Wilmington Charter
| The Charter School of Wilmington | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location: Wilmington, Delaware | |
| Coaches | Christopher Kramer |
| State Championships | 2002-2011, 2013 NAQT Delaware Championship 2003-2008 Comcast Academic Challenge |
| National Championships | 2009 NSC 2009 NAQT |
| National Appearances | HSNCT: 2003, 2005-2014 PACE NSC: 2008-2010, 2013 |
| Program Status | Unknown |
| School Size | Unknown |
| NAQT Page | link |
The Charter School of Wilmington, often known simply as Wilmington Charter or Charter, is a school located in Wilmington, DE. The school opened in 1996, and its quiz team has existed since nearly its opening.
Team History
In the early years, the team was coached by Beenu Gupta. Because Mrs. Gupta also coached many other activities (e.g. Science Olympiad, Envirothon) she often had the team practice questions on their own. During this period the team was good, but not a powerhouse team.
In Fall of 2002, Bill Tressler left the Sanford School and joined the faculty of Charter as a computer programming instructor. Having a quizbowl background from his college years, Mr. Tressler proceeded to build the team. Charter grew from a handful of members to having over thirty, and even had to turn twenty or thirty students away at its height. The team was notorious for showing up to tournaments with 5 to 8 teams, and on multiple occasions has qualified up to six teams into playoffs of a tournament. Two tournaments that the team is particularly proud of are the 2006 NAQT State Tournament and 2006 Blue Hen. At the state tournament, there were 16 teams in attendance and Charter's five teams finished 1st through 5th. (This was subsequently repeated in 2008.) At the Blue Hen, Charter's teams took the top 3 spots, upsetting the top-seeded Gonzaga in the semi-final and then beating them again in the third place game. Tressler left in 2010.
Since 2011 the team has been coached by Christopher Kramer. Initially fading from national prominence after the graduation of Henry Gorman and later Alex Gross the team rose in the nationals rankings being lead by senior Jaimie Carlson and junior Varun Wadhwa in 2013-2014. Most recently, the team had a poor showing at Princeton following the graduation of lead-scorer Jaimie and excellent science specialist and rap enthusiast Naman Agrawal.
Nationals
The first time the team ever traveled out of the state was to attend the 2003 HSNCT in Myrtle Beach. The team surprised many by making it to round 4 of Sunday's playoffs, and finished tied for 8th overall. This was followed up with 13th and 14th place finishes.
In 2006, Charter's B team ended perhaps the greatest record in HSNCT history. Though they only earned one playoff win before being eliminated in 25th place, Charter B defeated TJ A in the third preliminary match of the tournament. This snapped a 40-game winning streak that TJ had accumulated stretching all the way back to Myrtle Beach.
Led by Henry Gorman and Neeraj Vijay this group subsequently finished 5th, 2nd, and 1st in the following years. In 2009 they won both HSNCT and NSC.
In 2014, Charter made it into the top 10 at PACE NSC marking their first return to the upper-levels of national competition in years.
Titles and achievements
- 1st place at the 2009 NSC
- 1st place at the 2009 NAQT HSNCT
- 2nd place at the 2008 NAC
- 2nd place at the 2008 NAQT HSNCT
- 3rd place at the 2008 NSC
- Blue Hen (University of DE) 4 titles: 2006-2009
- Comcast Academic Challenge (now defunct), 6 titles: 2003-2008
- Maryland 11 against open, college, and HS teams) 2007
- Maryland Fall Classic 2008
- NAQT Delaware Championship , 10 titles: 2002-03, 2005-11, 2013 (not held in '04, and thus the only school to ever win this tournament)
- Long Island Fall Tournament (NY) 2007, 2009
- QuAC (U Penn) 2008, 2013, 2014
- Princeton 2009
- Thomas Jefferson's TJIAT 2008, 2014.
- Thomas Jefferson's Winter 2009 MOHIT.
- THS 1137 (Temple University, PA) 2008
- Perry Hall 2012
- UD Fall 2013
- Haverford College Fall 2013
- Phoenixville High School Academic Tournament 2013 (B team defeated A team in the final)
- Hunter College Prison Bowl 2014
Hosted Tournaments
- The Delaware Fall Open, hosted every December - Now called Charter School of Wilmington Invitational Fall Tournament (CSWIFT)
- 2006 and 2007 Mid-Atlantic TRASH Regionals
- Charter Challenge, a tournament for grades 5 through 8 hosted each year in early spring
Notable Current Players
- Varun Wadhwa
- Mabel D'Souza
- Rohan Narayan