Startup Your Week: 2005 NYC

Well folks, BibleQuizzer.net has dedicated this week to the New Year’s Classic. It goes without saying that this is the first national tournament of the quizzing year, and we will be seeing for the first time teams that haven’t competed until now. I have faithfully attended (and quizzed at) the NYC for the past two years, and it pains me to say that I will not be quizzing this year. I do intend to bring my Neighborhood Alliance Church team, but as we all know, coaching is never as fun as quizzing. In January 2003, the year of John, I quizzed for the first time at the NYC under a FQA team (mostly TMA students). We defeated Athens twice for the victory in the finals after a very long hard day of quizzing. That year we began the quizzing at 9 AM and ended around 11 PM, so a word of warning: winning the NYC, even placing at the NYC, requires endurance. Not even SCQANIT goes this late into the night, and for good reason: Nationals is the day after. My point is, quizzing at NYC is not for the faint of heart. I have seen great quizzers choke under the stress of quizzing at a huge tournament, and I have also seen incredible growth in others. Quizzing out is only 5 questions, but with the high competition, that is no easy matter. No pressure.

Startup, where does the New Year’s Classic rank among your favorite tournaments of the year?
–Archer, GA

The great thing about the New Year’s Classic is that it is in the middle of a tournament desert. The last major tournament was the Midseason, a growing — but still small — tournament in October, and the next one is the Blue Ridge Invitational in February, or, to us, the FQA finals.

When I was allowed to quiz at SCQANIT, I would say that would be my favorite, but right now, I see NYC as being THE tournament to test a team’s strength and speed at this point in the year. Think about it like this: the NYC is the first tournament to cover the entire portion of Scripture; from this point on, it’s all either review or playing catch-up until March’s state tournaments and April’s national tournaments. This tournament tests a team mid-year, and offers the first real insight into how well a team can compete nationally. Coaches: take note of your team at this tournament, take note of quizzers who perform well under pressure, and, using the results of this tournament, spend the next 4 months fine-tuning your team to make it a winner.

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