NAQT Nationals

June 1 - June 5, 2005

Chicago, Illinois

Perhaps the most elaborate trip to any Nationals that we've taken, Chicago was an absolutely wonderful experience for all of us. Our wonderful donors, our parents, our hardworking students, and esp. our faculty assistant, Mrs. Gina Tanner, -- all of them worked to make this trip happen.  With 3 days of touring Chicago and 2 days of competition, it was a handsome payoff for a long, hard year of competition.

GETTING THERE

Flying to Chicago in June on UNITED was a bit scary simply because O'Hara is one of the worst airports in the USA AND the airline had just dumped its pension plans, thus causing the unions to threaten wildcat strikes.  Thanks to God, we made it there with only very minor difficulties.  Mrs. Tanner's insistence that ONLY CARRY-ON BAGS would be taken was a smart idea!

ACCOMMODATIONS

Chicago is a great place to visit, and we were lucky enough to fine a relatively cheap place to stay at the CASS HOTEL http://www.casshotel.com .  Located on Wabash Avenue, it was a great place to stay if you wanted to be close to the museums [we did!], Millennium Park, and Downtown; it also gave us a chance to walk to Holy Name Cathedral for daily Mass.  As a hotel, the Cass was pretty much of a 3rd rate experience, but we tried to be at the hotel only for 5 hrs./night.  The rest of the time it was tour, walk, tour, walk, tour, walk, walk, and MORE walk!  

THE MAJOR SITES

I think everyone was ready to make a beeline to the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the truly GREAT museums of the world.  Their collections are all first class, esp. their Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modern galleries.  I am always impressed by the range of their collections and the quality of the pieces they have to represent a particular artist.  Some of the group's favorites included:

Grant Wood - American Gothic                        Picasso - The Old Guitarist

Hopper - Nighthawks                                        Breton - The Song of the Lark

Caillebotte - Paris Street-Rainy Day                Matisse - Woman before an Aquarium

Seurat - A Sunday Afternoon on the Grand Jatte

The Art Institute has a great web site to check out these and a lot more at:          http://www.artic.edu/aic

We also did a lot of touring around the town. Walking through Millennium Park was fabulous, and staring at THE BEAN was weirdly disorienting.  Riding up to the Observation Deck of the John Hancock Building gave us views of Chicago, the Lake, and Lakeshore Drive that were breath-taking, literally. 

    For me, the two-hour Architecture Boat Ride was simply one of the finest tours I've ever taken!  The students also seemed to be fascinated by Chicago, the home of the Skyscraper.  The woman who gave the 2-hour lecture without notes was in a class by herself: witty, proud of her city, and able to field questions on the run without any difficulty. 

After 3 days of slumming it at the Cass Hotel, we transferred out the Chicago Crowne Plaza Hotel, near the airport.  It is a superbly furnished hotel, and at $ 95.00/night, we really got our money's worth!

THE COMPETITION

NAQT Nationals is always an exhausting day of competition and Saturday was NO exception. We played ten grueling matches and managed to do something we'd done only once before: qualify for the Championship Rounds on Sunday.  Our 6-4 record placed us 23rd out of a playing field of 96 teams.  WOW!  Did we celebrate on Saturday evening!

Sunday was a bit of a disappointment in that we lost 2 straight matches and were eliminated.  I think we were so mentally exhausted from Saturday that we really weren't 'up' for Sunday.  In any case, we had a great team meeting that set the course for the Summer and Fall campaign, and then had some super strategy conversations with NAQT officials before we flew home late Sunday evening on UNITED - No strike, Thank God!

Our official results can be checked out in GREAT detail at http://www.naqt.com/hsnct/2005/results/stats.html

2005 - 2006 COMPETITION

I think everyone is looking for a great year in 2005-2006.  Although the loss of Daniel Mitura as captain was a significant loss, Kenneth Spence has joined the returning squad of James Hansell, Vincent Zimmern, and Erik Tanner.  Our summer practices were completely ad hoc given the crazy schedules of everyone: Vincent in France, Erik in Europe, Kenneth in and out of town, James working like a slave 14 hrs/day at the pool, and Father Gregory trying to get a film history class to come together while jetting off to Napa/Sonoma with his parents and then taking 12 days in London for theatre, theatre, theatre.  NB: I was pleased with the summer practices, and the advent of Chris Romero at the faculty of ESD can only enrich the area's competition.

For further questions, please contact me at FR-GREGORY@CISTERCIAN.ORG