Amid the guts and the glory that is the Athens competition, there is another story that too often goes untold-and this year, it was better than ever! The NYC Junior Division has up until this year been brushed aside by the correspondents of this website, but I have taken it upon myself to review, recall, report, and remark upon all that you would ever want to know about the 2006 New Year Classic Junior Division at Athens Christian School!
But first, a disclaimer:
I love doing this kind of stuff, “reporting” or whatever you want to call it, but when trying to keep tabs on two tournaments at the same time in different buildings, I get confused. Oh sure, I try to write it all down, but sometimes I don’t and I forget things. If you find an error in this article, please e-mail me at Startup@biblequizzer.net and I will try to change it. Please do not take my errors personally; just take deep breaths and then calmly open your e-mail and compose a friendly correction letter. It would be appreciated.
The Teams and the Tournament
Pleasant View Kentucky:
PVKY brought three teams to Athens this year, one in the Senior division and two in the Junior division. Both teams in the Junior division did very well in the morning rounds, and while one of their teams fell by the wayside halfway through the afternoon tournament, the other one quizzed excellently and made it to The Final Four.
Faith:
Gotta love Faith for coming year after year, and always doing well, if not winning! Their Junior team has a lot of skill; unfortunately, I did not see them in the morning rounds, so the only times that I saw them was in the late rounds of the tournament during The Final Four, wherein, even with one loss, they managed to stay calm and collected, even on tie-breakers and Question 20 finishes.
Heritage:
Good team. Good synergy. A very good star quizzer in Jillian. Like Faith, I didn’t get a chance to see them in the morning and early afternoon, but I knew that they entered The Final Four with no losses to their name.
Calvary SC:
Very cool team, in my opinion. Quizzed well, good enough to make it into The Final Four with no losses, and their best quizzer, Theo, has got to be one of the most entertaining and fun-loving kids I have met through quizzing. His team wasn’t two shabby either; he had several potential Number Twos by his side. Definitely a team to watch for in the years to come.
Calvary FL:
Bringing both a Junior and a Senior team, Calvary drove up to Athens for the very first time. Calvary’s Junior team was a tough competitor, and I know they went down fighting the whole way. For being a brand new team at their first ever major tournament, I think that Calvary really overachieved, and they have a lot to be proud of. My sources claim that they got 6th in the tournament.
Greenville:
Another brand new team, the Church of Greenville had two solid teams, one elementary and one middle school, I believe. Their middle school team barely missed The Final Four, and even their elementary team was a pleasure to watch quiz.
Athens, Spring City, Temple, Philadelphia, Eagles Landing, Pleasant View South Carolina, Franklin Road:
I absolutely hate to clump these teams together like this, but unfortunately, between running around between Senior division and Junior division quizzes, I really did not get a chance to see these teams perform often, if at all. No fault of their own though; I love to see up-and-coming quizzing legends, and I definitely saw a lot of quizzing potential coming from these ministries. I was really encouraged to see so many younger quizzers who know how to have fun and also memorize God’s Word.
The Final Four
Calvary SC – no losses
PVKY – one loss
Faith – one loss
Heritage – no losses
Round 1:
Calvary with a bye. PVKY secures high, Faith and Heritage go to a tiebreaker. The quizmaster, Mr. Valentine, who for the record had been quizmastering all day, misreads a question that Heritage jumps up on, and the question is thrown out. Finally, Faith takes the tiebreaker and gives Heritage their first loss.
Round 2-3:
PVKY and Faith with a bye respectively (I think). All I know is that Calvary SC gives it their all but comes up a little shy two quizzes in a row. Great job, Calvary!
Round 4:
I caught bits and pieces of this round, but not the ending. I do know, using deductive reasoning, that PVKY was eliminated, which surprised me, because, to be honest, I thought they would end up winning both tournaments. They had a great run, though, and dominated over a lot of the final teams in previous quizzes. Great job, PVKY!
Round 5:
Faith VS Heritage. I came in on question 10, when the score was 120 Faith, 80 Heritage. Using my brilliant investigating techniques, I was made aware that Heritage had come from 120-0 score, and that their run was not finished yet. Between questions 11-15, Heritage got 4 more questions to make the score 160 Heritage 140 Faith. Then, by question 19, the score was 200 Faith 180 Heritage, with both Jillian from Heritage and Meredith from Faith still in it. Then, something very surprising but very honorable occurred. Meredith from Faith informed the quizmaster, and the rest of us, that, due to the proximity of the table to the quizzers, she was able to see the quizmaster’s open Bible, and used it to correctly answer question 17. Now, I don’t know about you, but it takes a lot of guts, especially in the finals of a national event, to admit something like this. Mr. Valentine made the very wise call to deduct the 20 points from Faith and redo question 17, a Bible Quizzing first. Seriously, I don’t know how many times in Bible Quizzing history that a quizmaster stops the quiz and goes back several questions to undo a mistake. I agree with Mr. Valentine’s decision and I have a lot of respect for Meredith for being so honest. Question 17 was asked, and Jillian got it and quizzed out. With the score now 200 Heritage 180 Faith, the final question is asked. Meredith jumps up, and misses, Heritage gets the rebound, and with that, the victory. Both Faith and Heritage have a lot to be proud of, and all 16 teams that competed made the Junior Division tournament of the 2006 New Year’s Classic a great success. Major props for all the quizzers who came, the quizmasters who helped, specifically Mr. Valentine, and Mr. Bamford for having a Junior division at his tournament. Congrats!!!
Jesse