Difference between revisions of "VHSL Scholastic Bowl"
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The '''Virginia High School League''', which governs Virginia public-school participation in extracurricular activities including sports and academic contests, began offering a Scholastic Bowl title in 1998. The VHSL championship is notable for being the first state championship associated with an activities association to be run on [[good quizbowl|good Quiz Bowl]] questions after signing a contract with [[HSAPQ]] to provide the questions beginning with the 2009-2010 season. | The '''Virginia High School League''', which governs Virginia public-school participation in extracurricular activities including sports and academic contests, began offering a Scholastic Bowl title in 1998. The VHSL championship is notable for being the first state championship associated with an activities association to be run on [[good quizbowl|good Quiz Bowl]] questions after signing a contract with [[HSAPQ]] to provide the questions beginning with the 2009-2010 season. | ||
| − | ==Structure== | + | ==Structure (1998-2013)== |
| − | + | From the time of Scholastic Bowl's inception to the end of the 2012-2013 year, the VHSL classified schools into groups A, AA, and AAA based primarily on school size. Many schools played up or down from where their size would dictate in order to be in the same division as geographically nearby opponents. Both Maggie Walker and Thomas Jefferson were required by rule to play in Group AAA in academic activities regardless of school size. | |
| − | Each district | + | Each district produced two teams to send to regionals. 44 of the 46 districts in VHSL participated in Scholastic Bowl. |
| − | Each of the four regional tournaments | + | Each of the four regional tournaments sent its top two teams to the state championship. The state championship consisted of the top eight teams (in each enrollment class) playing a double-elimination tournament. The state championship was held at [[Charlottesville]] High School in 1998 and at William & Mary from 1999 onwards. |
Performance in Scholastic Bowl and other academic activities sponsored by VHSL (including debate, and forensics) counts towards a school's standing in the Wachovia Cup in Academics, an overall title awarded to the school with the best performance in all non-athletic VHSL events. There is also a Wachovia Cup for Athletics. | Performance in Scholastic Bowl and other academic activities sponsored by VHSL (including debate, and forensics) counts towards a school's standing in the Wachovia Cup in Academics, an overall title awarded to the school with the best performance in all non-athletic VHSL events. There is also a Wachovia Cup for Athletics. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Questions== | ||
The tournament was first written and directed by [[Claude Sandy]], a retired Academic Decathlon administrator with no prior connection to quizbowl. Tournaments in his 1998-2000 purview were noted for recycling questions and having less than 2 literature questions in an average match. After [[Shawn Pickrell]] took over in 2001, the questions steadily improved, though the odd distribution, format, and tournament structure still made VHSL events notoriously frustrating for teams more accustomed to regular quizbowl. [[HSAPQ]] began writing the questions in Fall 2009, to the general acclaim of most circuit teams. | The tournament was first written and directed by [[Claude Sandy]], a retired Academic Decathlon administrator with no prior connection to quizbowl. Tournaments in his 1998-2000 purview were noted for recycling questions and having less than 2 literature questions in an average match. After [[Shawn Pickrell]] took over in 2001, the questions steadily improved, though the odd distribution, format, and tournament structure still made VHSL events notoriously frustrating for teams more accustomed to regular quizbowl. [[HSAPQ]] began writing the questions in Fall 2009, to the general acclaim of most circuit teams. | ||
Revision as of 10:51, 24 February 2013
The Virginia High School League, which governs Virginia public-school participation in extracurricular activities including sports and academic contests, began offering a Scholastic Bowl title in 1998. The VHSL championship is notable for being the first state championship associated with an activities association to be run on good Quiz Bowl questions after signing a contract with HSAPQ to provide the questions beginning with the 2009-2010 season.
Structure (1998-2013)
From the time of Scholastic Bowl's inception to the end of the 2012-2013 year, the VHSL classified schools into groups A, AA, and AAA based primarily on school size. Many schools played up or down from where their size would dictate in order to be in the same division as geographically nearby opponents. Both Maggie Walker and Thomas Jefferson were required by rule to play in Group AAA in academic activities regardless of school size.
Each district produced two teams to send to regionals. 44 of the 46 districts in VHSL participated in Scholastic Bowl.
Each of the four regional tournaments sent its top two teams to the state championship. The state championship consisted of the top eight teams (in each enrollment class) playing a double-elimination tournament. The state championship was held at Charlottesville High School in 1998 and at William & Mary from 1999 onwards.
Performance in Scholastic Bowl and other academic activities sponsored by VHSL (including debate, and forensics) counts towards a school's standing in the Wachovia Cup in Academics, an overall title awarded to the school with the best performance in all non-athletic VHSL events. There is also a Wachovia Cup for Athletics.
Questions
The tournament was first written and directed by Claude Sandy, a retired Academic Decathlon administrator with no prior connection to quizbowl. Tournaments in his 1998-2000 purview were noted for recycling questions and having less than 2 literature questions in an average match. After Shawn Pickrell took over in 2001, the questions steadily improved, though the odd distribution, format, and tournament structure still made VHSL events notoriously frustrating for teams more accustomed to regular quizbowl. HSAPQ began writing the questions in Fall 2009, to the general acclaim of most circuit teams.
VHSL Format
The eccentric format used in VHSL matches consists of a round of fifteen tossups, ten "directed questions" for each team, and a concluding phase of fifteen more tossups. It is somewhat based on the format of the Mountain Academic Competition Conference and the Southwest Virginia Academic Conference, where ten "directed questions" per team are followed by ten tossups. At the end of the first round, the team that is behind may choose either set A or set B of the "directed questions." Question 1 from set A is read to the team who has set A, and if the team misses it, the other team can answer the question. The remaining questions are read in alternate order (1B, 2A, 2B, etc.) until question 10 in set B. Much like on the "Match Game" television show, there is no discernible or non-random difference between the contents of "Set A" and "Set B", so the privilege of choosing first has no apparent value. Tossups are scored with the normal 10 and -5 system, and "directed" questions are worth 10 points each. Computation math questions are read twice to provide more solving time.
Problems
As the VHSL is an organization of public schools, such longstanding Virginia programs as St. Christopher's, Collegiate, and St. Anne's have been unable to participate in VHSL tournaments or compete for the state title. Such schools are eligible for the NAQT Virginia Championship.
B teams are not eligible for VHSL participation, despite B teams from various schools often being among the 5-10 best teams in the state.
Some districts run a lengthy "regular season" on VHSL matches, conducted in brief after-school meets, which discourages teams from attending normal tournaments on Saturdays. However, many districts have never had a history of attending Saturday tournaments. The VHSL has never placed any limit on attendance at non-VHSL events, although individual districts may choose to place such restrictions.
District and regional scheduling is generally haphazard, unadvertised (even to teams attending!), and difficult to predict, which makes it virtually impossible to avoid a conflict with some Virginia teams when scheduling an independent high school tournament.
The format used at VHSL events is not used at any other tournament in Virginia, and does not reflect the normal conception of quizbowl in the state. This disconnect is also reflected in the tournament name, as "Scholastic Bowl" is a term rarely used to refer to quizbowl in Virginia. More often, "It's Academic," "ACE" (for Academic Competition for Excellence), "Academic Challenge," and "Battle of the Brains" are used.
Questions in the Claude Sandy era were notorious for being among the worst ever produced for high school quizbowl, with leadins such as "This Beethoven opera" and "This Gaston Leroux novel" existing side by side with questions on the works of Zane Grey and attempts to uniquely define specious concepts such as "the separation of powers." Teams often had to play "Zen quizbowl" in which all emotions about the quality of the tournament were suppressed in order to avoid tournament-losing levels of distracting anger.
State Championship Results
Links
The VHSL Scholastic Bowl manual contains all the rules of Scholastic Bowl as well as an archive of state champions and regional winners: http://www.vhsl.org/ScholasticBowl/ScholasticBowlManual.pdf