2007 Francis Howell Central

The 2007 Francis Howell Central team disappointed expectations despite winning a number of games by failing to win any significant victories.

Season History

Preseason

The 2006-2007 season began on a high note with the addition of several new players to the team. Unfortunately, of these new recruits, only one chose to commit to Quiz Bowl, George Yu, who became the team mathematics specialist.

Tournament Performance

The 2007 team took fifth at the 2006 Two Saints Conference after going 6-1 in the preliminaries, tied with Fort Zumwalt West and Francis Howell. Unfortunately, the team lost a PPG based tiebreaker and was placed in the second tier playoff bracket, which it convincingly won after defeating Parkway Central, DeSmet, and Marquette High Schools to place fifth overall at the tournament. Team top scorer Charles Hang was a tournament Varsity high scorer, second only to Teresa Kilmer of Fort Zumwalt West.

Given the increasing importance of Hang, his repeated absences during the Spring season hurt Francis Howell Central's competition prospects. The team failed to reach playoffs at both WUHSAC IX [1] and the Warrenton Tournament. Hang did manage to attend the Washington Tournament, where the FHC team captained by Peter Creedon and including Creedon, Charles Hang, George Yu, and Taylor McCoy took first, with Hang emerging as the tournament's top scorer. McCoy found it distinctly amusing to win an award for being on the first place team despite answering only one tossup.

Unfortunately, Francis Howell Central's disappointments continued into the post season. In perhaps a poor choice on the part of Coach Keierleber, math specialist George Yu was not placed upon the team attending the Gateway Athletic Conference, which may have caused a close loss to Fort Zumwalt West by a team consisting of Peter Creedon, Nick LaFoy, Charles Hang, and Kevin Robb. While Yu was in attendance with the Francis Howell Central team at the District tournament, his presence could not prevent a sharp loss to Kirksville in the preliminaries and another to Fort Zumwalt West in the semifinals.

Thus, the 2006-2007 season was disappointing for Francis Howell Central. Not only had the team suffered a number of defeats, but it did not even achieve its full potential because of the repeated absence of high scorer Charles Hang. Nevertheless, there was some hope for the team in the dichotomy which was forming between Hang and freshman mathematics expert George Yu, whose abilities in math complemented Hang's in history. This pairing was ably demonstrated at Washington, and in its 2006-2007 successes were the seeds of the team's future victories.

Team Composition

Varsity: Peter Creedon (Co-Captain) '07, Nick LaFoy (Co-Captain) '09, Charles Hang '09, George Yu '10, Lucas Vicars '09

Junior Varsity: Kevin Robb (Captain) '09, Whitney Hupp '08 (Fall only), Anna Ward '08, Katie Pulley '08, Taylor McCoy '10 (Spring Only)