2008 Francis Howell Central

The 2008 Scholar Quiz Bowl Team was one of Francis Howell Central's most successful ever. Despite the graduation of Peter Creedon, the Varsity team revolving around a duo of Charles Hang and George Yu won a number of tournaments, demonstrating its ability on pyramidal questions written by State provider Shawn Pickrell. The 2007-2008 team was also noteworthy for significant growth after recruiting by Hang.

The team began the 2007-2008 season by becoming the first St. Charles County team to ever win the Two Saints Conference. Team top scorer Charles Hang was the tournament top scorer while junior Kevin Robb was a Junior Varsity division high scorer despite playing only 3 of 7 games in the Conference. Unfortunately, the team performed poorly at the 2008 WUHSAC and Washington tournaments due to Hang's continued absences from Saturday tournaments. However, Hang did lead the team as captain to a first place victory at the 2008 Warrenton Tournament because of the absence of LaFoy and many of the team's other players at a Band commitment. A Varsity A team also led by Hang took fourth place finish at the 2008 Helias Tournament, while Francis Howell Central's first ever B team consisting of most of the team's remaining generalists, including LaFoy and Robb, placed in the top 8. At both these tournaments, victory came through the dichotomy between Hang's skills as a generalist and Yu's math abilities, which complemented each other perfectly.

Francis Howell Central followed its invitational successes with a first place victory at the 2008 Gateway Athletic Conference. Unfortunately, Charles Hang was absent for the preliminary rounds of the MSHSAA District tournament due to the ACT. This, coupled with the team's placement in preliminaries against the two top teams in the District--Fort Zumwalt West and Kirksville--resulted in Francis Howell Central's elimination from District competition.

Finally, the 2007-2008 season was defined by efforts on the part of the team to expose the rest of the school to Quiz Bowl. The team sponsored the first ever Francis Howell Central Faculty vs. Team match and was defeated 220-270. Further, the team recruited aggressively to better represent the population of the school, efforts which successfully bolstered the team's ranks and offset declining attendance by several regulars, including Lucas Vicars and Katie Pulley.

Team Composition

Varsity: Nick LaFoy (Co-Captain) '09, Charles Hang (Co-Captain) '09, George Yu '10, Kevin Robb '09, Ryan Walsh '08, Kelly Walsh '08, Lucas Vicars '09, Katie Pulley '08

Junior Varsity: David Lanza (Captain) '11, Jeremy R. '09, Theresa Semmelmayer '09, Christian Pile '10 (Fall Only), Luke Eckhoff '11, Patrick Coffey '11