A Tale of Two Academic Teams

Chapter 12: Double Compressor

Whereas one of the highlights of the previous debate season was breaking into the quarterfinals of a major tournament attended by teams on the national circuit, all of this was overshadowed by a top-5 at the HSNCT since the Venomous Agendas didn't advance past the semi-finals at either the district qualifier or the state championship last year. In Sadie's junior year, Sadie's teammate was coming into its own, and this season promises better.

After getting their asses handed to them last season, DCC stopped attending tournaments like the Isidore Newman Invitational, or those other tournaments that people on the national circuit attend in an attempt to get to the Tournament of Champions, and this season, I'm the only INI attendee playing quiz bowl at all, let alone at the HSNCT. On the national circuit I'm nicknamed Quiz Bowl Sadie because I'm a more seasoned quiz bowl player than virtually everyone else attending national circuit tournaments. That, even though I only attended 3 tournaments on the national circuit: Grapevine Classic, Isidore Newman and Columbia Online Invitational. Obviously the INI was where I performed best, breaking into the semi-final, but we still finished 2-3 at Grapevine and 4-2 in prelims at Columbia, Sadie reflects on this debate season, while she continues her research for the district qualifiers and state championship, one week apart. But she finds herself unable to concentrate, and her parents can't help but notice their daughter struggling on the Sunday night after quiz bowl-State...

"What's going to happen to me if I do poorly at the state championship and I don't attend debate-Nationals?" Sadie asks, crying.

"You are already attending the HSNCT, honey. There's a reason why you are the quiz bowl captain for the Venomous Agendas" Sadie's father points out to Sadie.

"I can't just... settle for ED at Tulane! The next two weeks will decide my collegiate future!"

"What do you mean, the next two weeks will decide my collegiate future? Wouldn't two HSNCT participations in a row help, too?" Sadie's father retorts her daughter as to the value of extracurriculars.

I'm sure Imélie would be thrilled to have my daughter with her playing quiz bowl for the Green Wave. All season her quiz bowl teammates kept comparing my daughter to Imélie, but it's only after the AIME that Sadie started answering more M&S questions because the pre-AIME M&S player was demoted thanks to his post-AIME underperformance on a buzzer, Sadie's father reflects on his daughter's claims regarding college.

"If I wanted to aim higher than Tulane, you might have told me to focus on one or two areas for extracurriculars, but if I do so, even though both activities I chose were activities I can see clearly how they're connected, my case for how they're connected is much stronger if I perform well in both. This means we must attend at least one of the Tournament of Champions or the NSDA Nationals. I only have one silver bid to the ToC, earned at Isidore Newman, so it's not a guarantee I'll attend the ToC, and getting to the latter is tantamount to winning debate-State! Personally, I see either tournament has the same value to colleges, and they have the same value as the HSNCT" Sadie goes on a tirade.

"To the parish's eyes, you're the darling of the less mathematically-inclined. You know by now the parish newspaper tends to cover in-depth the whole parish's extracurriculars at all levels and puts more weight on academic extracurriculars than most. But you also know the hype for the USAMO means the hype over winning quiz bowl-State will only last until the USAMO begins" Sadie's father lectures her.

"And you are lucky there's even any hype for quiz bowl here at all. In a lot of schools in the quiz bowl-playing world, as well as the debate circuit, players of either one are labeled nerds, even players you know are journeymen at best. Players doing both are uncommon" Sadie tries to rebut his father.