Bay Area High School Events

 

NIXON BOWL
2005 Jan. 9

 



To Academic Competition Enthusiasts:


The Bay Area Academic League Consortium, in conjunction with San Carlos High School (San Carlos, CA), is pleased to bring you the Richard Milhous Nixon Memorial
Quiz Bowl tournament, set for January 9th, 2005 to commemorate the birth of our 37th President. National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) is providing the questions. We will be using Set IS-49A. As such, the top 15% of the tournament field will qualify for the NAQT National Championship Tournament to be held in early June at a location TBA.

This is a buzzer style academic competition played amongst teams of 4 students. Prizes will be awarded to the top teams and top individual scorers.

This event, like other similar competitions, will provide students with the opportunity to apply the knowledge they learn in scholastic course material and do so in a competitive yet fun atmosphere while gaining additional knowledge about a wide variety of subject matter. We can furnish practice materials to help you prepare if desired.

The tournament will be run in a bracketed Round Robin fashion in which teams will compete head to head and answer tossup questions via a buzzer system for 10 points and then earn the chance for a bonus question up to 30 points more. Per NAQT rules, tossup questions answered correctly before a certain mark will be awarded 15 points instead of 10. Questions answered incorrectly before having been read to completion will lose 5 points. This will be explained again when you arrive.

We will be running a Junior Varsity division for less experienced teams should enough interest be expressed. As such, we encourage multiple teams composed of students at all grade levels to compete from each school. There is no better time then now to start improving for next year!

Location/Time:
San Carlos High School - San Carlos, CA
The School is located at 1599 Industrial Road
San Carlos, CA 94070
650.591.5400

From The East Bay:
Take the San Mateo Bridge (92 West) to 101 South toward San Jose. Take the
Holly Street exit toward Brittan Avenue. Take the ramp onto Brittan and make a left on Industrial Road.

From
San Jose:
Take 101 North toward
San Francisco. Take the Whipple Avenue Exit. Turn left onto Whipple. Turn Right onto Industrial Way, which becomes Industrial Road.

We will begin registration at
9:00am - breakfast will be served. Rules meeting is at 9:45am. The first round will commence at 10:15am. There will be a one hour lunch break. San Carlos HS will furnish you with information on nearby restaurants should you not be familiar with the surroundings.

Tournament Format
In the situation of two brackets, one Varsity, the other Junior Varsity, we will run two separate Round Robins. After the Round Robin if the top team is separated by the next team by two games, that team will be declared the winner. Otherwise there will be a best-of-3 playoff with the team with the better record given a one game advantage. This is subject to change given the response we receive. There will be an approximately 1 hour lunch break around
12:00pm. San Carlos High will furnish each team with a dining guide so you have an idea of what your food choices within the surrounding locale.

Fee Schedule
The first team from a non-new(*) school: $75
Each additional team from a non-new(*) school: $65
Each team from a new(*) school: $50

(*) A new school is one which has not attended a weekend quiz bowl tournament during the '03-'04 or '04-'05 school years. Quiz Kids and weeknight BAAL matches don't count against you.

Discounts:
Bringing a working buzzer system (This discount may be limited and must be claimed in email by the regsitration deadline.): -$5 per system

Early registration (complete, final info submitted by 11:59PM on 12/26/2004, i.e., two weeks before the event): -$15 per school

Adult volunteer (These should be people who will accompany your team anyway; at check-in we may ask for a few volunteers to help scorekeep or moderate. We probably won't know until check-in whether we need volunteers.): -$10 per volunteer we actually use

Late registration (after
11:59PM on 1/2/2005 i.e., a week before the event): +$10 per team (if the TD allows you to register that late)

Full copy of the questions: +$20 (must be requested in advance. This is ALL rounds provided, not just the ones read in the tournament)

All teams must register via email. The deadline to register (or cancel) is
11:59PM on the day one week before the event. To register, send email to:
sdrossboss@yahoo.com
Please specify:
1. your school name
2. the number of teams you're bringing (and rosters if known)
3. the number of working buzzer systems you plan to bring (these discounts may be limited and are first-come-first-served)
4. whether you want to buy a full set of the questions
5. a cell-phone number we can use to contact your team on the tournament morning (if you have one)

Teams may be allowed to register late for a $10 penalty per team, but only at the discretion of the Tournament Director.

Payment will be due at check-in. You can pay in cash or with a check made out to "Ross Ritterman". Teams who don't pay on the day of the event will be subject to a $20 late payment penalty, unless prior arrangements have been made.

We'd appreciate an expression of interest from your team before the registration deadline. (Even if you're not sure you can make it, an early, non-binding expression of interest helps us plan the event.) Consider registering early to save money!

Please, please don't cancel at the last minute.

Example:
Watergate High School, relishing in the opportunity to play in its first academic quiz competition, sends two teams, finds a buzzer system sitting in a janitor's closet and gets one of their parents to help out all day. In fact they are so excited about the competition the send in payment tomorrow!

2 New Teams @ $50/team: $100
1 x Buzzer Discount : -$5
1 x Volunteer: -$10
Early Payment Discount: -$15
Total: $70 (or $35/team, about $2.20 per player per
round)

BAAL can furnish receipts so as to help you with having your school reimburse you.

Please follow up with me should you have additional questions - I would be happy to have a conversation with you to describe the event in further detail.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Regards,

Ross Ritterman
BAAL, VP Administration
510.290.0799
http://www.geocities.com/quizbaal