The River Classic is coming up on March 5-6, 2010. Registration can be completed online at www.riverclassic.org. There is still room to register, but it's filling up fast, so don't delay.
At this point, there are plans to do live web-casting from the tournament, hopefully in multiple rooms. We'll also have live stats updates, and I'll be tweeting as I have opportunity.
Plan to come out and join us. It's going to be a great tournament, with a lot of top national teams there.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Friendship Analysis--Part 2
Here are my key thoughts from the weekend in Pittsburgh:
-There is no clear-cut favorite to win it all this year. Several of us from the old days are reminded of 1992. That year, any one of eight or nine teams had a realistic shot at the title, and Park Crest emerged as champions. I honestly think there are maybe 10 teams that can be in position to win this year.
-The Southeast Region is strong. Wesley Chapel, FL, Cumming, GA, and Orlando, FL all wound up in Gold. Even Montgomery, AL rebounded from rough preliminary games to win first in Bronze. I expect that we'll see as many as four SE teams in Championship at Nationals.
-Garfield, NJ and Manassas, VA are the class of the Northeast. Both of these teams are strong and can score from multiple quizzers. They will be threats in the top 10 at Nationals.
-James River has some work to do. Neither of our teams did as well as we would have liked. As we approach the River Classic, we'll be looking at every facet of our game and determining how best to improve. My team played a particularly tough schedule, and that helped us see the things that we need to be working on in the next month.
Overall, the quizzing was very strong, the questions were fairly decent, and the weather was cooperative. My concern in these kinds of tournaments is that we don't always get to see all of the teams we want to quiz. We missed a few that I wanted to see, but we got to quiz most of the ones on my list.
-There is no clear-cut favorite to win it all this year. Several of us from the old days are reminded of 1992. That year, any one of eight or nine teams had a realistic shot at the title, and Park Crest emerged as champions. I honestly think there are maybe 10 teams that can be in position to win this year.
-The Southeast Region is strong. Wesley Chapel, FL, Cumming, GA, and Orlando, FL all wound up in Gold. Even Montgomery, AL rebounded from rough preliminary games to win first in Bronze. I expect that we'll see as many as four SE teams in Championship at Nationals.
-Garfield, NJ and Manassas, VA are the class of the Northeast. Both of these teams are strong and can score from multiple quizzers. They will be threats in the top 10 at Nationals.
-James River has some work to do. Neither of our teams did as well as we would have liked. As we approach the River Classic, we'll be looking at every facet of our game and determining how best to improve. My team played a particularly tough schedule, and that helped us see the things that we need to be working on in the next month.
Overall, the quizzing was very strong, the questions were fairly decent, and the weather was cooperative. My concern in these kinds of tournaments is that we don't always get to see all of the teams we want to quiz. We missed a few that I wanted to see, but we got to quiz most of the ones on my list.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Friendship Analysis--Part 1
Jesse Czubkowski checks in with his thoughts on the Friendship Classic. I'll have my own thoughts to share later in the week.
I was impressed with what I saw in the Gold bracket. There were about 3 concordance questions per set and 2-3 were usually answered. The teams that want to make noise at Nationals are definitely beginning to make their moves towards accomplishing that goal. Here are some observations of the teams:
1) Victorious Life, Wesley Chapel, FL – They not only went undefeated to take first, but dominated in nearly every round they played. I don’t need to go into how good Abby Rogers is. It’s a given. They are young, but not easily intimidated. It’s a shame that they aren’t geographically situated to attend more tournaments. It will be interesting to see how they will look six months from now at Nationals.
2) Praise Assembly, Garfield, NJ – My team played fairly well, but lost our focus in a few matches. It is a transition year for us, losing a terrific senior in Benji Songsong. The guys are doing an awesome job leading and encouraging each other, despite being young. We were competitive in every game we played, but will fine tune some of the aspects of our game that require it.
3) Manassas Assembly, Bristow, VA – The team that came out of the crazy five-way tie looks even better than they did at the Gobblefest tournament earlier this season. They made noise last season as a two man team (Catherine Hains and Cara Brower) and have some help this year. They can put up points in a hurry, as evidenced by their tie-breaking finish.
4) Meadow Brook Church, Champaign, IL – The Wyatts are under another name, but are just as dangerous as always. Hillari and Jacob Wyatt are a great 1-2 punch and their little brother, Mitt has great quizzers to learn from.
5) JRA, Ozark, MO “John” – He’s back. Although John Porter didn’t start out coaching this team, his love of the ministry drew him back. Speaking from the experience of losing a double-contested last question match to this team, I can say that Whitney, Natalie and Danielle are ready for the big show. Although they may not be as uber-speedy as past versions of this team, it seems to serve their purpose as they are making smart hits and finishing well.
6) First A/G, Binghamton, NY – Losing Lajoie Ward has had an interesting effect on this team. Although she was an outstanding quizzer and leader, her brother Isaac has come into his own and his teammates have stepped as contributors. With a few months to prepare for Nationals, I expect them to only get better.
7) Northside Worship Center, Cumming, GA – While James Lex had a (somewhat) down tournament, his teammates provided him with the support he needed to win games. The Rice sisters were already good quizzers without James, but with him, this team has the making of a top –five nationals-caliber team. Keep your eye on them.
8) Faith A/G, Orlando, FL - Jared Burkhalter may be gone, but his sisters(Tamera and Sabrina) are keeping Orlando relevant on the Nationals scene. This is a very hard working team who should be even better with a little more time together.
It was a great, tough tornament with many national-level teams in attendence. My personal opinion is that this year's championship is very up-for-grabs with so many teams rapidly improving.
I was impressed with what I saw in the Gold bracket. There were about 3 concordance questions per set and 2-3 were usually answered. The teams that want to make noise at Nationals are definitely beginning to make their moves towards accomplishing that goal. Here are some observations of the teams:
1) Victorious Life, Wesley Chapel, FL – They not only went undefeated to take first, but dominated in nearly every round they played. I don’t need to go into how good Abby Rogers is. It’s a given. They are young, but not easily intimidated. It’s a shame that they aren’t geographically situated to attend more tournaments. It will be interesting to see how they will look six months from now at Nationals.
2) Praise Assembly, Garfield, NJ – My team played fairly well, but lost our focus in a few matches. It is a transition year for us, losing a terrific senior in Benji Songsong. The guys are doing an awesome job leading and encouraging each other, despite being young. We were competitive in every game we played, but will fine tune some of the aspects of our game that require it.
3) Manassas Assembly, Bristow, VA – The team that came out of the crazy five-way tie looks even better than they did at the Gobblefest tournament earlier this season. They made noise last season as a two man team (Catherine Hains and Cara Brower) and have some help this year. They can put up points in a hurry, as evidenced by their tie-breaking finish.
4) Meadow Brook Church, Champaign, IL – The Wyatts are under another name, but are just as dangerous as always. Hillari and Jacob Wyatt are a great 1-2 punch and their little brother, Mitt has great quizzers to learn from.
5) JRA, Ozark, MO “John” – He’s back. Although John Porter didn’t start out coaching this team, his love of the ministry drew him back. Speaking from the experience of losing a double-contested last question match to this team, I can say that Whitney, Natalie and Danielle are ready for the big show. Although they may not be as uber-speedy as past versions of this team, it seems to serve their purpose as they are making smart hits and finishing well.
6) First A/G, Binghamton, NY – Losing Lajoie Ward has had an interesting effect on this team. Although she was an outstanding quizzer and leader, her brother Isaac has come into his own and his teammates have stepped as contributors. With a few months to prepare for Nationals, I expect them to only get better.
7) Northside Worship Center, Cumming, GA – While James Lex had a (somewhat) down tournament, his teammates provided him with the support he needed to win games. The Rice sisters were already good quizzers without James, but with him, this team has the making of a top –five nationals-caliber team. Keep your eye on them.
8) Faith A/G, Orlando, FL - Jared Burkhalter may be gone, but his sisters(Tamera and Sabrina) are keeping Orlando relevant on the Nationals scene. This is a very hard working team who should be even better with a little more time together.
It was a great, tough tornament with many national-level teams in attendence. My personal opinion is that this year's championship is very up-for-grabs with so many teams rapidly improving.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Team Brackets for Friendship Classic
Gold:
Wesley Chapel, FL (Joshua)
Cumming, GA
Garfeild, NJ
James River (John)
Bristow, VA
Orlando, FL
Binghamton, NY
Champaign, IL
Silver:
OVerland Park, KS
Swedesboro, NJ
Wesley Chapel, FL (Ed)
James River (Karl)
Braeswood, TX
Bowling Green, OH
Sarver, PA
White Cloud, MI
Bronze:
Lexington, KY (Karen)
Greater Lansing, MI
Montgomery, AL
Bethel Park, PA
Springfield, VA (Mat)
Lexington, KY (Becky)
Springfield, VA (Don)
Friendship Team KPO, USA
Wesley Chapel, FL (Joshua)
Cumming, GA
Garfeild, NJ
James River (John)
Bristow, VA
Orlando, FL
Binghamton, NY
Champaign, IL
Silver:
OVerland Park, KS
Swedesboro, NJ
Wesley Chapel, FL (Ed)
James River (Karl)
Braeswood, TX
Bowling Green, OH
Sarver, PA
White Cloud, MI
Bronze:
Lexington, KY (Karen)
Greater Lansing, MI
Montgomery, AL
Bethel Park, PA
Springfield, VA (Mat)
Lexington, KY (Becky)
Springfield, VA (Don)
Friendship Team KPO, USA
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Practice Video
Below is the video of about an hour of my team's practice. We're preparing for the Friendship Classic in Pittsburgh, PA next week. You'll see the good and the bad of my quizzers, and get an idea of how we run a practice. Feel free to leave comments or questions.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Live Webcast Tomorrow
10:00 AM Central time over at www.biblequiz.com. I'll post the recorded video here later on. See you then...or at least you'll see me.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Analysis Drill
One of the things my team needed to work on after our last league match was hitting basic analysis questions. To help us improve, I developed a simple but effective drill. Here's how it works:
The basic idea is to repeat analysis-style questions over and over so quizzers learn to anticipate the hit. Recognizing the introductory remark combinations for analysis questions is an essential part of making quality hits. Because analysis questions by rule cannot be labeled Give a Complete Answer, quizzers should be aware that questions with multiple part answers are likely suspects for analysis questions, especially for 20s and 30s. Most often, the key word in these questions comes at the second word, so these can be hit on the first word.
So, to drill on this, we repeat this type of question 20-30 times. You might start by just asking basic chapter analysis in this format:
20 points. 5-Part Answer. From 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
What questions are contained?
30 points. 8-Part Answer. From 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
What individuals are named?
Repeat the style of question. If you have a hard time making these questions up on the fly, you might type up a list of them in advance to use in practice. As you move forward, you might also include questions from section analysis, book analysis, and verse analysis. The knowledge of these items is important, but this drill is as much about hitting in the correct place as it is about accuracy on the material.
I do about 50 of these in a row with my team at a time, but you probably want to start with 20 or so, and then work your way up from there. If you have any feedback or ideas on this drill, leave a comment.
The basic idea is to repeat analysis-style questions over and over so quizzers learn to anticipate the hit. Recognizing the introductory remark combinations for analysis questions is an essential part of making quality hits. Because analysis questions by rule cannot be labeled Give a Complete Answer, quizzers should be aware that questions with multiple part answers are likely suspects for analysis questions, especially for 20s and 30s. Most often, the key word in these questions comes at the second word, so these can be hit on the first word.
So, to drill on this, we repeat this type of question 20-30 times. You might start by just asking basic chapter analysis in this format:
20 points. 5-Part Answer. From 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
What questions are contained?
30 points. 8-Part Answer. From 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
What individuals are named?
Repeat the style of question. If you have a hard time making these questions up on the fly, you might type up a list of them in advance to use in practice. As you move forward, you might also include questions from section analysis, book analysis, and verse analysis. The knowledge of these items is important, but this drill is as much about hitting in the correct place as it is about accuracy on the material.
I do about 50 of these in a row with my team at a time, but you probably want to start with 20 or so, and then work your way up from there. If you have any feedback or ideas on this drill, leave a comment.
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