[1] Really, really tough questions! Ask the guys!
[2] Eric Kwalter, formerly a star at Bellaire HS in Houston and now a lead player of QB at the University of Texas/Austin.
Sunday, November 23, 2003
FROM: FATHER GREGORY
RE: UPDATES ON QUIZ BOWL ACTIVITIES – TWO TOURNEYS
I’m going to try and keep this memo “short” but since
I’m having to put in information from our last two tournaments, please read to
the end – and then, congratulate all our wonderful student competitors.
Let me start with this past weekend.
TAMU sponsored an NAQT[1]-style tournament for about a dozen teams. While the numbers were small, the state’s two best QB teams, CPS and St. John’s were there. Other schools from as far away as El Paso and Louisiana filled out a varied roster of schools. We took down 4 teams and finished the day with TWO trophies and finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th! It was an especially good day for our younger players who were frequently matched against juniors and seniors.
Varsity ‘A’ – John Davies, Robert Cenzon, and Adrian Bower – These guys opted to play with only 3 members in their team since we went down to TAMU with only 15 players. They won every game they played, losing only the final match to St. John’s ‘A’. John Davies also won honors as the all-tournament high point scorer.
Varsity ‘B’ – Daniel Mitura, James Hansell, Kenneth Spence and Erik Tanner. This team really put on quite a display, especially given the number of underclassmen. Daniel Mitura did a superb job, both as competitor and captain and received lots of help from all three teammates. This team posted the second best all-round win-loss record in the prelims and was the only team to beat St. John’s ‘A’ in the tournament! They rightly bring home a 3rd place trophy!
Varsity ‘C’ – Matt Hess, Nathan Helms, William Payne, and Warner Sallman – Although this team had only 1 upperclassman [Matt Hess], they managed to come through the prelims with a great win/loss record and were able to play into the championship round, losing only to our Varsity ‘B’ team. They had a great tournament!
NB: The fine finish of our 4 teams at TAMU clearly indicated that we have a QB program with a tremendous amount of depth. Today, I received an E-mail from the director of QB at the University of Texas who has this to say about our school’s performance: I would first like to congratulate you on your teams' outstanding performance at Aggie Bowl. To bring four teams and have all four advance to at least the quarterfinals is a feat accomplished by only the strongest programs.[2] High praise, indeed!
Our first out-of-state tournament of the year occurred at the end of September, but due to a 6-week delay in the deliver of our 1st and 2nd place trophies, I opted to disseminate this information only now. The NAQT tournament at Stillwater was also a small tournament, but once again, we had teams from Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi represented and the former state champions, Edmond-Memorial were there to compete.
Varsity ‘B’ – Daniel Mitura, James Hansell, Vincent Zimmern, and Erik Tanner. Although they had to play against a lot of older teams, their 8-4 record was good enough when it counted – in the championship rounds – to earn them the 2nd place trophy in the tournament.
Varsity ‘C’ – Matt Hess, Kenneth Spence, Warner Sallman, and William Payne. This was the first time this group had played competitively together. Although they had some round matches, they were still able to bring home a very respectable record of 5-5.
Varsity ‘D’ – Nick Krug, Tomas Castella, James Hinckley, and Stephen Chuckray – Of all the teams we had in Stillwater, this group ended up having one of the most difficult set of matches coupled with some plain ol’ bad luck. They still managed to win some matches and earn a lot of hard earned experience.
In Summary: two tournaments – 4 trophies – No a bad set of results for the Quiz Bowl Program at CPS.