Diversifying our team

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merelephant
Kimahri
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat May 04, 2019 7:55 pm

Diversifying our team

Post by merelephant »

We’re a fairly new team which was basically founded by a couple friends in seventh grade (I came to the school in ninth grade). The team made nats in 8th grade and did ok, and we will hopefully qualify again next year. Our school also has academic league, which is basically quizbowl, with the same coaches and people, but it’s one game a week in the winter against other schools. We’ve been doing that a lot longer than quizbowl, and invariably way more people come to that than the weekend tournaments. Also, the quizbowl team, myself included, is overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly sophomores (basically a friend group). It seems like new members are too intimidated by the skills of some of the members, or just the general atmosphere to take the next step of doing quizbowl. The coaches don't seem too interested in recruiting and I really would like us to be able to field two or three good teams at a tournament but a lot of the people who would be really good at it don't seem to be interested. What are your tips on A. Recruiting, and B. Sustaining the team so it doesn't die when we graduate?

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Mark Rifkin
Francis Parker '22
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eygotem
Wakka
Posts: 125
Joined: Sat May 18, 2019 12:57 pm
Location: Observable Universe

Re: Diversifying our team

Post by eygotem »

If the skill gap is a problem, you should try having separate "novice" and "varsity" rooms at practices if you can—that way, new recruits would be able to develop their skills without being constantly outbuzzed, while more experienced players could practice on harder questions.

Also, this guide may help for recruiting new members.
June Yin (they/them)
Ladue 2021
WUSTL 2026(?)
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