ACF Fall South

valenciaqbowl · Wed, 07 Nov 2001 05:27:11 -0800

I think I have a unique perspective to bring to
bear on Mr. Ohm's comments about the savage beatings
of inexperienced players, as I was likely the oldest
"dinosaur" playing at the ACF Fall tournament at USF,and
thus guilty of handing out beat-downs to some newbie
teams, but I also had two Valencia Community College
players in their first tournament ever on my team
(UCF--by adding them we became a "bastard" team, and thus
played for exhibition only). These two female teammates
of mine expressed to me repeatedly how much fun the
tournament was, despite answering only one toss-up each. As
a matter of fact, one of them, after kicking me for
twice beating her on science questions (at the end of
the toss-up) vowed to write questions before winter
break to get better, which to me is exactly the right
reaction to have.

Further, the Valencia team I
coach also played, winning 2 and losing 10. Three of
its players had never played before either, and
despite their record, they were fired up from the
experience. This despite getting pounded by me (and taunted
throughout, as well) and some of the other top teams. We have
a tournament this weekend (two-year college teams
only), and they can't wait to get out and do some damage
themselves. 

I don't think their sensitive psyches
were in any way wounded, and I think I can say the
same for the North Florida players who also (I think)
went 2-10, but were having a fine time when I saw them
late in the going. I guess what I'm getting at is that
these 18- or 19-year olds (or in my Valencia teams
case, 25-30 year olds) aren't such hothouse flowers
that they'll quit when they get stomped by very good
teams; they're well aware that those teams have far more
experienced players, and they know that their own goals are
different. It's most fun to win, but the next best thing is
to play and lose.

In any case, I think Mr.
Ohm is exhibiting a tad more sympathy than the
victims themselves desire. I HAVE asked my players about
it, and they really liked the questions (much more
than many of the four-year packs I've read them in
practice) and the experience overall. As did I.
Cheers!

--chris borglum