New York 2010

[paleonaps]

I thought they were blue. If they were red, who was the blue with the names on the back?

[quizbowl]

the more and more i read this, the more i feel depressed, for i just realize how far my team actually is from nationals.

[HappySciencePie]

Aww, you can't say that! Nobody's far at all. You just have to study, study, study. Maybe even a little over the summer. But really, anyone can go to Nationals with enough practice. :]

[quizbowl]

you can say that because you've been to nats....

[eta150]

Well, she is right. Our team (Bala Cynwyd out of Pennsylvania) meets nearly everyday for and hour and a half after school. Like your state, ours is also extremely competitive, and that's the only sure way to make nationals. In fact, our school didn't even win the region, we lost to the eventual second place state qualifiers, Strath Haven. We just had to start studying harder and building faster for states at that point.

[quizbowl]

thats true for us; we stayed later than the janitors in the month before states.
however, F-M and WM are really strong, and considering that after all of our hard work we were still 200 points away, we just dont see any concrete evidence.

[paleonaps]

They are strong, but you never know. In 2008, who thought that Weber wouldn't go?

[quizbowl]

i understand, but look - F-M has won for the past 10 years, i think. its nearly impossible, if not completely impossible, for them to NOT make it. and w-m is getting stronger than ever; they even challenged F-m this year. if you look at the scores, 2nd and 3rd was close to 150 points difference. since new york is the largest state, i think that we need to have the ability to send on a 3rd team. that would be much less of a downer for the other teams out here.

[Phenylethylamine]

i understand, but look - F-M has won for the past 10 years, i think. its nearly impossible, if not completely impossible, for them to NOT make it. and w-m is getting stronger than ever; they even challenged F-m this year. if you look at the scores, 2nd and 3rd was close to 150 points difference. since new york is the largest state, i think that we need to have the ability to send on a 3rd team. that would be much less of a downer for the other teams out here.

While in some ways that would make sense, the Nationals Qualification discussion in the Nationals section has basically concluded that the number of teams sent isn't likely to change any time soon. Thank you for saying that about WM; we try but seriously, with a whole lot of work, there's no reason why any team couldn't eventually make it to that level. It might take a few years, but a strong program built over time really works. The main reason WM does as well as we do is huge amounts of support from the Gelinas coaches, parents, etc. Our program at WM itself has its strengths, but the Gelinas SciO program is integral to our success (such as it is). Dedicated coaches and parents make a huge difference- both because of their own input and because they encourage dedicated kids.

[eta150]

As I was saying earlier, our prohibitive B division favorite didn't even qualify for nationals this year. Last years 4th place team replaced them.