Anyone who as ever been to my old high school can tell you that it was nothing that could ever be mistaken for a rich prep school. In fact, at least fourth of my school's student body was made up of kids from the poorest neigborhoods in my hometown. Furthermore, our school and school system *never* gave us *any* funding. Through running a high school tournament that drew around 70 teams every year and numerous other fund raising efforts, we were able to travel to around 10-11 tournaments a year, including at least one, if not two national championship tournaments. Perhaps we were more swayed by the quality of competition than others, but the fact is that we were never remotely interested in attending any of Chip Beall's tournaments. So, I respect your opinion on this issue, but I just thought that your first post sort of universalized the motivations of high school quiz bowl teams, and that's just not possible. Patrick, who hopes Tulane gets some funding and starts hosting a groovy tournament so there is a quiz bowl tournament to visit in N.O. other than that Chip Beall wretchedness. All I know is that *everyone* on my old team, and just about every HS > team I knew (or my advisor old me about) would prefer the location, > with the exception of a particular prep school in the area that > apparently was too good even for NAQT. I wouldn't be surprised if > there was a cadre of well-established, rich, HS teams that avoid Chip, > but a middle-class public school like mine will, I'm convinced, always > get seduced by the promise of an exciting vacation. I'm just going by > personal experience here, feel free to discount it if you wish.
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