SWATA
SWATA is a deliberately-erroneous acronym for the Southwest Virginia Academic Team Alliance, a loose organization of Scholastic Bowl and quiz bowl teams in the westernmost 12 of Virginia's counties.
Founding
SWATA started as a Facebook group founded by Honaker alum Jacob Mitchell in November of 2014 as a means for schools to trade news and scores from matches, and for alumni to follow along. Quickly the group turned into an organization hub for efforts to improve the game in the region, efforts that came to fruition over the course of the 2016-2017 school year.
The first SWATA event held was an NAQT-based round robin competition between Honaker, Gate City, and Ridgeview. Despite being the only team of the three classified as a VHSL 1A school, Honaker took top prize over Gate City. The event's rules varied from the future format that SWATA would use in its NAQT events-- while later tournaments followed the straight 20/20 format with powers but no bouncebacks, the initial round robin featured no powers and bouncebacks on bonuses. SWATA tournaments are also unique in that even though games are untimed, coaches are still allowed one timeout per game.
2016-2017
SWATA’s primary business in 2016-2017 has been the organization of a series of Saturday 20/20 NAQT tournaments that were run at Honaker, Gate City, Richlands, and Tazewell. A fifth Trash tournament was run at Virginia High School (Bristol), and was opened to teams from outside of the Alliance as well as competitors of all ages.
The 2016-17 SWATA series produced nine NAQT national-level qualifying teams as well as six PACE NSC qualifiers. Four teams attended national-level tournaments as a result, with Honaker, Tazewell, and George Wythe attending NAQT SSNCT, and Gate City attending HSNCT. Tazewell would finish 12th at SSNCT, with a truncated Honaker lineup tying for 41st (T-19th in very small schools), and George Wythe finishing just outside the playoffs at 49th. Gate City's trip to HSNCT, also with a truncated lineup, resulted in a 3-7 record, good for 273rd.
Honaker's Caleb Perkins would finish as the #19 scorer at the 2017 SSNCT, making him the first player from Virginia's 12 westernmost counties to ever post a Top-20 individual finish at the national level. He also finished as the #12 individual among NAQT's new Very Small School-classified teams.
2017-2018
SWATA continued its 20/20 NAQT tournament circuit, albeit with some changes in the schedule. With an excellent location at Bristol and the added experience of hosting the first-ever SWATA Trash tournament, Virginia High volunteered to host the annual November tournament. With Richlands unable to host again, Honaker opted to take the December hosting slot, with Gate City hosting the second Legion Memorial Invitational Tournament in October, and Tazewell retaining January for its Bulldog Invitational Tournament.
Some SWATA schools continued to play outside events, with Gate City and Central (Wise) traveling to Oak Ridge, TN for the Secret City Classic. Gate City's Dylan Cox was named an NAQT High School Player of the Week for his performance at the tournament, a first for any SWATA player. Tazewell and Honaker played in the annual Cave Spring Invitational (Honaker's 10th straight appearance at CSI), where Tazewell finished 4th place under the leadership of John Brown, the second SWATA player to be named an NAQT High School Player of the Week.
Circuit History
"Member" Schools
- Honaker (founder)
- Gate City (founder)
- Richlands (founder)
- Tazewell (founder)
- Ridgeview (founder)
- Virginia High School
- Castlewood
- Lebanon
- Grundy
- Abingdon
- Chilhowie
- Central (Wise) (one SWATA appearance)
- George Wythe (one SWATA appearance)
- Eastside (one SWATA appearance)
Key People
- Jacob Mitchell
- Dr. Chuck Pearson
- Charlie Perkins
- Sarah Whisenhunt
- Alex Tabor
- Noah Ashbrook
- Adrian White
- Alex Zachwieja
- Dustin Keith
- Brittany Hale
- Caleb Perkins
- Carrie Deel