Advertising clarification

[Tegan]

For those of you who may know a new coach/new person in charge of a league or tournament ..... I just received my annual mailing from "A nswers Plus", and as such there are some items in the advertising that may require clarification, as the owner of the company is an honest man, and would want the truth to be known.

1. The company has been writing from Illinois since 1992, and has seen very little change in question writing style and format.... a testament to tradition and strength in Illinois question writing.

2. The company was the writer for the IHSA State Series from 1992-2000. At that point, the contract was not renewed, and no contract has been offered since, despite the fact that the questions were offered to the IHSA for NO CHARGE (a rather generous act by the writer).

3. The head writer, in his coaching career claims to have never lost to a Class A team in the State Series, though there were no classifications until after he retired. Certainly, these classifications being refered to are future classifications.

4. The company offers for sale an "Illinois State" series for 2006-07. I have contacted the administration at Illinois State University, and they assure me that they offer no such contests. The IHSA and the Illinois Masons also do not use this company's questions, yet they are the only two organizations that offer state tournaments. Loyola Academy also sponsors a state tournament, but they use NAQT as a provider. I'm sure that by "State series" it is meant that these questions were written in Illinois format and sold throughout 2006-07 for some competitions, though to be clear, it was not for any recognized state touranment or state series type event. I have personally talked to about 60 coaches in the state, and none can confirm actually having used the questions, but given that I work in the Chicago area, this might mean that the questions are more often sold to teams in downstate or western in Illinois.


Should you know any individuals that are in charge of purchasing questions, and this company is a potential provider, please assist them in purchasing decisions by passing this information on to them. As a former league head many years ago, I contracted for questions from this company for my first year, and in fact never went back to them again. I would be happy to privately discuss my experience with the company, if there are interested parties.

<<edited point #2: I forgot that he offered the questions for free ... and made his money off of selling the questions to teams>>

[Stained Diviner]

From the 1994 IHSA Tournament:

Round 1, Bonus 2
What FOUR planets consist mainly of gas?

Round 1, Bonus 6
What FOUR planets are referred to as the GIANT PLANETS?

Round 1, Toss-up 22
What planet of the solar system is the largest of the "gas" planets?

Round 2, Toss-up 23
How many different arrangements of the letters in the word FOCUS are possible?

Round 2, Bonus 26, Part 1
The letters A, B, C, D, and E are to be used to form a five letter patterns [sic]. How many patterns can be formed if repetitions are not allowed?

[millionwaves]

From the 1994 IHSA Tournament:

Round 1, Bonus 2
What FOUR planets consist mainly of gas?

Round 1, Bonus 6
What FOUR planets are referred to as the GIANT PLANETS?

Round 1, Toss-up 22
What planet of the solar system is the largest of the "gas" planets?

Round 2, Toss-up 23
How many different arrangements of the letters in the word FOCUS are possible?

Round 2, Bonus 26, Part 1
The letters A, B, C, D, and E are to be used to form a five letter patterns [sic]. How many patterns can be formed if repetitions are not allowed?

My high school career is flashing before my eyes right now.

Please, Mr. Reinstein, no more...

EDIT: Removed extraneous punctuation.

[JohnAndSlation]

I agree. That's painful stuff, that is. Yet, strangely, it looks vaguely familiar. Coach?

[Tegan]

I agree. That's painful stuff, that is. Yet, strangely, it looks vaguely familiar. Coach?

??Huh?? I did everything I could to insulate and shield my team from questions like this .... I think once I had an old packet of these questions that I pulled out for fun .... I doubt we made it to question 8 before someone yelled for me to stop.

[JohnAndSlation]

That was probably it. We were begging you to stop almost immediately >_<