Parkway Central
| Parkway Central Colts | |
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|---|---|
| Location: Chesterfield, MO | |
| Coaches | Dan Kelty |
| State Championships | 2004 MSHSAA Class 4 |
| Program Status | Unknown |
| School Size | 962[1] |
| NAQT Page | link |
Parkway Central (PCH) is a high school located in Chesterfield, Missouri, a fairly affluent suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.
Team History
Parkway Central won the Class 4 MSHSAA state title in 2004 and has been a perennial powerhouse in the St. Louis area in MSHSAA style competition.
2008-2009
Under the direction of team captains Will Hack and Jason Liang, Parkway Central worked to increase its competitiveness at "good quizbowl", an endeavour in which it has had great success. Teams containing only some of Parkway Central's top players took 3rd at both Washington University's WUHSAC XI tournament and the 2009 NAQT Missouri Qualifier, while a full PCH team took first at the University of Missouri-Columbia's Tiger Bowl.
Parkway Central has been similarly successful in playing the MSHSAA format. PCH placed second at the 2008 Two Saints Conference and placed in the top 8 at the DeSmet and Hancock tournaments, losing to Francis Howell Central at both DeSmet and during Two Saints and to Fort Zumwalt West at Hancock.
2009-2010
Parkway Central was one of the top teams in the state of Missouri, with the help of returning, experienced players including Chris Zhang, Nick Rupel, Liron Ganel, and Ammar Zahid.
2013-2014
Parkway Central finished the year winning the Orchard Farm Invitational, losing only one match, and getting second place to powerhouse Ladue at Oakville. These victories, as well as their second place ranking in the Parkway Quad, lead to Parkway Central's ability to enter NAQT nationals. Led by captain Seth Feldstein, Central did average at the tournament, going 4-6.
2014-2015
Parkway Central lost their coach in 2014, due to her retirement. With her left most of the NAQT-Nationals qualifying "dream team", which was over half the active membership of the team. Under the rebuilding leadership of Captain Ross Edelstein and Assistant Captain Adam Cohen, Central's team has more members than ever before, and seeks to go to a higher number of tournaments in the 2014-2015 season.
National Competitions
Parkway Central's 1st place finish at Tiger Bowl and 3rd place finish at WUHSAC XI earned PCH a bid for the 2009 PACE NSC, while its 3rd place finish at the 2009 NAQT Missouri Qualifier earned PCH a bid for the 2009 NAQT HSNCT as well as providing a second form of qualification for the 2009 PACE NSC. Parkway Central was thought to have been barred from attending NSC due to wide belief that MSHSAA rules required a school to finish its school year before attending a national tournament, but the applicable rule prohibits attendance at national tournaments before Memorial Day weekend. PCH attended the 2009 HSNCT through a mix of school and personal funding. [1] PCH went 5-5 at the HSNCT; in an elimination game, they fell to Thomas Jefferson B by 5 points.
Parkway Central also attended the 2010 HSNCT, where they once again finished 5-5.
Noteworthy Characteristics
The 2008-2009 edition of Parkway Central's team has several noteworthy quirks. The include losing to teams with inferior seeds on MSHSAA format matches, beating teams with superior statistics in "good quizbowl", and an enthusiasm for conversation.
Unusual Defeats
Notably, Parkway Central had a tendency of being beaten by teams with inferior seeds early in its season. PCH lost its quarterfinal matches at both the DeSmet and Hancock tournaments to the eighth seeded team after being seeded first, prompting captain Will Hack to note that "the moral of the story is: Don't get the #1 seed!" [2] The Hancock tournament is also unusual because the eighth seed was a team that PCH had defeated soundly earlier in the preliminary rounds.
Astonishing Victories
This trend of PCH losing to teams with inferior seeds is somewhat ironic to look back upon because since its defeats at Hancock and DeSmet, Parkway Central has developed a new, even more pervasive trend of beating teams which had significantly outscored PCH during the preliminary rounds of tournaments.
For example, at the 2009 NAQT Missouri Qualifier, PCH defeated Ladue and nearly defeated Savannah despite having scored 40 and 83 PPG fewer, respectively, than those two teams during preliminaries. [3][4] Similarly, at WUHSAC XI, PCH won a victory over Eureka High School despite having scored 90 PPG fewer in preliminaries. [5][6] The most egregious examples of this phenomenon, though, are probably the matches PCH has played against fellow St. Louis area school Francis Howell Central. At WUHSAC XI and the 2009 NAQT Qualifier, Parkway Central won victories by 10 and 55 points, respectively, [7][8] against FHC despite having scored 94 fewer PPG [9] during WUHSAC's preliminaries and an incredible 132 fewer PPG [10] during the Qualifier's preliminary rounds. [11] Among Missouri teams, only perennial titan North Kansas City seems to have been spared this phenomenon, resoundingly pummeling Parkway Central 415-95 at the Qualifier after outscoring PCH by 164 points in preliminaries. [12]
Unsurprisingly. this trend has drawn the ire of FHC captain Charles Hang and the FHC team.
Notable Alumni
- Chris Zhang (2010)
- Nick Rupel (2010)
- Ammar Zahid (2010)
- Liron Ganel (2010)
- Will Hack (2009)
- Jason Liang (2009)
- Tom Morrell (2009)
- Mohammad Zahid (2008)
- Michael MacGregor (2008)
- Wei Liu (2007)
- Anna Ruman (2006)
- Jimmy Li (2005)
- Chris Ottolino (2003)
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- ↑ 2023-24 MSHSAA enrollment (grades 9-11 in March 2023), from https://www.mshsaa.org/Activities/SchoolEnrollments.aspx