How to find players out of people who don't care

New high school teams looking for advice should post here.
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aswiftproposal
Kimahri
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:06 am

How to find players out of people who don't care

Post by aswiftproposal »

Hi all,

I'm new to this thread and website and have been searching for a couple of months now on how to motivate and find players.

First let me tell you my situation so you may have a bit of a better grasp on this. I'm from Kentucky and have participated in the KAAC Academic Team going on 8 years now, I'm an art/humanities person and while Academic Team is a bit different in regards to how things are done, one thing remains consistent throughout; we know things competitively. I'm from a smaller school what most would consider a "Single-A" highschool, therefore we have a small pool to pick from player-wise. It's not only an issue as to whether or not we have a team next year, but also whether or not it will fall apart this year.

Now that my thesis has been stated and all the exposition has been given, I need help on ways to motivate players and bring in new ones. Some have called it "drawing blood from a stone" but I thinks it's possible as long as we give that stone a pen and paper and show him how. It can be done and for that I am certain, but the way of doing it still baffles me. The kids aren't motivated and the non-players don't want to take tests or have to work for that matter. It's frankly getting on my nerves seeing such academic potential go to waste only to be left to the mercy of a central Kentucky community college "education" years later.

All-in-all I've invested my few years here on Earth to learning and I'm not about to see my team become nothing just because people are lazy. I want my team from 4 years ago back, I wish to see us beat the others and leave the games with a sense of accomplishment that was deserved. I wish for our one senior member to no longer lose to a Junior Varsity team when he himself begs for my position of Varsity captain. I simply cannot fathom what other schools go through in such a generation that it becomes less and less desirable to be an academic.

From, a tired captain

User was reminded to enable a signature. --Mgmt.
alexdz
Rikku
Posts: 458
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:29 pm
Location: Conshohocken, PA

Re: How to find players out of people who don't care

Post by alexdz »

I'm sympathetic to your plight. As a former player and coach at a pretty small school in Missouri, I know what it feels like - there are only so many kids to go around to do all the activities your school has, so your players who might otherwise be happy to play on the B team are instead drawn to, say, drama where they have a bigger role on the team. One thing I will say is that you *have* to figure out how to make being a member of your team fun in addition to being a "workplace" of sorts. That might mean having some more social opportunities built into practices, organizing some fun/silly practice days, reading some trash packets sporadically for a goofy time, etc. People who feel like they can have a good time are more likely to stick around to begin with, and then you can draw them in to be participants. But if you drive them away - and I'm not saying you are doing that on purpose - then you won't even have them to develop into better contributors.
aswiftproposal wrote:It's frankly getting on my nerves seeing such academic potential go to waste only to be left to the mercy of a central Kentucky community college "education" years later.
I do want to draw attention to this part of your post. Community colleges can provide a very vibrant educational experience and to knock them down like this feels inappropriate to me. In fact, many community colleges across the country support successful quizbowl programs! You may want to reconsider why you felt the need to slight the people you know who made the choice to earn their education from community college.
Alex Dzurick
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Owner/Editor, SAGES Quizbowl Questions
Middle school teacher, Rohan Woods School
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South Callaway '08 -- Mizzou '12 -- Illinois '17
SCMS coach '12-'13 -- EFIP coach '20-'21 -- RWS coach '22-present
aswiftproposal
Kimahri
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:06 am

Re: How to find players out of people who don't care

Post by aswiftproposal »

Thank you for taking the time to comment such a well thought out and detailed response. Where in my original post I may have lacked that same consideration towards certain points. I am also sorry about the commemt toward community colleges, my sheer ignorance to other establishments coupled with the ability of central Kentucky community colleges to hold a reputation for being understaffed, mismanaged, and "party schools" led me to that remark.
I take your advice and will attempt to implement it for our team. I think as a team we would enjoy some spoof questions from time to time to just remind ourselves that we need to have fun as well.

Once again, I appreciate any comments and if anyone could point me towards where I make a signature that would also be appreciated. :grin:

When you are logged in, select "User Control Panel," then "Profile." (You'll see various options to edit your signature, the user avatar, etc.) --Mgmt.
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