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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Discussion of quizbowl topics not related to specific tournaments
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Charlie Dees
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by Charlie Dees »

Yo.

It’s the literal eve of the first high school play in the state, so what better time than now to kick off a discussion of teams this season. This will be the first season when there will be lots of pyramidal tournaments, so after the surprise success of Missouri teams deciding to attend nationals

Here’s my little writeup of teams to look out for at good tournaments – I am completely ignoring the MSHSAA series due to its undoubtedly low quality this season, so keep that in mind.

North Kansas City – They lose their best player last year, but my prediction is that relative to the general quality of the rest of the state, they will actually improve. Grant is good at computation whenever those are in play, but he’s also a generalist and a better than average science player, and if he can get some of the young people playing on their A team this year like Brandon’s little brother to decide to learn some categories Grant doesn’t learn, they could be very good, and certainly the best team in Kansas City.

Parkway Central – They return their top scorer Chris Zhang from the HSNCT last year, and while they lose some of their other large contributors, there were still some underclassmen on their team that could get very good buzzes in some deep categories. If they learn to exploit this skill, this team could end up in a similar position as they were last year – able to win a legit tournament if the very top teams aren’t there, and probably able to upset one of those “better” teams at every tournament they go to, but unable to pull ahead and win all their games. Not that that’s a bad place for a team to be.

Hickman – They return their best player from last year by a decent margin, Adam Sperber. Last I saw him, he was taking notes on how to improve, so if he puts some of that to work, the sky could be the limit for them. Also there’s no telling how good his replacement teammates will be this year. If they are able to power tossups in categories Adam doesn’t know like they did so often last year (and everybody spent more time studying pyramidal questions on their own time) this team could really pull ahead and become the best in the state by the end of the year.
Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill – This is a new team on the circuit last year. They are young, and they didn’t make much of a dent, but they got a little foundation going to well written events, and have been focusing on pyramidal questions, so this is going to be a team that I think will surprise people.

Clayton – Ikshu improved a lot just in a few months last year, and he got into writing some questions over the summer, so I really think they will be able to rock this year. Ikshu isn’t the only person who’s been doing some studying for this team, so watch out (as long as they don’t let debate get in the way – there’s a lesson to learn from watching Ladue’s program over the last few years.)

Savannah – This team will take a very large hit with the departure of Zach. As much as hearing about the “18th highest scoring freshman at nationals” as if that statistic means anything amused me to death this summer, I never saw anything from Zach’s teammates last year that suggested to me there was someone waiting in the wings. Mix that with a bit of a notorious tendency towards putting a lot of focus on winning speed based tournaments, and my guess is Savannah will be having a down year.

Richland – I think they’re losing a couple of their higher scorers from last year, but they’re returning some people who contributed, so they’ll probably be able to break .500 at everything they go to. This is a program that has a tradition of getting players up to some level of competency somewhat fast, so that will work in their favor towards trying to maybe win some small school titles, even though I’d be amazed if they beat any state powers.

Glasgow – this is the real team to beware in the small school division. Grant Monnig did very well at the Mizzou Fall Tournament last year, and I have heard that they are making more of a point of working towards doing well in the small school national title at NAQT Nationals in may. This team could really do well, and may be one of the first small schools to consistently challenge everyone else. If they put a lot of their focus on pyramidal questions, again, the sky is the limit.

Liberty – This team is losing a bunch of people who can be attributed much of Liberty’s success last year – no more Spencer or Cameron, to wit. However, there was a sophomore on their team named Anna who was able to get some impressive powers when I read for her, and I know of other players on their team who are supposed to have been improving of late. On top of that, they have the best coach in Missouri to work with, so I will be very interested to see if they can overcome their graduation difficulties.

BUT YOU WANT TO KNOW, HOW WILL THIS SHAKE OUT AS THE YEAR WINDS DOWN?

My prediction is that Clayton will win NAQT state. I think they have the right mix of youthful enthusiasm and right minded emphasis on playing good questions to put their noses to the grindstone and really pull it off bigtime this year. And look out for them in 2011. I think NKC will place second – Grant is competent, like I said. At the same time, he’s got some big problems that he’ll need to overcome if he wants to have NKC pull a three-peat: last year, even with Brandon, NKC was never powering anywhere near enough questions is the most important thing. Grant will need to get a lot more aggressive, but also, he will need to spend more time studying than (I think) he’s used to. If he can get teammates to decide to work with him, that will help NKC’s chances a ton. My prediction is that NKC will be able to beat Clayton at least once at NAQT State, but that Clayton will win the last game of the final.
Hickman is my best guess for being the third best team in the state – if they get in the habit of going to more good tournaments and practicing on that kind of stuff more regularly, this will quickly shoot up. I think Parkway Central will round out the top 4, and there will be a rather pronounced drop after this. Glasgow will dominate the small school field.

I think Clayton will also do the best at nationals (you guys should really go to both NAQT and PACE, they’re really amazing) – I really have high hopes that they can be the heir to NKC’s national performances in 07 and 08, because we really need to get to the point where we can regularly produce a highly competitive team. We’re way too active a state to not get a single vote in the national top 25 poll, somebody here needs to step up and I think Clayton can do it best because they're the real deal. I hope NKC will go, but I will predict an early in the season 5-5 (I don’t think they have any hopes of making the playoffs unless Grant can figure out a way for NKC to get more than 6 powers over the course of 10 games, because that was obviously their downfall last year. It’s high school, you play risky!). I bet Glasgow will get a top 3 trophy this year in the small school division, they certainly have plenty of potential, and from what I hear, desire to. Everybody else in the state who gets a bid should totally go to both nationals too, it’s a really amazing experience and letting it drive you can work wonders for your ability to play.

However, this is all kind of under the assumptions that NAQT State/Nationals would be played right now. As Francis Howell Central can attest to, a lot can change in just the space of a few months, much less an entire season of quizbowl. This is the year when there will be a lot of weaknesses among the traditional top teams, and if you want to quickly get your team up from a nobody to a somebody, there’s never been a better time than the present. Clayton is doing it, and you can too. All you need to do is start focusing as a team on the kinds of questions you can find at quizbowlpackets.com, and if you can try to have your teammates pick subjects to specialize in, the better your chances are. I predict that the team that can be middle of the road on all the major subjects but that learns to lock down World Lit, Visual and Musical Arts, Philosophy, and Social Sciences will be able to pull off some awesome upsets at good tournaments, because those are some subjects that nobody in Missouri seems to know squat about but that come up plenty in well written events. The team that learns all those subjects but that can also learn how to power questions in a lot of other categories will be extremely sick and sitting in the catbird seat come spring.

Good luck everyone, and we’ll see some of you tomorrow morning bright and early. This could be a really awesome year for Missouri if you young players decide you want to win, and there’s no reason to put it off. Go learn, young Grasshoppers!

WillHack
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by WillHack »

I don't put too much faith into this (especially since Charles left Parkway Central out of the comparable preview last year), but I only have a few specific conjectures. First, FZW will still be a contender, though it may experience a drop-off drom the loss of Julia. They certainly deserved at least a mention in this preview. Also, Ladue will be way up there at any tournament they decide to enter. Eureka had a decent year last year, but I think that was a down year for them and they may well rebound to a very high level; we'll see. As for Clayton, Charles is putting an awful lot of speculation into how good Ikshu will be; while I personally think that he will be the next Charles Hang in MO, I don't know if he's capable of making Clayton best in the state this year. And I don't see a lot of support behind him.

In other news, what about Truman? Tarkio? The other Parkways? Lee's Summit and Blue Springs schools? Others that I am too tired to list now? There's a lot still to be explored here.

AShoaib
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by AShoaib »

Eureka had a decent year last year, but I think that was a down year for them and they may well rebound to a very high level; we'll see.
I'll agree-- it seemed our junior year is when we did best (4th at State, District winners), although part of that could be the questions and the format (last year we had sectionals, which are pointless in my mind).

I'm going to throw this out there, but I think William from Eureka is really good. They may not be so hot this year (losing Kevin and me), but next year, when William gets a lot more practice being in the spotlight, he'll do well. Jason will probably have to learn to pick up the stuff that Kevin and I knew. However, besides those two, we have no upperclassmen in QuizBowl, so our team is pretty much a team of sophomores with a senior and junior.

I've not seen Clayton with Ikshu, but I'm confident PCH will be good. Not confident at all in FHC though. Maybe it's because Charles just overshadowed them all.

Charbroil
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by Charbroil »

AShoaib wrote:Not confident at all in FHC though. Maybe it's because Charles just overshadowed them all.
All of our players graduated except for George (our math person who can now get physics & some biology/chemistry). FHC is in a rebuilding year, though our new coach seems motivated and amenable to good Quiz Bowl.


<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... arbroil</a>, Oct 10 2009, 07:02:57 PM.</div>

AShoaib
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by AShoaib »

Ah, George. I was under the impression that math calculations were being phased out (ie: a lot of tournaments now are using questions with little to no math calculation), so I dunno how much George can get.

Kevin, Alex and I actually mapped out the whole "history of Eureka QuizBowl", with time on the x-axis and strength on the y-axis. Fun times.

PaxHispanica
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by PaxHispanica »

who ended up winning the mizzou tournament?

DIoanis
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by DIoanis »

WillHack wrote:In other news, what about Truman? Tarkio? The other Parkways? Lee's Summit and Blue Springs schools? Others that I am too tired to list now? There's a lot still to be explored here.
I know Truman will be in rebuilding mode this season. Only one starter will be comming back from last year since we were all seniors. They will have juniors and sophomores on the varsity team this year. It's going to be a tough year for them no question but I am hoping they do well at some level. The 2010-2011 season should be better for Truman then this upcomming one.

As for LSN I can only think of one starter they lost from last year, maybe two. There team is in tack pretty well. I know of the two girls one the team one is a senior this year and one is a junior. Blue Springs was a young team when we played them at quads and at districts so I am guessing they didn't lose anyone, at least to graduation anyway.

WillHack
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by WillHack »

Oh I do know at least one thing I forgot to mention. Parkway North has been a young team for a while now, I don't think they lost anyone at all to graduation and they've been getting quite serious. They should be returning their star player Nathan and may be competitive at a very high level this year.

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Charlie Dees
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by Charlie Dees »

Do you know a contact for Parkway North? I don't know if I've ever seen them at a pyramidal tournament, but obviously there are enough around St. Louis that I would love to see them go.

AShoaib
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by AShoaib »


WillHack
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by WillHack »

Yeah talk to Mrs. Laythem, she was my middle school gifted teacher's assistant and she's amazing. She's been running their program for at least 3 years.

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PenforPrez
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by PenforPrez »

AShoaib wrote:http://www.pkwy.k12.mo.us/north/athleti ... _list.html

Seems to be Julie Laytham.
That was confirmed to me by Cheryl at Parkway Central

DIoanis
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by DIoanis »

Anyone have a guess as to what school or schools might surprise us this year? What school/schools will "come out of the blue" and play well this year? And for that matter, what school/schools will play surprisingly bad (other then Liberty and Savannah and other rebuilding teams)?

FishyFreshman
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by FishyFreshman »

trumanboy wrote: And for that matter, what school/schools will play surprisingly bad (other then Liberty and Savannah and other rebuilding teams)?
Seriously dude?

DIoanis
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by DIoanis »

FishyFreshman wrote:
trumanboy wrote: And for that matter, what school/schools will play surprisingly bad (other then Liberty and Savannah and other rebuilding teams)?
Seriously dude?

I'm not the only one who thinks Liberty is going to be rebuilding this year

Liberty – This team is losing a bunch of people who can be attributed much of Liberty’s success last year – no more Spencer or Cameron, to wit.

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Charlie Dees
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by Charlie Dees »

I certainly did not announce that Liberty will be surprisingly bad.

DIoanis
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by DIoanis »

But it does sound like you are suggesting that Liberty is going to have a rebuilding year with the loss of Spence and Cameron. I guess that is bad wording on my part, since I don't think they are going to have a terrible year either. I just think for them it's not going to be up to par compared to other years.

FishyFreshman
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by FishyFreshman »

Lots of teams are going to be rebuilding. That doesn't mean we will be bad.

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Charlie Dees
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by Charlie Dees »

Yeah, if you read my post, my whole point is that this year, every traditional "top" team has some large weaknesses that anyone could decide to exploit if they wanted.

AethyricNomad
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Missouri High School Preview 2010

Post by AethyricNomad »

WillHack wrote:In other news, what about ... Tarkio? ...
I know nothing of any other teams, but I don't see Tarkio doing that great this year. Tarkio lost quite a few seniors after last year (myself obviously being one of them), and as far as I know at the moment Tarkio's team consists of a few juniors. Hopefully they improve over last year, and they do have the strength of not losing anyone after this year (unless a senior joins or has joined the team without my knowledge, which is a possibility), but they do face the issue of having lost most of the team to graduation.
I think it'll be interesting to see how they do, but at least in that district I'm going to predict St. Joe Christian is probably going to be the dominant team - I seem to remember most of their team last year consisting of juniors, and they were very good at math. Mound City, as of last year, seems to have really declined, and Rock Port has a few seniors that could be good, at least in the conference if not necessarily at districts.

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