Welcome back!

Hello once again, everyone! I am Harry White, and along with Chris Chiego we will once again be bringing you full coverage of the HSNCT.

Much like last year, we will be giving you previews of many of the teams to watch over the course of the tournament. On Saturday, we will be working on bringing you stats as soon as possible, in addition to liveblogging a few games if time permits. Sunday will be devoted to live coverage of the playoffs, with at least two matches being covered per round.

If you have any suggestions for the blog or the liveblog, fire away! We are always looking for suggestions on how to make it even better.

Looking back on the HSNCT

First off congratulations to State College for winning the HSNCT! It was a well-deserved win, beating LASA twice in two intense finals matches. I saw quite a few teams in action, and I was amazed at how many very good teams there were, even those that finished in the middle of the pack. It was a fantastically run tournament, with very few issues despite a 224-team field, and NAQT should be very proud of themselves for pulling off yet another logical wonder. Anyway, without further ado, here are a few things of note I found looking back on the Sunday rounds:

• During the prelims, Dorman managed to finish a perfect 10-0, beating teams such as State College, Maggie Walker, Detroit Catholic Central, and Seven Lakes. However, on Sunday, after an easy victory over 32nd-seeded Chattahoochee, Dorman lost a very close back-and-forth game against 17th-seeded duPont Manual that was decided on a protest. Unfortunately, their first match in the losers’ bracket was not easy, as they had to face a Bellarmine team that had lost their first-round match. Dorman were not able to regroup after their initial loss, and so finished with a 1-2 playoff record. As a result, they finished tied for 21st, despite being only one of two teams to have less than four losses, and having the third-highest points per game and bonus conversion of the entire field.
• This year, eight B teams made it into the Sunday playoffs, as well as LASA C and D. Two of these, Detroit Catholic Central B and Thomas Jefferson B, finished tied for 8th and even finished better than their respective A teams (and in the latter’s case, by TJ B beating TJ A in an elimination match). Dorman B and LASA
  B also had good runs, with both finishing tied for 21st in the nation.
• Not only did LASA qualify four teams to the HSNCT, all four were able to make the playoffs. This is the first time in the history of the HSNCT that a single school has sent that many teams, much less have them reach the playoffs. Their B team, which went 8-2 on Saturday, apparently consists entirely of sophomores, which means that LASA will certainly be a powerhouse in the years to come. Coach Jason Flowers deserves a lot of credit for the work he’s done building up that program which didn’t even exist a few years ago.
• Of the five teams that finished tied for 8th, four of them went only 7-3 in the prelims and were seeded worse than 16th. The only team that did not exceed expectations for Sunday was 4th-seeded Seven Lakes A, who had actually beaten fellow 8th-place team Novi A 635-50 earlier in the day. All of these teams should be
  impressed with their finishes and pleased with themselves for beating several high-quality opponents throughout the playoffs.
• George Mason proved without a doubt that they were the best small school, winning all their matches in the small school playoffs, including two against a Beachwood team that came out of nowhere and had almost beaten 8-2 Ladue in the regular playoffs.
• The final two games of the HSNCT were probably two of the most nerve-wracking in Quizbowl championship history. In both games, LASA started with a small advantage in the beginning, holding slight leads at halftime. However, State College was able to keep pace and eventually take the lead with only a few tossups left
  to go. State College’s win can be attributed to their much better performance on bonuses — they had bonus conversions of 22 and 20 for the finals, versus 14 and 13 for LASA. In face, LASA had answered two more tossups in the first finals match, but still lost thanks to their difficulties in getting bonus points.

And so with that, I would like to conclude this year’s coverage of the 2011 HSNCT. I would especially like to thank my co-reporter Marisol Brady, David Reinstein and Joel Gluskin for providing me with valuable schedule information, Stephen Fontenot for helping with the Sunday playoff brackets, the NAQT staff for putting on a great tournament and allowing me to liveblog, and last but not least, the schools, the players, and the coaches that make it all possible in the first place!

Sunday liveblog

EDIT: Fixed link. Enjoy.

Playoff matchups of note

Taking a look at the playoff bracket, here are a few matches and storylines to keep on eye on:

• #13 LASA B vs. #20 Dorman B: Two of the top B teams in the nation will square off in an intense battle to see whose second squad is the best.
• #4 Seven Lakes A vs. #13 LASA B: If these two teams win their respective matches, than these two 8-2 Texas rivals will face off against each other.
• #15 Olmsted Falls A vs. Thomas Jefferson B: Olmsted Falls gave Thomas Jefferson A a humiliating defeat, and it is up for TJ B to seek revenge.
• #11 Richard Montgomery A vs. #22 Georgetown Day: These two schools are located less than ten miles apart, and they will once again to see which DC-area team will prevail.
• #47 La Jolla A vs. #82 Mission San Jose B: Northern California will battle Southern California for statewide bragging rights.
• #49 Adair County vs. Pretty much anyone: Last year, Adair County entered the playoff 6-4 and in a do or die situation, and they won five straight to finish T-7th. Will they repeat their level of success?
• #1 Dorman vs. The World: Dorman finished 10-0 in the prelims, but will they be able to keep up that level of success and win it all? And will they be only the second team ever to win HSNCT undefeated?

Friday Scrimmage Liveblog

Friday’s Liveblog! We will be posting scrimmage updates as long as we can.

In Atlanta

I have successfully arrived at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, and hopefully in a few minutes we will be able to start liveblogging some of the scrimmage matches!

HSNCT Field by State

Here is a breakdown of the field by state. In total, 35 states, plus DC and Ontario, are represented at this tournament.

Ohio – 17
Georgia – 16
Texas – 16
Minnesota – 14
California – 13

A Map of the HSNCT Field

Because I obviously have way too much free time on my hands at the moment, I have made a map of all 219 currently registered teams. It’s interesting to note where there are clumps of participants and where there are large “deserts”.

Let me know if I missed or misplaced your school.

Full HSNCT stats now posted

See here.

How were my predictions? + Random Thoughts to End the HSNCT

What a tournament. I can’t think of a real organized way to direct all my thoughts, so here are some things I got right and wrong in my predictions before the tournament:

The Top 6: I got 5 of the 6 teams that finished 5th or higher, but in a slightly different order. Bellarmine (CA) was a huge surprise, particularly since I had actually seen them play before, but that was without their best player who was a huge difference maker at the HSNCT. DCD (MI) probably had the skills to finish in the top 6, but ran into an on-fire Bellarmine team and they lost a high-scoring match to State College A (PA) to be knocked of the tournament in 7th. I also didn’t anticipate Maggie Walker (VA) performing so exceptionally well on current events- JR seemed to get nearly every TU I saw on that topic, usually in power. That, plus some solid geography knowledge, allowed them to hold off State College’s immense science and history knowledge. GDS (DC) performed about as well as expected and LASA A (TX) showed that it could hang with the top teams, but seemed to have some strange knowledge gaps that led to a number of bagels and bad negs when they could least afford them. Dorman A (SC) was the only team all tournament to beat Maggie Walker (in the prelims), but their aggressive playing strategy led them to getting stuck in some early holes that they couldn’t climb out of in the playoffs.

7th Place: I did not see, and I don’t know anyone else who did, Adair County (KY) coming from out of the blue to finish in 7th, but major props for them for winning all their playoff games when on the verge of elimination. They knocked out MLK (TN), Walter Johnson (MD), Hoover (AL), and OakPark/RiverForest (IL).  I correctly predicted Torrey Pines (CA), though they came within 20 points of knocking off Dorman A  in their final elimination match. Detroit Catholic Central A (MI) proved once again that they play their best quizbowl at nationals. DCD probably won’t be happy with this finish and the career-ending tournament of Neil Gurram was a huge disappointment, but he just couldn’t single-handedly pull his team through against the absolute top teams.

11th Place: Wilmington Charter A (DE) finished where I originally had them before boosting them upwards. Seven Lakes (TX) proved my hunch that the stats for many of the TX teams were artificially low because they were stuck playing tournaments against LASA teams and they should be proud of their impressive run. Hoover (AL) unfortunately wasn’t playing with their 2nd-best player and then ran into the Adair County wrecking crew in the loser’s bracket. Mission San Jose (CA) deserves props for putting together a fine performance despite not having their A team, although they probably should watch their sugar intake in the future since they were the most hyperactive bunch of players I’ve seen. LASA B (TX) has one of the highest finishes by a non-Dorman B team ever and it looks like they’ll be good next year too. That’s kinda scary to imagine. Adlai Stevenson (IL) carried the torch for Illinois and deserves to be lauded for playing well on the NAQT format. Eden Prairie A (MN) also had a nice tournament, but couldn’t really catch a break against the top teams.

22 Random Thoughts:

• How about a nod to the relative high amount of female representation on the top teams? Both teams in the finals had a female player and Dorman A even had 3/4 of its members lacking the Y chromosome. I’d still guesstimate the tournament was 75-80% male, but it certainly doesn’t have to be that way in the future.

• Fashion successes:
  -Torrey Pines, which was decked out in stylish all-black pants/button-up shirts with color-coordinated ties.
  -The Dorman A team, which came dressed in cocktail dresses and other finery.
  -The NAQT t-shirts for this year, which had a very retro feel to them.

• Fashion failures:
  -Pensacola (I think), which wore bright neon-pink shirts that were a visual assault on the eyes.
  -LASA A, whose t-shirts in various shades of yellow and brown (probably unintentionally) reminded me of a Rothko painting (I dislike color-field paintings- sue me).
  -Arcadia, which had “I play quizbowl, will you go out with me?” printed on its t-shirts. Just FYI- when they (all males) walked by a group of girls, the girls immediately and loudly noted that those kinds of shirts are usually not very successful.
  -The NAQT t-shirts for this year, which had a very retro feel to them (all depends on your view of if retro is cool or not!)

• Hats were another fashion accessory on prominent display at this year’s HSNCT. Besides a certain staffer wearing a WWI-era German military helmet, I also saw a player from Arcadia wear a sort of safari-like hat and a player from Wilmington Charter wear what looked like a Chinese-style headpiece. What’ll people show up to next year’s tournament in– Davey Crockett coonskin hats?

• Why do teams substitute bad players for good ones? I mean, I understand you want all players that you brought to the tournament to play, but taking out a player who’s doing well and replacing them with dead weight just seems like a bad idea. If you’re trying to get players more experience, why not take out the worst-performing player instead of the best? Substituting “because that’s what we always do,” as one team put it, just seems counterproductive.

• At first I was thinking there had to be a negative correlation with the number of parents, coaches, hangers-on attached to a team and success at quizbowl, but I was proven wrong when I ran into the Dorman and Maggie Walker cheering sections. Quizbowl isn’t exactly a spectator sport, but it was good to see large enthusiastic crowds in some matches.

• Best match I saw in the whole tournament was the first Maggie Walker-State College match in the playoffs. Maggie Walker jumped out to a large lead, then State College began finding its range about midway through. After a short duel of powers, State College shifted into higher gear and chipped away at what I think was at least a 200 points deficit [EDIT: it was actually 235 points and SC got all 6 of the last TUs, including 5 powers, to fall just short) , but MW made a few crucial buzzes down the line to stall SC just short, 420-405 at the end. Extremely well-played match on both sides.

• The best moderators are those who can confine the banter to a minimum before, a “good game guys” after, and nothing but TUs in between.

• I never was a big believer in the value of coaches for HS teams, but I saw some very good examples of strong coaching at the HSNCT this year. For instance, calling strategic timeouts BEFORE the game gets out of hand (most player-called TOs were far too late to stop a run by another team) was a big difference-maker in several matches I saw. Other coaches seemed to be really good at getting their players to focus before matches or in helping them evaluate what they had to do after matches.

• Poor Bellarmine, who took 3 of their 4 losses at the entire tournament to Maggie Walker. When I saw them play against MW in the playoffs, Bellarmine definitely looked like they had a mental block for some reason, losing many buzzer races, negging way too early in the question, and fumbling easy parts of the bonus. Funny how one team just matches up really well against another.

• The current events at this tournament were some of the best I’ve seen. Really seemed to reward teams/players who paid attention to important recent news.

• I guess many teams forgot their Ritalin at home, since I have never seen so many hyperactive high schoolers in my life. Seriously y’all, take a chill pill. Or three. And props to the high school teachers who have to deal with this kind of insanity on a daily basis.

• On the other side of the coin, it seemed like most of the top teams were very calm and composed, so maybe getting your emotions under control might be a good idea. Teams that were overly emotional didn’t get very far.

• State College was the first team to stand up and applaud Maggie Walker when Maggie Walker was awarded the championship trophy. Very classy move by the runner-ups.

• For a program only 4 years old (I think), LASA has quickly become a powerhouse easily on the level with Dorman, Wilmington Charter, etc. not only in quality of the A team but also in strong, deep B (and even C!) teams. This program will be one to watch in coming years.

• Perhaps the scariest part of this year’s HSNCT was how few seniors were participating–two of Maggie Walker’s top players, 3 of LASA’s, 3 of State College’s (I think, correct me if I’m wrong) ALL FOUR of State College’s A team, and all of Bellarmine’s will be back next year. Dorman also returns several of it’s A teamers. Many of the top scorers on the 10-25 teams will also be back. And of course, there was Kellenberg B’s 7th grader, who I believe managed to make the freshmen all-stars list. Good thing there’s no such thing as turning pro early in QB.
• How good were the Texas teams in general this year? St. Mark’s finished 17th, Seven Lakes A 11th (along with LASA B), and LASA A picking up 3rd. And Cistercian’s 3 teams were all solid in what I believe was their first visit to the HSNCT, at least in a long time. Plus there was a team from Highland Park representing the Dallas area, as well as St. John’s, and 3 teams from all the way out in El Paso. Hope more TX teams will be able to make it to future HSNCTs.
• The card system this year seemed to really benefit teams that lost earlier rather than later- a lot of the 8-2 teams seemed to be those with earlier losses and several of those washed out of the playoffs early. Also, several of the 8-2 teams seemed statistically weaker than many of the 7-3 and even some of the 6-4 teams, but we’ll need to see powers/bonus conversion statistics to be sure. It varies greatly depending on who the opponent is for that match.
• Teams that tried to “speed up” and play faster as they realized time was running out and needed to make a comeback almost uniformly made many, many careless mistakes that taking just a few more seconds to think would’ve prevented. I know the use of the clock is unusual, but it can’t hurt to at least discuss beforehand what strategy you might use if you find yourself down with time running out.
• Props to South Range (OH) for ending the career of Jarret Greene on a high note by winning a disadvantaged small-school final against Russell (KY), which was also the runner-up last year. Also props to DAR (AL) for finishing in 3rd in the small-school division.
• The high level of sportsmanship in general was pretty impressive; most of the players I saw were very cordial and generous with the other teams. Coaches on the whole seemed more restrained than in years past, although I did hear a few amusing anecdotes about coaches being convinced certain readers were “biased” and demanding that they be replaced.
• The strange combination of the HSNCT, the notorious adult-activities conference, and what I can only assume to be the national throw-darts-while-drinking-huge-mugs-of-beer championships all taking place at the same hotel at once made for at least a highly enjoyable arena for people-watching in the hotel lobby.

Thanks for reading this blog everyone- we got over 5,000 unique visitors in the last week as well as nearly 1,000 views of the liveblog. I may in a few weeks transcribe and edit some match recaps from the liveblog and post those separately. Hope to see everyone back at the HSNCT next year!