I must say that all this fodder has provided some interesting food for thought for me, someone still very new to the circuit. Having talked at length with my best friend, who also still plays quiz bowl at a university which will remain nameless, but competed at TRASH Regionals on Saturday somewhere in the United States, there are a few things that we like to remember about the days of yore when we played together in high school and the game was about having fun first and winning silly things like national championships second (or perhaps even lower). Our team here has gotten caught up in the fever pitch that pervades the college circuit, and that's okay if absolutely everyone agress with it. The trouble is that I feel there are a lot of marginals players like myself that still enjoy the TEAM aspect of the game. This is to say that each bonus section provides an opportunity for me to communicate with my teammates and put our heads together for a common goal -- whatever we decide that goal to be. We at DePauw are hosting a tournament here in December that I would like to be dedicated to having fun with this game we have all grown to love. That's why we all started, and that's why we should all continue -- we have a good time competing with other good people from different schools -- we build relationships with people we would not have met otherwise, and look forward to seeing them at other places and shaking their hands after matches, win or lose. Just this year, our team attended the Celeb Shoot and Buzz-a-Trois at Case Western and feel that although the traditional style was not employed, that everyone just had more fun on the day, because the atmosphere was looser, and Tom Chuck did a great job making sure people were there to have fun first and do everything else second -- that's the way it should be! Therefore, I beg everyone who reads this to make a simple concession -- give up the stressful quiz bowl lifestyle in favor of one that has more fun. Beware what you say, how you react, what you do -- people (as we all know far too well) will watch and listen, even if we don't think they are able. There's something to be said for the way the kids still do it -- working hard, but having a blast win or lose. My coach in high school instilled in our team this philosophy and at first my competitive nature hated it. Everyone got playing time, and we didn't care what our record was for the first three years. But a strange thing happened -- the more we got accustomed to the system of having fun, the better we got, going from next-to-last my freshman year to winning the school's only conference championship ever my senior year. Winning is fun, and so is the thrill of competition, but neither of them are more important than having a good time on those Saturdays that you've given up going to the football game or the school's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire", in order to be several hours away competing. Scope is important, people, and I don't mean the mouthwash. Stan Jastrzebski '03, President and founder, DUCKS Quiz Bowl www.depauw.edu/student/orgs/ducks
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