Merivale
| Merivale High School | |
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|---|---|
| Location: Ottawa, ON | |
| State Championships | 2000 Reach |
| National Championships | 2000 Reach, 2003 SmartAsk! |
| Program Status | Unknown |
| School Size | Unknown |
| NAQT Page | link |
Merivale High School is a public school in suburban Ottawa, Ontario. A Reach for the Top team was established in the 1999/2000 school year under the guidance of Richard Mageau, who had previously assisted Bell and Gloucester in their Reach national championships.
Reach for the Top
Merivale's best result in Reach for the Top came in their first year, 2000. After losing the city title to Gloucester, Merivale beat Ridley College in the finals of both the provincial and national tournaments to claim the 2000 Reach for the Top championship. Excepting the years when Reach was established and re-established, no other school has won the title in their first year of competition. The 2000 Merivale team was captained by Chris Demerse, had regulars Evan Annett, Kyla Ercit, and Matt Hogel, and had several alternates (Ottawa city competition allows only one team per school).
After the championship, Mageau left during a work-to-rule teachers strike and Merivale struggled in provincials the following year. Merivale would later win their first two (and so far, only) city championships in 2002 and 2003, and has also qualified for provincials a few times since, with their best result as a second-round playoff defeat in 2005.
SmartAsk!
The 2003 Merivale team participated in the second season of SmartAsk!, a quiz show that ran on CBC television and radio. Similar to the 2000 team in Reach, Merivale won the season in their debut year. In the final, the old seniors beat up little kids from Kennebecasis in a final-round comeback, and everyone booed at the non-photogenic bullies. After Merivale only ever bet 10 points in it and Ben Smith pre-determined the designated players for each team in the later matches, the new "Dawg-eat-Dawg" format was scrapped. The champion team was captained by Sarah Kriger and included Jayson Johnson, Imran Karim, and Ben Smith.
In the following season, Merivale failed to win the first radio match, thus escaping participation in a SmartAsk season that went down in flames.
Quizbowl
Merivale participated in a NAQT-format tournament for the first time in November, 2007. They failed to qualify for the 2008 HSNCT based on performance. While a wild-card entry would keep the hope alive, it appears that Merivale's streak of winning national championships in their debut in a format will end, now that they have entered more legitimate quizbowl.
Alumni
Several former Merivale players have played quizbowl at the university level:
- Dave Davis
- Jeff Gordon
- Ian Harten
- Andrei Janus
- Sarah Kriger
- Adam Minelli
- Ben Smith
Title Succession
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