway ride, not a 90 minute drive; where a NYC school can mirror the same set as a suburban tournament, and both venues can count on a full field; and where quizbowl will take its rightful place in the pantheon of academic activities amongst debate and Model UN. To kickstart this process, I’ve been talking to Jake Fisher (Trinity) to set up some kind of organization to coordinate existing teams and help set up new ones. We would love it if the other New York City teams jumped on board. Once again, I’m a novice (also an 18 year old senior, so I have some idea how the world works) so I don’t know exactly how this will shake out, or if I’m totally off-base here, but I know this is a good cause. Shoot me or Jake a message if you’re interested, and I look forward to this journey. As is our state’s motto, Excelsior!
Special thanks to Jake Fisher being a fellow newish NYC captain, Antonella Dec-Pratt for introducing me to quizbowl in the first place, Fred Morlan for that nifty piece on quizbowl in MSAs, and Matt J. for his “Big Vision” series, whose optimistic tone this post borrows heavily from.
First of all, I would like to make one thing clear: quizbowl doesn’t necessarily have a cities problem. 10% of Americans live in our 20 most populous cities. Keeping this statistic in mind and using the PACE NSC as an example, it follows that a field of 96 teams should have around 9-10 teams from these 20 cities. In 2017, there were 13 such teams from 11 schools, meaning cities were actually slightly overrepresented. Therefore, this is not a thread on quizbowl in urban areas, as I don’t feel I have enough expertise to write such a thread. My major point is that I think that (from my modest perspective) quizbowl has a New York City problem.
On the surface, Greater New York City is a quizbowl wonderland. Fred Morlan’s study of quizbowl and MSAs shows that our area has the greatest number of tournaments in the country (21 tournaments in the 2016-2017 season). Make no mistake, this is really fantastic. Look a bit closer, though, and we can see something troubling. Out of those 21 tournaments, only 5 were located within New York City itself, 3 at Columbia University and 2 at Hunter College High School. In terms of the participants in these tournaments, they are almost entirely suburban. For example, 23 schools participated in Columbia Fall, but only 6 of those were from within city limits. In New York City, most teams, and therefore most tournaments, are suburban. In my opinion, this is incredibly unfortunate.
Taking stock of the currently active teams within city limits is, sadly, a very simple task: Hunter is coming off of two Nats wins and is an excellent and established team by any standard, Regis has been around a while, Trinity’s long established program has been attending tournaments with renewed vigor, Bard has been recently founded (and pretty decent for its age if I can be a proud father for a moment), Cardinal Spellman’s program is also fairly newish, and Bronx Science and Stuyvesant compete irregularly in tournaments (If I’ve missed anyone, or made mistakes in characterizing these teams, which I’m sure I have, please comment below). In other words, the pool of teams in New York City, which has the largest student population in the country, is very low. It’s not difficult to name the nationally-recognized schools without quizbowl. On the public side, we have Brooklyn Tech, HSAS Lehman, Staten Island Tech, LaGuardia, Beacon, Townsend Harris, Eleanor Roosevelt, HSMSE@CCNY, and BHSEC Queens. On the private side, we have St. Ann’s, Packer, Horace Mann, Riverdale, Trevor Day, Dalton, Collegiate, and Poly Prep. There are dozens more schools in New York of intense rigor which are ripe for quizbowl. Our aim should be to put a team in each one of these schools.
It’s not a pipe dream. Last year’s NYC Science Olympiad had around 44 schools participating. Our city’s interscholastic math league has 20 participating schools. The Urban Debate League counts over 100 schools as members (up from less than 10 in 2011). Speaking as the Secretary-General of Bard’s club, Model UN is an almost omnipresent force in the city. This level of participation shows us that New York City schools have a serious interest in academic competitions, and that it is possible to expand quizbowl’s reach dramatically.
The question is, how do we expand quizbowl in NYC? I’ll be perfectly honest: I have no idea! I’m essentially clueless on this front. It’s important to remember that NYC is incredibly fertile ground for quizbowl’s expansion. We have a world-class team in Hunter, a multitude of challenging schools which make up a High School student body larger than Samoa (which is small, but still), and two highly-regarded college teams in Columbia and NYU. Transforming these factors into a thriving circuit will take time, grit, and moxie (not the icky Maine soda, but the thing that’s like determination). Whatever the cost, it’s worth working towards a future where attending a tournament means a 30 minute subway ride, not a 90 minute drive; where a NYC school can mirror the same set as a suburban tournament, and both venues can count on a full field; and where quizbowl will take its rightful place in the pantheon of academic activities amongst debate and Model UN. To kickstart this process, I’ve been talking to Jake Fisher (Trinity) to set up some kind of organization to coordinate existing teams and help set up new ones. We would love it if the other New York City teams jumped on board. Once again, I’m a novice (also an 18 year old senior, so I have some idea how the world works) so I don’t know exactly how this will shake out, or if I’m totally off-base here, but I know this is a good cause. Shoot me or Jake a message if you’re interested, and I look forward to this journey. As is our state’s motto, Excelsior!
Special thanks to Jake Fisher being a fellow newish NYC captain, Antonella Dec-Pratt for introducing me to quizbowl in the first place, Fred Morlan for that nifty piece on quizbowl in MSAs, and Matt J. for his “Big Vision” series, whose optimistic tone this post borrows heavily from.