Difference between revisions of "VHSL Scholastic Bowl"
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==VHSL Format== | ==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. | + | The eccentric format used in VHSL matches consists of a round of fifteen tossups, ten "directed questions" for each team which bounce back, and a concluding phase of fifteen more tossups. Tossups are scored in the normal quizbowl way. |
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| + | ===Origin of the format=== | ||
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| + | The format is somewhat based on the format of the Mountain Academic Competition Conference and the Southwest Virginia Academic Conference, two local organizations which ran quizbowl competitions prior to the formation of Scholastic Bowl. The format is not used at any non-Scholastic Bowl events (nearly all independent events in Virginia use standard [[ACF]] format). | ||
==Problems== | ==Problems== | ||
Revision as of 11:25, 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.
Leadership & Questions
1998-2000
The tournament was first written and directed by Claude Sandy, a retired Academic Decathlon administrator with no prior connection to quizbowl. Tournaments in his purview were noted for recycling questions and having less than 2 literature questions in an average match, most of which are on repetitive pet topics such as Zane Grey and the fact that Leo Tolstoy held the noble rank of "count."
2001-2009
In 2001, Shawn Pickrell took over as Commissioner and chief question writer. He implemented a strategy by which Regionals and States (but not the regular season or Districts) gradually became more pyramidal and the stated subject distribution of the packets was roughly followed.
2010-2013
In 2010, Pickrell resigned and Fred Campbell became the new Commissioner, contracting with HSAPQ to provide the questions. Good quizbowl principles were introduced at all levels of the competition.
VHSL Format
The eccentric format used in VHSL matches consists of a round of fifteen tossups, ten "directed questions" for each team which bounce back, and a concluding phase of fifteen more tossups. Tossups are scored in the normal quizbowl way.
Origin of the format
The format is somewhat based on the format of the Mountain Academic Competition Conference and the Southwest Virginia Academic Conference, two local organizations which ran quizbowl competitions prior to the formation of Scholastic Bowl. The format is not used at any non-Scholastic Bowl events (nearly all independent events in Virginia use standard ACF format).
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