2006 Faulkner State

2005-06 Faulkner State College Bowl

Faulkner State started the 2005-06 college bowl season with the opportunity to improve upon the stellar performance of the previous season by working towards defending the community college national title and attempt to break through with the first state title in ACBL competition. There was the addition of new team members as Leon Gourdouras, Charles Meaux, J.D. Vertrees and Blair Holley were replaced with Josh Strother, Tony Lavene, Michael "Tackett" Kelly and Tricia Logue. James Johnson took over the roles of captain from Blair Holley.

Snead State

The first tournament of the year was held on October 8th at Snead State, the most likely challenger along with Bevill-Jasper for the state title. The A team started off the season with a 7-0 record in bracket play before starting the playoff rounds. In the first round, the A team defeated the B team, 530-75, eclipsing the record 525 points set earlier in the day in the third round against Southern Union. Next, the A team defeated Jefferson State B, 370-170, to head into the final match against the home squad led by Patrick Riley. In a round that featured 11 powers, nearly 13 with Gettysburg on question 6 and a consult call on Kofi Annan, Jonathan Thompson scored 155 points with nine powers to help lead Faulkner State to the ACBL record for total team points in the 610-55 victory over Snead State. Faulkner State ended the day and started the season with a 10-0 record, 3-0 in the playoffs heading into the next ACBL tournament

Bevill-Jasper

Three weeks later on October 29th, the Faulkner State A team was back in North Alabama at the other challenger for the ACBL state title, and started round robin play with a 7-0 record, including a victory over UAB and College Jeopardy contestant Adam Pinson. Faulkner State pulled out a 275-180 victory over Snead State A before entering a rematch in the final against Bevill-Jasper. In a close match befitting the academic talent on both teams and echoing past games, Jasper’s Jaclyn Hogan powered Salvador Dali and with the ensuing bonus, Jasper pulled out a 305-270 victory to claim the title. Faulkner State’s record stood at 18-1, 4-1 in playoff competition. Adam Pinson would be named overall MVP of the tournament despite playing for a four-year school, and Jonathan Thompson would be named to the all-star team, leading all community college scorers.

Southern Union

The next week on November 4th, Faulkner State visited the campus of Southern Union at their Opelika site and started the day with the second straight match against Bevill-Jasper. Another close, tough fought round went down to the final questions as a question on the crab nebula that was figured out on a clue about the Messier catalogue led to the 385-315 Bevill-Jasper victory. Faulkner State rebounded from the opening loss to defeat the B team, 415-215, only to suffer its first ever loss to Snead State and Patrick Riley, 360-75. The rest of the day was spent building the way back into placing first or second, despite a 1-2 start, and ultimately, Faulkner State ended up with a 9-2 record and in second place. Jonathan Thompson was named MVP of the tournament, and Faulkner State’s record went to 27-3 on the season.

Wallace State

On December 2nd, the Faulkner State A team went to Wallace State in Hanceville and continued in its success there, starting the round robin with a perfect 9-0 record before the playoffs. In the playoffs, Faulkner State defeated Snead A, 300-185, and Jefferson State A 325-200 to take the overall title with an 11-0 record for the day, including the two wins in the playoffs. Faulkner State improved to 38-3 overall and 6-1 in the playoffs heading into the Christmas break.

Athens State

In a break from normal NAQT questions, the Faulkner State A team competed on NAQT-style questions written by members of the Athens State team at a tournament held there on January 6th. The team placed first with a 7-0 record, which included a fifteen point victory over Snead State’s top team and an 130-90 victory in the final match against Bevill State. Faulkner State improved to 45-3 before taking a break from ACBL competition.

Sword Bowl at UTC

The Faulkner State A team made the trip to Chattanooga to compete against four-year schools once again, this time not on NAQT questions, but on modified ACF questions at the Sword Bowl tournament on January 21st. In a noble, tough fight, the team finished with a 4-7 record, including close defeats to Louisville A and Monica Marks in the first match, Tennessee B the next round, and later on against Vanderbilt. Two of the victories came against four year schools: Berry and Florida State’s B team. The performance put Faulkner State’s record at 49-10 heading back into ACBL competition and the deciding tournament towards attempting a repeat of the national title.

NAQT CC Sectionals

It was back to Marion Military Institute on February 11th to defend the sectionals title and earn another trip to nationals, as well as a run at second straight national title, which at the time had only been done by Valencia Community College. Faulkner State’s A team went through the round robin with a perfect 7-0 record, including a 650 point performance against Northwest Shoals’ B team, surpassing the record 610 points against Snead State in the championship round at the Snead tournament. To conclude the day, the A team went 4-0 in the playoffs including two crucial victories in the final round that secured the automatic berth to College Park, Maryland, 310-175 over Bevill-Jasper and 360-225 over Snead State. Jonathan Thompson was named MVP of the Sectionals, and the Faulkner State A team improved to 60-10, 10-1 in the playoffs, and also in the process picked up its 37th straight ACBL tournament victory, second only to Bevill-Jasper during their two-year run with Adam Pinson and Chris Pace.

Northeast Alabama

On March 10th, after a month away from competition, Faulkner State’s A team competed at Northeast Alabama Community College’s Mustang Bowl tournament in ACBL action. The team went undefeated through seven games in round robin, and had two victories in the playoffs before heading into the final against the Snead State Blue team. In the end, the A team pulled out a five point victory, 260-255, when on the final bonus, relating to geography, Snead State missed the final part. Faulkner State’s A team improved to 70-10 with a 10-0 tournament record and first place finish, on top of extending the winning streak to 47 games. Jonathan Thompson was named tournament MVP.

Berry College

Though the date is somewhere in the notes, before the trip to NAQT ICT at the University of Maryland in College Park, the Faulkner State A team made the yearly trip to Berry College in Rome, Georgia for the Southeastern Tournament. The A team had a 6-4 record, with one of the losses to a makeup team consisting of a murderers’ row of ACBL coaches in Bevill State chemistry teacher Glenn Allen Bobo, Snead State business law instructor Vann Scott, and Faulkner State history instructor Jim Sims. Notable was James Johnson beating Bobo to a chemistry tossup. The other defeats were to Berry and two to Bevill State, and in the end Faulkner State’s record went to 76-14.

NAQT ICT

Friday April 7th was the beginning of the two-day pursuit towards a second straight CC national title and improvement of the 16th place finish in Division II from the year before in New Orleans. The first six matches were played on Friday night, the A team went 3-3 with an opening victory over UCLA, a twenty point loss to Virginia, a victory over Louisiana-Lafayette and Jake Sundberg, blowout defeat to Princeton A, victory over Cloud County CC, and another wide defeat, this time to Amherst’s A team. The last match of round robin was played first thing in the morning, and the A team fell to Georgia after rushing to the school to get there on time. Then followed two half-rounds of eight questions to determine which bracket Faulkner State would end up in, and victories came against UCLA, 135-5, and revenge against Virginia, 140-55. In a round that ended up being recorded for posterity, Faulkner State lost 330-100 to Columbia in the first round in the new bracket. Faulkner State rebounded to defeat Grinnell College, 185-80, Carleton College, 250-180 in a round that featured an epic power of tornadoes after the words, “Super Outbreak of 1974", and Oklahoma State, 195-55, before being defeated 260-100 by Vanderbilt. The round robin was concluded with a tight 195-125 loss to Johns Hopkins. Faulkner State entered the CC championship round with the most victories of any community college team in attendance, and needed only one victory against the team with second most, 2005 second place finisher Broward CC, to earn a second straight national championship. In a tight battle, Broward CC prevailed 220-170, setting up a second match to determine the winner of the 2005-06 NAQT ICT CC national championship. At the half of the second match, Faulkner State had a lead, though Broward came back to take the lead heading towards the final question. Further proving that one question can come at any time, on any topic, especially enough to decide a national championship, at the final tossup, Faulkner State trailed by a few points. Moderator Chris Borglum, sponsor of the Valencia CC team, started the question and by the midpoint, it was a buzzer race on the Faulkner State team to answer what in two heads would be one answer, the other had something close and different. Echoing practice battles in which Jonathan Byrd would be closely edged out by mere seconds by James Johnson on a correct answer, James Johnson rang in and answered with enthalpy. Incorrect, negative five. It was further clear to both Jonathan Byrd and Jonathan Thompson, classmates in Barry Corona’s Chemistry II class that it was entropy. Several seconds later, a Broward player buzzed with the correct answer. Game over. No defense of national title. Faulkner State finished with an 8-9 record, pushing the overall record to 84-23, finishing a remarkable sixteenth in Division II, and once again, in the top two among community colleges, seconds short of a second straight national title. There was one mission left at hand that still could be accomplished. Win the state title.

ACBL State

April 21st started off with a tough first round match against Bevill-Jasper, and ended with a 335-210 defeat to them, putting Faulkner State at 0-1 before playing Snead State as well as ending the 47 game ACBL winning streak. The team rebounded to defeat the Bevill team from Fayette, 440-60, and then headed into the next match against Wallace State hoping to continue the winning streak and with a little help, end up tied or ahead of Jasper at the end of the day after the opening loss. For the first time in the two years of the makeup of the team, Wallace State defeated Faulkner State, 245-225, to send them to 1-2 and making the road to a state title even harder without help from other teams. Faulkner State won the remaining six games on the schedule, including a necessary 325-200 victory over Snead State, but it was moot as Snead beat both Bevill-Jasper and Wallace State to end up with the state title. Faulkner State finished 7-2 behind Snead and Jasper and third overall at the state tournament. The 2005-06 Faulkner State A team finished with an overall record of 91-25, and 66-5 in ACBL competition.