Gift ideas for scholastic bowl players

[the return of AHAN]

OK, so each year, I give my scholastic bowl team (the middle schoolers) a gift at the end of the school year. For the past several years, I've given them T-shirts that commemorate the season, maybe with the players' names listed, as well as the achievements of the season (tournament championships, etc). This year, I was hoping to do something different. Especially since a t-shirt of achievements would be notably more sparse than years past with only one tournament victory and no conference championship (5-year run snapped). Does anyone have any ideas??

[Stained Diviner]

Books

[manary]

Books are good. In middle school we got toys (rubik's cubes, puzzles, mind games, trivia etc.) for math competitions.

[TheCzarMan]

Team Briefs.

[AKKOLADE]

Team Briefs.

Books are a good suggestion, particularly quiz bowl related books/CDs/other products (in addition to a sneaky way of encouraging studying).

[the return of AHAN]

Books

Any specific titles you'd recommend for the up-and-coming scholastic bowl player?

[the return of AHAN]

Team Briefs.

ummmm.... yeah..... underwear to middle school boys and girls from a teacher....

Did I mention I want to continue coaching next year? And continue teaching next year?

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

Haha, i literally laughed out loud to that one. How horribly inappropriate...

Books are a good idea, definitely.

[dtaylor4]

Any specific titles you'd recommend for the up-and-coming scholastic bowl player?

Benet's. Bulfinch's.

In all seriousness, I'd suggest a collection of some sort, i.e. Shakespearean plays/poems or every short story and poem by Poe.

[TheCzarMan]

Ok, ok, in all seriousness now.

The book idea sounds really good. Just from my own thoughts though, maybe try and find out what kind of books they like or what their favorites are and get them that novel.

[Blackboard Monitor Vimes]

If any of your kids are interested in math, I'd recommend Sylvia Nassar's A Beautiful Mind. I only got through about half of it because I've been too busy with school, but I learned a lot about several mathematicians and I plan to finish it this summer. It's a good book.

[ktour84]

Books, especially Benet's. Gift cards to Barnes and Noble or Borders would be a good choice if you didn't know what they preferred to read.

As for graduating seniors, if your program has enough money in its budget, some money for their college expenses would be a good idea. My coach did that when I graduated, giving each of the seniors $100 to be used towards textbooks.

[AndyShootsAndyScores]

As for graduating seniors, if your program has enough money in its budget, some money for their college expenses would be a good idea. My coach did that when I graduated, giving each of the seniors $100 to be used towards textbooks.

I'd love some of that from my coach... Lee .

To continue sounding like a broken record, books are great gift ideas. Doing something like PACE does with their 3rd/4th year participants with your students could be fun.

[David Riley]

I should probably break this off into another thread, but on a related note: has anyone ever thought of giving (relatively expensive) quiz bowl related books as awards instead of trophies? You could always keep the receipt in case the team already has it so that they could exchange it; the only reason I ask is I'm assuming many schools also have a problem with a lack ofr trophy/plaque space (and this is after letting my students keep anything that isn't a first place).

Back on topic...at our Honors Convocation each year I give my awardees a Franklin or Easton Press book that I try to match to the students' interests/personalities. These are relatively easy to find in used book stores and are almost always in mint condition (because people subscribe and then chuck it after three or four books).

[ClemsonQB]

Alot of the tournaments Dorman has attended recently have given used books as awards instead of trophies including the U of MN tournament on 4/5, the VCU Last Minute tournament, and our own Season Ender. It saves alot of money for the host and can sometimes be interesting, although I have gotten some pretty shabby works of literature.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

When I graduated, the coaches got together and gave the seniors that played personally engraved beer steins.

...

Yeah, I don't know why either.