Coaches,
First, what we need from you: If you end up not coming or are bringing
fewer teams, tell us ASAP. Also, read the lunch arrangements and get
back to us ASAP on how many people will be eating lunch.
Here’s 12 important logistical points that should help prepare you for
Saturday:
#1: We are on Central Time in Bowling Green, so if you’re coming from
the Eastern Time Zone please make a note of that. Also, if you’re
having any issue in getting to the tournament that morning, please call
us.
#2: The current field can be found towards the bottom of this message.
If you are bringing less teams than we think or not attending, I need
to know immediately. Also, there is still one spot left in the field
so whoever e-mails me next can get another team in. We’d much rather
have 20 teams than 19 for bracketing reasons.
#3: We will be serving lunch. It is $5 for each student to get 2
slices of pizza, chips or a cookie, and a drink. They can purchase
a “meal ticket” at registration. Coaches, staffers, and bus drivers
will also get a ticket, but it won’t cost them anything, and their
lunch will be served in the hospitality room. We would like to know
roughly how many people will be eating from each school (we’ve already
heard from a couple schools on this) so we can estimate how much food
to get. Eating off-campus is probably not feasible, but if people
want something to eat besides what we’re offering there are several
eating establishments in the Downing University Center on campus.
#4: As I mentioned above, there will be a hospitality room. It won’t
be extremely fancy, but I think you’ll find in there donuts in the
morning and some snacks/desserts (along with lunch for coaches,
staffers, and bus drivers) around lunchtime.
#5: Parking will be located in the Adams Street Lot, which is located
at 14th and Adams Street in Bowling Green. Local schools (Edmonson and
BGHS) probably know where that is, but for out of the area teams, pay
attention to this next point.
#6: THERE WILL BE ROAD CLOSURES ON AND AROUND THE WKU CAMPUS. I can’t
stress that enough, because it means you have to take special
directions to get here, which are as follows:
A) Find your way to I-65. This is easy for Nashville and Louisville
area teams. For Lexington area teams, you can go down the Bluegrass
and hit I-65 Southbound in Elizabethtown. For teams coming from the
east, you can come in the Cumberland Parkway and hit I-65 Southbound
north of Bowling Green. For teams coming in from the west, I advise
taking the Natcher Parkway and hitting I-65 Northbound south of town.
B) Get off of I-65 at Exit 28. Travel the one mile on KY-446 until you
reach 31-W (also known as Louisville Road), and turn South.
C) Continue on South 31-W. After a few miles you will cross the bridge
over Barren River and come to an intersection. Continue straight at
this intersection onto Kentucky Street (68/80).
D) A couple miles after that, Kentucky Street will become Adams Street,
also known as Business 68.
E) Continue on Adams Street until you reach the corner of Adams and
14th Streets, where a parking lot is located. You should park there.
***A quick summary: Get to I-65, get off at Exit 28, go onto South 31-W
and just keep going street even as the road numbers and street names
change. Park at the corner of Adams and 14th Streets.***
#7: This tournament will be held in Tate Page Hall on WKU’s campus.
This is a bit of a walk from the parking lot, so budget a little extra
time to account for that. On this campus map, you will notice the
Adams Street Parking Lot is in the northwest corner of campus, while
Tate Page Hall is close to the southern part. It is #30 on the map:
http://www.wku.edu/ur/images/campusmap.pdf
#8: We will be meeting on the first floor of Tate Page, in the
Auditorium. (Room 132) We’re starting registration at 8:30 AM (we’ll
probably be there a little after 8 if you have to be there early for
some reason) and hope that you’re all registered by 9:15 AM when we
have the opening meeting. You should pay when you check-in. The fee
is $70, and teams can get a $10 discount for bringing a staffer. When
you arrive, please check in your buzzers, and we’ll tell you a room
number where you can send one of your kids to go set it up. That will
allow us to get started quicker. During the opening meeting, I’ll
explain a few things about how the day will run, and distribute
schedules to everyone. If you are bringing a staffer, please arrive as
early as possible so I can make sure everyone is on the same page.
#9: Games will start in the neighborhood of 9:30 AM. If we get back up
to 20 teams, we’ll put everyone in pools of 5 and have you play 4 games
in your pool. You’ll also have one round that will be a cross bracket
scrimmage, but this will not count in the stats, and any team is free
to not participate and just take a rest during this break, although we
hope you’ll want to play as many games as possible. If the field stays
at 19 one pool will have to have only 4 teams, and we’ll make
adjustments to the bye/scrimmage procedure. This means lunch will
likely be around noon or a little after. Teams will have an hour for
lunch. Everyone advances to the afternoon stage, where teams will be
rebracketed into pools of 4 (one may have 3 if the field stays at 19)
based on morning performances. This means your afternoon will be spent
playing teams who performed similarly in the morning, and it will
determine places 1-20 (or 1-19 or whatever.) A short awards ceremony
will follow, with trophies for the top 4 teams and medals for the 5
highest individual scorers. We hope to be done by 4 PM at the latest.
If this format sounds confusing, I’ll explain it more clearly Saturday
morning.
#10: We’re using NAQT questions for this tournament; the question set
is IS-97A. We’re using most NAQT rules, except the rounds will be
untimed and instead consist of 20 tossups. There are 3-part bonuses
for every tossup answered correctly, and these will NOT bounceback.
Also, this tournament has powers and negs, meaning that an early enough
answer can be worth 15 points instead of 10, but buzzing in during the
question and missing it costs your team 5 points. Additionally, the
hesitation rule is more lax than KAAC, as students have 3 seconds to
answer after buzzing in. Also, they do not have to wait for their name
to be called to answer.
#11: Our moderators are not overly experienced, and many will have the
tough task of moderating, scorekeeping, and running buzzers at the same
time. If you have someone on your team that can help lighten the load
on them during the game by taking over one the latter two jobs, please
do so for things to run smoother. Also, if they are reading too slow,
please tell me.
#12: Please let me know if you have any questions. We’re trying to
make this the best experience for you as possible. See you on
Saturday! Here is the current field, as noted earlier please let me
know ASAP if any of this is incorrect as far as you know:
Adair County B
Apollo
Brentwood Academy (TN)
Bowling Green
Drallab
Dunbar A
Dunbar B
Dunbar C
Edmonson County
Ezell-Harding A (TN)
Ezell-Harding B (TN)
Ezell-Harding C (TN)
Madisonville-North Hopkins
Marshall County
Owensboro
Woodford County A
Woodford County B
Woodford County C
Woodford County D
Thank You,
Nick Conder
WKU Academic Competition Club
