Please help a newbie.

[brenlee]

Hi,

I am coaching a couple of quiz bowl teams at a middle school in Charlottesville, Virginia. What do I need to know? What are some competitions we can train for? What are the rules for Quiz Bowl in Virginia? What materials and systems should I get? I participated in brain bowl when I was in high school and joined Quiz Bowl at the University of Florida. I'm new at coaching and need guidance.

Thank you!

[Matt Weiner]

Welcome to the boards. I've been involved in quizbowl from Richmond for some time now, and as far as I know, there is no organized middle school competition in our area of Virginia. One middle school (Longfellow, from northern VA) has attended a high school novice tournament in Richmond. While the alleged "Junior National Academic Championship" is run in Arlington, this is an extremely shady venture run by ethically challenged people and asks most of its questions about Harry Potter and similar nonsense; the word "academic" is sorely misused in its name, and I would urge any team to steer clear of it.

There is no standard set of rules for Virginia high school play; VHSL has a format, the straight tossup-bonus format is used at most Saturday invitationals, the TV shows all use their own formats, etc. Your best bet is to ask individual tournaments for their rules. Due to the lack of any real middle school tournaments, there is no format for that either.

Can you tell us who you've been in contact with so far? Whose idea was it to start a team, and are there any competitions asking you to participate? If there are some more middle schools across Virginia who are ready to form teams, I would be interested in helping out with the organization and question-procuring for a true middle school tournament in the greater Richmond area. Until then, you may be limited to participating in tournaments aimed at 9th and 10th grade players, if your students enjoy a challenge.

[Kouign Amann]

Until then, you may be limited to participating in tournaments aimed at 9th and 10th grade players, if your students enjoy a challenge.

If you feel you can mobilize quickly enough, the Fall Novice Tournament could be a great experience for your team. It is a low-level high school tournament being held very close to you on October 10th, this Saturday.

[brenlee]

Thank you for your reply! I have contacted Matt Clay at Albemarle High, and I am awaiting his reply. I made the pitch to my administrators to start the club. I would be interested in joining a middle school organization.

We start practices this Friday, so, needless to say, we won't be ready for competition this Saturday.

Thank you again.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

Brenda, welcome to the forums. The greater Richmond area has a lot of dedicated people with quite a bit of combined experience. Count me interested in helping to set up a middle school tournament as well.

You might also want to talk to Patricia Vandever; I believe she is still the coach at Charlottesville HS. Their program has done well for several years now, and I'll bet she has information that she may be willing to share as well.

[brenlee]

Thanks. I contacted Patricia at Charlottesville High. Any ideas for which question packets would be suitable for 6th to 8th graders?

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

Some of the only middle school sets i've ever seen are online here, made by Bill Tressler and Wilmington Charter School of Delaware for their annual Charter Challenge tournament: http://www.charterschool.org/clubs/acad ... stions.php

[Kouign Amann]

HACOV I and HAVOC II are pretty solid. That's what I read to my middle schoolers.

[the return of AHAN]

HACOV I and HAVOC II are pretty solid. That's what I read to my middle schoolers.

And if/when they're frustrated by things that aren't part of the middle school curriculum, read Junior Wildcat 2009 to them.

[Stephen Colbert]

And if/when they're frustrated by things that aren't part of the middle school curriculum, read Junior Wildcat 2009 to them.

Our of curiosity, is this set posted online somewhere?

[the return of AHAN]

And if/when they're frustrated by things that aren't part of the middle school curriculum, read Junior Wildcat 2009 to them.

Our of curiosity, is this set posted online somewhere?

Professor Wehrman has given his blessing to me sharing it with coaches. I probably should ask him to upload it to Christian Carter, or for him to give his blessing to me to upload it.

[Whiter Hydra]

And if/when they're frustrated by things that aren't part of the middle school curriculum, read Junior Wildcat 2009 to them.

Our of curiosity, is this set posted online somewhere?

Professor Wehrman has given his blessing to me sharing it with coaches. I probably should ask him to upload it to Christian Carter, or for him to give his blessing to me to upload it.

Just as an FYI, George Berry is now the person you'd want him to get in touch with.

[brenlee]

One middle school (Longfellow, from northern VA) has attended a high school novice tournament in Richmond.

When is this tournament?

Thanks.

[Matt Weiner]

One middle school (Longfellow, from northern VA) has attended a high school novice tournament in Richmond.

When is this tournament?

Thanks.

This was the HAVOC tournament at Maggie Walker, which they ran for the past two years. I believe that this year they are running the aforementioned Fall Novice instead.

[Blackboard Monitor Vimes]

One middle school (Longfellow, from northern VA) has attended a high school novice tournament in Richmond.

When is this tournament?

Thanks.

This was the HAVOC tournament at Maggie Walker, which they ran for the past two years. I believe that this year they are running the aforementioned Fall Novice instead.

Confirm. We're all too busy to produce another HAVOC this year, unfortunately. Longfellow is attending Whitman's mirror of the Fall Novice Tournament, which is a little later in the season than ours (10/24). I'm not sure how far Whitman is from Charlottesville because I don't understand this whole geography thing, but I figured I'd point it out.

[at your pleasure]

It's something like two and a half hours, although I imagine that depends on where in Charlottesville you leave from.

[brenlee]

Hi. If anyone sees this, are there any updates about upcoming tournaments that my middle schoolers may attend? So far, I've found The Knowledge Master Open and the Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl. If anybody has any experience with the aforementioned competitions, please share. Thanks!

[Matt Weiner]

Hi. If anyone sees this, are there any updates about upcoming tournaments that my middle schoolers may attend? So far, I've found The Knowledge Master Open and the Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl. If anybody has any experience with the aforementioned competitions, please share. Thanks!

Those two you mentioned aren't really quizbowl tournaments; they are more like competitive, computer-based tests. You do them at your own school and don't directly face an opponent. They might be a fun/useful activity for your team to do in addition to quizbowl tournaments, but they are a different sort of thing.

[the return of AHAN]

Hi. If anyone sees this, are there any updates about upcoming tournaments that my middle schoolers may attend? So far, I've found The Knowledge Master Open and the Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl. If anybody has any experience with the aforementioned competitions, please share. Thanks!

Those two you mentioned aren't really quizbowl tournaments; they are more like competitive, computer-based tests. You do them at your own school and don't directly face an opponent. They might be a fun/useful activity for your team to do in addition to quizbowl tournaments, but they are a different sort of thing.

What Matt said. If you're willing to travel to the Chicago area, I'd be happy to extend an invite to the Barrington Invitational Tournament on March 13th, 2010. Out east, though, I don't know what kind of circuit exists for middle school-only tournaments.

[STPickrell]

There's something called the Southside Middle School Conference, with these member institutions. But this, too, is unlike quizbowl as we know it -- students are given 1,200 questions and answers at the start of the year, and are then asked questions from this bank.

Unfortunately, it seems the closest to you is Powhatan. I am in touch with some of the HS coaches I know at these schools' feeders, so if you e-mail me, I can tell you what I find out.

* Powhatan Junior High School
* Halifax Middle School
* Amelia Middle School
* Greensville County (Wyatt M.S.)
* Nottoway Middle School
* Brunswick County (Russell M.S.)
* Central (Charlotte County) M.S.(feeder to Randolph-Henry)
* Bluestone Middle School
* Lunenburg Middle School (feeder to Central-Lunenburg, often known as 'Central' in those parts)
* Parkview Middle School

Also, I am aware of the occasional grade 6-9 tournament in West Virginia.

[AKKOLADE]

There are middle school tournaments in WV; I just can't say I've heard of any this year yet.