Delaware Fall Open
The Delaware Fall Open is a high school quizbowl tournament held every December (usually the second Saturday) at Wilmington Charter. Run on NAQT questions (usually a level A set), it tends to attract a mid-size field of D.C., Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania teams.
Directed by Bill Tressler and Charter Academic Bowl, the first two years the tournament was held at the Sanford School. When Bill moved to Charter, the tournament came with him, but Delaware Fall Open III was hosted by Salesianum.
One feature popular with some teams is the trash round. Many years this is run in the second part of the lunch break. Lunch is usually sold in the cafeteria due to a dearth of eating establishments in the vicinity of Charter.
This is one of the few tournaments in the Mid-Atlantic that offers a JV division. Any freshman or sophomore is eligible to play JV. A junior or senior who played no high school quizbowl before the current academic year is also eligible.
An upcoming feature of this tournament will be an "all time" trophy, which has not yet been given a name. For each year that they attended a school will be given a number of points equal to the number of wins earned by their highest placing team (JV or varsity) at the tournament. Beginning with Delaware Fall Open X, the team with the highest number of cumulative points will win the trophy. Winners are then reset to zero, so that the trophy rotates among top teams in subsequent years.
Varsity Results
DFO | Champion | Second | Third | Fourth | Field size (Varsity + JV) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IX (2008) | Gonzaga A | Walt Whitman A | Blake A | Blake B | 23 + 15 | results About 48 teams were expected, but a snowstorm made travel from the north difficult. |
VIII (2007) | Walt Whitman A | Half Hollow Hills West A | Manheim Township A | C. Milton Wright | 33 + 15 | results The largest tournament held in Delaware to date. Whitman went on to finish 3rd at nationals. |
VII (2006) | Moravian A | Blake | Seton Hall Prep A | Kellenberg A | 18 + 16 | results Ben Schenkel of Moravian finished 2nd in Teen Jeopardy! in this year. |
VI (2005) | Gonzaga | Montgomery Blair A | Half Hollow Hills West A | West Chester East | 26 + 16 | results This HHH team is pre-splitting of the school into West and East. |
V (2004) | Richard Montgomery A | Richard Montgomery B | Salesianum | Howard | 8 + 8 | results An attempted November date proved unpopular. Beginning with this tournament, Charter no longer fields varsity house teams. RM went on to finish 6th at nationals. |
IV (2003) | Kellenberg Memorial A | Wilmington Charter B | Howard A | Kellenberg Memorial B | 19 + 11 | results First year of a separate JV division. |
III (2002) | Salesianum A | Wilmington Charter B | Wilmington Charter A | Sanford | 16 | results Held at Salesianum. |
II (2001) | Howard A | Wilmington Charter A | Pennridge A | Archmere A | 11 | results Featured a circle of death between three teams, which excluded Pennridge from the final. Held at Sanford. |
I (2000) | Newark | Wilmington Christian | Wilmington Charter A | Pennridge A | 14 | results Held at Sanford. |