My own suggestions on this, though noting, you know the situation better than I do. Seek kids who did quiz bowl or Academic Decathlon in high school. AD is huge in Texas and QB is huge in Houston high schools. The ultimate goal is to tap into these kids and bring them out of the woodwork as it is. Cater your advertising to remind them of how much they (hopefully) enjoyed playing. You should also point out that your program will not get any better if you don't get more experience playing in the circuit. Basically the coordinator probably won't want to do anything. It's really up to you all to get the initiative, form a club, and get your own funding to go to these tournaments. Do whatever you can think of to draw in more kids on campus: do a trash IM for example (I think there are people out there who could do this). Have parties at a local NTN play bar/restaurant. Set small goals for the next semester or two regarding tournaments you "must" attend that are not on the CBI family. Set up practices with Rice's team (which I also know is still in the fledgling process) or Tx A&M if Romero and company actually want to travel down to Houston or conversely. Get some really good prizes for your IM tournament, not just the usual trophies and medals... I mean gift certificates to restaurants or the campus bookstore or something. It's actually a lot easier than you think, especially if you have your Union coordinator help you push to make the IM tournament bigger on campus.
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