Reinstein Varsity

The New Trier Varsity is a high school tournament held each December since 2005 at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. It typically attracts many of the top teams in Illinois.

History

In Spring 2005, student Nick Matchen asked Coach David Reinstein if the New Trier students could host a tournament. Reinstein said they could do it as long as they found good questions in Illinois Scholastic Bowl format. Nick and his friend Carlo Angiuli decided the best way to do that would be to write their own questions. Most of the questions were written during Fall 2005, the junior years of Nick and Carlo, with help from some of the seniors on that year's team.

Twenty teams attended the first tournament. The tournament used power pairings like the Scobol Solo, but due to the small number of teams and some logistical errors by Reinstein, there were too many repeat matches. In the Championship, Bloomington, featuring Kristina Warren and Hunter Fast, won a close upset against a very strong Auburn team featuring Tyler Kerr and Colleen Powers. A discussion during lunch of the tournament led to the formation of Aegis Questions, who would write the questions for the tournament in future years.

The second tournament, in 2006, followed a standard format of round robin brackets followed by single elimination in the afternoon. For the second year in a row, Bloomington won a close Championship Match. This time, they beat Oak Park-River Forest in the Final after OPRF had qualified for the afternoon as the 8th seed.

The third tournament, in 2007, returned to power matching and, for the first time, featured ACF style bonuses. There was rough weather the day of the tournament, forcing Bloomington and IMSA to cancel and the tournament to get off to an uneven start. Everything worked out OK in the end, however. In the Championship, Wheaton North continued its undefeated season by defeating Auburn. Wheaton North had finished in 3rd Place the first two years.

The 2008 New Trier Varsity was written mostly by '08 alumnus Jonah Greenthal and Reinstein with some contributions from New Trier alumni and players, Illinois ABT members, and Jeff Price and was edited by Greenthal. It essentially used ACF format except for the presence of computational math tossups and bonuses which were handled as usual in Illinois, and for the fact that bonus parts rebounded. Auburn went undefeated in the 32-team power-matching morning, then lost to only Loyola in the afternoon. Based on overall records, Auburn won the tournament and Loyola collected second place; Carbondale was third and Stevenson fourth, with Maine South as the consolation champion.

New Trier Varsity 2009 featured the long-awaited elimination of computational math, as part of a move to a near-ACF distribution. It was once again edited by Jonah Greenthal, assisted by Reinstein, Matt Laird, and Dan Donohue, among others. It was won by Auburn A in the second game of a final in which they had the disadvantage against St. Ignatius. The top scorer was Andrew Deveau.

The 2010 tournament was a mirror of GSAC, which that year was edited by J.R. Roach and Tommy Casalaspi. There were 24 teams from 4 states in the “Über-Competitive” division, and 24 teams in the “Standard” division. In the former, Auburn A won over Stevenson; in the latter, Keith Country Day A won over Fenton.

In 2011, the tournament again mirrored GSAC and again split into an Über-Competitive Division and a Standard Division. The Über-Competitive Division featured 24 teams from 6 states, and was won by IMSA A clearing the field; Auburn A got second place. In the Standard Division, Barrington earned first place over St. Viator A.

2012's NTV was the third consecutive year of mirroring GSAC, and the third consecutive year of splitting into Über-Competitive and Standard divisions. Likely due to the relatively late date of December 22, attendance was slightly depressed. In the Über-Competitive Division, Belvidere North A defeated Detroit Catholic Central in the second game of a final in which they had been advantaged; in the Standard Division, a less-than-full-strength Carbondale beat a less-than-full-strength Wheaton North in a one-game cross-bracket final.

Results

Year	# of Teams	Set	Champion	Second	Third	Fourth
2005	20	housewrite	Bloomington	Auburn	Wheaton North	Loyola
2006	36	by Aegis Questions	Bloomington	Oak Park-River Forest	Wheaton North	Carbondale
2007	32*	by Aegis Questions	Wheaton North	Auburn	Maine South	Loyola
2008	32	housewrite	Auburn A	Loyola A	Carbondale	Stevenson
2009 ("ANTACID")	48	housewrite	Auburn A	St. Ignatius	Oak Park-River Forest	Carbondale A
2010 ("ADVANTAGE") Über-Competitive Division**	24	GSAC	Auburn A	Stevenson A	DCC A	IMSA
2010 ("ADVANTAGE") Standard Division	24	GSAC	Keith Country Day A	Fenton	PORTA	Auburn C
2011 ("ELEGANT") Über-Competitive Division	24	GSAC	IMSA A	Auburn A	Dorman	Seven Lakes
2011 ("ELEGANT") Standard Division	30	GSAC	Barrington	St. Viator A	Fenton	Oak Park-River Forest
2012 ("INTENSE") Über-Competitive Division	16	GSAC	Belvidere North A	Detroit Catholic Central	Loyola Academy A	Stevenson A
2012 ("INTENSE") Standard Division	36	GSAC	Carbondale	Wheaton North	St. Viator A	Keith Country Day

*In 2007, there was a separate B Team division with 6 teams won by Loyola

**This is the first recorded use of the phrase "Über-Competitive Division"