Reinstein Varsity
The Reinstein Varsity is a high school tournament held each December since 2005. From 2005 through 2019, it was held at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois and called the New Trier Varsity. It was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, New Trier put up too many obstacles to keep hosting it, so David Reinstein moved it to Barrington.
This tournament typically attracts many of the top teams in Illinois and a couple of top teams from outside Illinois. In 2010, the tournament split into two divisions so that the elite teams could play more matches against each other, with the top division being called the Über-Competitive Division. Since 2014, the Über-Competitive Division has been played on collegiate questions. The Standard Division, which is larger, continues to be played on high school questions, and it has used an NAQT A-Set since 2016.
History
In Spring 2005, student Nick Matchen asked Coach David Reinstein if the New Trier students could host a tournament. Reinstein said they could do it as long as they found good questions in Illinois Scholastic Bowl format. Nick and his friend Carlo Angiuli decided the best way to do that would be to write their own questions. Most of the questions were written during Fall 2005, the junior years of Nick and Carlo, with help from some of the seniors on that year's team.
Twenty teams attended the first tournament. The tournament used power pairings like the Scobol Solo, but due to the small number of teams and some logistical errors by Reinstein, there were too many repeat matches. In the Championship, Bloomington, featuring Kristina Warren and Hunter Fast, won a close upset against a very strong Auburn team featuring Tyler Kerr and Colleen Powers. A discussion during lunch of the tournament led to the formation of Aegis Questions, who would write the questions for the tournament in future years.
The second tournament, in 2006, followed a standard format of round robin brackets followed by single elimination in the afternoon. For the second year in a row, Bloomington won a close Championship Match. This time, they beat Oak Park-River Forest in the Final after OPRF had qualified for the afternoon as the 8th seed.
The third tournament, in 2007, returned to power matching and, for the first time, featured ACF style bonuses. There was rough weather the day of the tournament, forcing Bloomington and IMSA to cancel and the tournament to get off to an uneven start. Everything worked out OK in the end, however. In the Championship, Wheaton North continued its undefeated season by defeating Auburn. Wheaton North had finished in 3rd Place the first two years.
The 2008 New Trier Varsity was written mostly by '08 alumnus Jonah Greenthal and Reinstein with some contributions from New Trier alumni and players, Illinois ABT members, and Jeff Price and was edited by Greenthal. It essentially used ACF format except for the presence of computational math tossups and bonuses which were handled as usual in Illinois, and for the fact that bonus parts rebounded. Auburn went undefeated in the 32-team power-matching morning, then lost to only Loyola in the afternoon. Based on overall records, Auburn won the tournament and Loyola collected second place; Carbondale was third and Stevenson fourth, with Maine South as the consolation champion.
New Trier Varsity 2009 featured the long-awaited elimination of computational math, as part of a move to a near-ACF distribution. It was once again edited by Jonah Greenthal, assisted by Reinstein, Matt Laird, and Dan Donohue, among others. It was won by Auburn A in the second game of a final in which they had the disadvantage against St. Ignatius. The top scorer was Andrew Deveau.
The 2010 tournament was a mirror of GSAC, which that year was edited by J.R. Roach and Tommy Casalaspi. There were 24 teams from 4 states in the “Über-Competitive” division, and 24 teams in the “Standard” division. In the former, Auburn A won over Stevenson; in the latter, Keith Country Day A won over Fenton.
In 2011, the tournament again mirrored GSAC and again split into an Über-Competitive Division and a Standard Division. The Über-Competitive Division featured 24 teams from 6 states, and was won by IMSA A clearing the field; Auburn A got second place. In the Standard Division, Barrington earned first place over St. Viator A.
2012's NTV was the third consecutive year of mirroring GSAC, and the third consecutive year of splitting into Über-Competitive and Standard divisions. Likely due to the relatively late date of December 22, attendance was slightly depressed. In the Über-Competitive Division, Belvidere North A defeated Detroit Catholic Central in the second game of a final in which they had been advantaged; in the Standard Division, a less-than-full-strength Carbondale beat a less-than-full-strength Wheaton North in a one-game cross-bracket final.
The tournament continues to this day, though we no longer write a paragraph in the wiki every year.
Results
*In 2007, there was a separate B Team division with 6 teams won by Loyola
**This is the first recorded use of the phrase "Über-Competitive Division"
The 2020 tournament was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
| |||||||||||||||||