If "trash" is included

• From: ehillema
• Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2001 19:33:00 -0800
• Message-ID: <000U0J87C.00000A9QA.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

I agree with the others who have been quick to
say that trash tournaments (or TRASH tournaments) are
another animal altogether from the rest of circuit
quizbowl where the core is academic.

But I will say
that if we were somehow able to rank all the academic
players in order of ability in one list, and all of the
trash/TRASH players in order of ability on another, and give
everybody their number in each ranking, my first guess as
to the player who would have the lowest (best)
combined number would be Dwight Kidder.

We've
always known Dwight was a chief diety in the trash/TRASH
pantheon. I think it's a little less appreciated how very
highly he ranks in any format of academic quizbowl as
well -- maybe all that time as Eric Tentarelli's
teammate is responsible for that. I think my respect for
Dwight as a force on *any* sort of question set jumped
way up when he finished a solid fourth in the first
of my singles tournaments in 1998 (at the Minnesota
Masters), the one where 1, 2, and 3 were Waters, Yaphe, and
Sheahan, and Kidder did not look outmatched in that
company. Naturally, my heightened respect for him as a top
academic player was reinforced very effectively when he
beat me head to head in the 2000 Michigan One-on-One
tournament, and then did it again twice more in the 2001 one.
(He's won that tournment twice; I've been knocked out
in the semi-finals, alas, both times I've played
it.)

He's what, one of the top five alltime at trash? (I
gather that that's a fair statement, though I usually
pay no real attention to trash results myself.) I
think he may also be top 20 alltime in academic
formats. Can anyone else rate so high a
combination?

Eric Hillemann