Now that the VA's girls basketball season calendar is released, Audrey checks it against the quiz bowl calendar. It seems like there is only one basketball game this season that could conflict with quiz bowl, but it's only a few weeks away, and against the Peabody Lady Warhorses in a traveling tournament.
The following morning, Audrey emails Warren not to ask for help about the group project, but for something else altogether. It's about quiz bowl conflicting with basketball. Which also makes Audrey email Kent, the basketball coach, about it.
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Dear Kent,
I notify you that I have a scheduling conflict between the basketball game against the Peabody Lady Warhorses and the LQBA Fall Invitational South on November 17. I'm afraid I won't be able to get to Peabody in time for the game from LQBA Fall Invitational South at Archbishop Rummel.
Please advise on any measures that should be taken and which one I should attend.
Audrey
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Upon receipt of the email, Warren responds that, while he can afford to lose Audrey, the A-team's special topics player, for a tournament, she's on the hook to find a replacement player for the B-team if so she wishes. Because the B-team's special topics player will move up to the A-team for it. This is the second time since there is even a quiz bowl team here where I need to call in reinforcements for reasons other than a player quitting the team, Warren starts to feel like it's the 2024 LQBA Winter Invitational South all over again, where he needed a history/social studies replacement player for it because Sadie was playing at an inter-state debate tournament on that week.
Oh boy. I'm not sure who I should ask, much less who will my teammates ask. The big barrier to overcome to get anyone to play quiz bowl is the game's reputation for intense intellectual requirements. However, for us, a special topics player is simply a player who either does not seem to have a specific strength or whose strength lies outside of the core topics. This means I don't need to worry about what they're good at, Audrey ponders who will respond, while posting on her social media accounts about the VAs asking for help for the LQBA Fall Invitational South. The question is: who could possibly want to play quiz bowl who isn't already on two teams subject to the Rule of Two? I guess Pablo is my choice of last resort and that I will ask him only if my quiz bowl teammates fail to get anyone to play.
During quiz bowl practice, Audrey begins by looking at the responses on her social media accounts. At this point, there seems to be no takers to play at LQBA Fall Invitational South. However, she knows her teammates are busy with their own lives at school and they don't seem to think about quiz bowl affairs during school hours. This announcement is like dropping a hammer on them:
"OK, guys, I understand you were busy during school hours, but not only, until late January, I won't be able to be there at quiz bowl practices as often as I did, but for the LQBA Fall Invitational South, I won't be able to play at all!" Audrey announces to her quiz bowl teammates.
"Audrey, did you already try asking your friends before telling that to us?" Myriam, the quiz bowl team captain, asks, while she is busy placing a bet on a horse race in her mother's name.
"There just isn't a whole lot of people who could be willing to burn one of their two Rule of Two allowances for just one tournament!" Scott, another A-team member, tells her about the other major obstacle to get new players to play mid-season.
"That said, better tell us now!" Warren intervenes in this quarrel, while they think long and hard about possible reinforcements.
Tyler does band and FFA, so he can't play. My basketball teammates might have a smart friend or two, but I got no response from these people. Natalie? I guess, I can always try to ask her via texting... Audrey's thoughts turn to who she could ask, not expecting much from anyone. My basketball teammates are of no help because that basketball game is what will make me miss this tournament! "Are you free to join the quiz bowl team until LQBA Fall Invitational South? It does not engage you to anything afterward" she texts Natalie, her face turning red with despair, while her quiz bowl teammates get told no pretty rapidly.
"In my experience, it's pretty easy to tell who will not play for sure" Caleb, the temporary special topics A-team player, adds to this discussion while calling upon his classmates for help. "Sure, that eliminates the majority of the student body, however, quiz bowl's reputation for intellectual intensity is well deserved!"
"We can't get yet another mathlete! We already have one on each squad!" Myriam adds to this cacophony of comments before the first drill begins.
"Fingers crossed that Natalie accepts..." Audrey sighs before the first drill begins.
"Guys, just because we earned a HSNCT berth at Tal Atkins earlier this month doesn't mean that we should rest on our laurels!" Warren warns his teammates. "Especially Caleb, who will practice with the big team until the end of the LQBA Fall Invitational South! As for you, Audrey, you will moderate drills whenever you can be there at practices until then!"
People who worry about the GPA component of TOPS will usually be unwilling to play. This means that nearly everyone who could be viable quiz bowl prospects would have 3.5 or higher, Caleb reflects on who he could target, shortly before the first drill begins for the A-team. Right there, this eliminates around seventy percent of the student body. At the same time, perfectionists aren't a good fit on the buzzer.
With the best B-team player keeping score, Audrey is then made to read the questions for the remaining 6 players (4 middle schoolers and the 2 B-team players left) in their own drill, split in two 3-player squads.
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Meanwhile, Natalie acknowledges Audrey's call for help, but has mixed feelings regarding the quiz bowl team. The quiz bowl team... I guess Audrey believes enough in me to play, after all, most of my interactions with her revolves around AP courses. I guess it makes sense to start with people she knows do well in these courses. But did she ask me for quiz bowl help because she couldn't find anyone else? I might have heard about how good VA quiz bowl is for years, it's all-subject and that it's intellectually intense to play, but no more than that, Natalie wonders who else she could ask for quiz bowl help that hasn't already eaten up their extracurricular allowance under the Rule of Two. And yet, she's busy weighing possible public policy responses to eating disorders as a public health problem, and then moves on to other homework.
She then watches a few clips from past VA quiz bowl games, even though most clips available are from high-profile games, such as quiz bowl-State or the HSNCT, so she gets a better feel for how the game is played.
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Back at the quiz bowl practice, Audrey could tell the people in her drill are distracted by this entire issue of having to find a replacement for her at the LQBA Fall Invitational South. After the drill ends, she has another idea, which she feels could save her, and the team, a few headaches for the next tournament:
"If any middle schooler here can volunteer for the LQBA Fall invitational South, with the coach's permission and the parents'..." Audrey confers with the coach.
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"Personally, I would want to see a middle schooler find a replacement player for the middle school division of LQBA Fall Invitational South before I can allow a middle schooler playing on the high school division's B-team" Warren grins when addressing Audrey's idea to get help for quiz bowl.
Audrey then turns to the middle schoolers. "You heard the coach: if you can get someone else in middle school to play at the LQBA Fall Invitational, and get the parents' approval for it, you will then decide who will go on to play with the high schoolers"
But, as the drills continue, while the high schoolers get their requests for quiz bowl aid rebuffed at every turn, the middle schoolers get no response. Presumably because they think quiz bowl is too much work they'd rather not deal with. And yet, the coach knows that, if push comes to shove, they may need to leave the B-team undermanned. We can't afford to leave the middle school team undermanned because we haven't earned a MSNCT berth yet, Warren feels forced to act on this situation because of a lack of reserve.
At the end of the practice, Warren warns the players about the gaping hole down the B-team and gives a deadline to fill it.
"You have until next Tuesday to get a new player for the LQBA Fall Invitational South!" Warren warns his players.
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For the rest of the week, she keeps an eye on potential prospects for the quiz bowl team, but she still juggles between her coursework, strength training for basketball, as well as quiz bowl. Upon completing the week's coursework on Friday, she faces the grim reality: her quiz bowl teammates had no viable prospects and Natalie didn't respond.
She pokes Natalie again by text message: "I know it has been a few days, but you didn't answer me about quiz bowl!"
"Sorry, but I have the food drive to organize" Natalie responds back by text.
Shoot. My best prospect is thrown out the window. However, I can't blame her; she probably feels like organizing the food drive is a better move for her than playing quiz bowl for a tournament, Audrey feels like she is running out of options. Especially since Myriam's words regarding a major constraint that could take out a remaining prospect or two right out of the gate rings in her mind: We can't get yet another mathlete! Which means no more mathletes. And causes her to cry, and then makes her question what impact under-manning the B-team would have on its performance at the tournament.
"What would happen if we're short a player for the LQBA Fall Invitational South?" Audrey starts sobbing because she feels this situation is partially of her own doing. "Would that mean we are going to miss having a second squad at the HSNCT?"
"Honey, what makes you think that we're going to have two teams in the top fifteen percent at the LQBA Fall Invitational South, if we can fill the final position on the B-team for it?" Audrey's mother asks her.
"The fourth player could bring in knowledge the other three players may lack!" Audrey keeps crying, while explaining the reason why she wants to fill that hole down the high school's B-team for that tournament. "I'm not taking that for granted, though"
However, that night, Audrey's family is attending the season closer against South Beauregard, and the VAs sell out all 4260 tickets for that game, knowing this game carries playoff implications for them. South Beauregard, on the other hand, is already assured of a playoff berth.
In the VAs' locker room, the coach makes one last, brief speech before they enter the field under the watchful eyes of the band, and the strategic aspect already covered in previous drills this week:
"This is it: the final game! For the first time in ten years, the Venomous Agendas can earn a playoff spot! Show them the Venomous Agendas fear no tackling!" the head coach harangues the players, even though, 10 years ago, one would have talked about the Jennings Bulldogs instead of the VAs.
And the VAs fight tooth-and-nail on their home turf to secure their playoff berth. Pablo appears to play mostly as he did last week, and so do the DT and DE who kept disturbing the rest of the team when studying in the bus all season.
Yet, in the final quarter, the VAs have a 2-point lead over South Beauregard, and they are on the defense. However, South Beauregard hasn't been that great on field goals, and are twenty yards out. And, positioned at the goal line, the VAs' free safety stands ready to catch the ball.
And... the free safety narrowly misses the catch and falls on the ground after the missed catch. The ball narrowly clears the goalpost, causing the VAs to lose the game, and possibly a playoff berth, by a single point.
By then, Audrey gets a new opportunity to meet with Pablo, with more comments on the progress of the AP Bio group project, at the exit of the locker room.
"Pablo, I made additions to my own part in the AP Bio group project. Would you please review the new stuff and, if necessary, adjust your part?" Audrey asks him, seeing that he's visibly down.
"Because of this goddamned free safety, these Golden Knights stole a playoff berth from us!" Pablo screams, while also crying. "All you have to say is that I should look at the extra stuff you added to the group project?"
"All is not lost. On Sunday, we will know who will get the wildcards. But until then, please focus on your schoolwork" Audrey tries to console him.
"Easy for you to say, but you know the consequences of the VAs getting into the football playoffs for me!" the tight end keeps crying. "I was playing the best football of my life lately, I really hope it hasn't been for nothing!"
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On Sunday morning, those VA football fans, regardless of how fanatical they are over football (in the past two weeks, the fair-weather ones came out of the woodwork), tune in on the local media outlet of their choice, awaiting the release of the Division II Non-Select football playoff brackets. And... the VAs didn't make it. Audrey decides to call Pablo:
"I know the time isn't right for this, but... you're the quiz bowl team's only hope!"
"What do you mean, I'm the quiz bowl team's only hope?" Pablo, still under the shock of learning that VA's football team didn't make it to the playoffs, asks a distraught Audrey.
"Could you please join the quiz bowl team, at least for the next tournament, on November seventeenth in Metairie?" Audrey makes her request to the tight end, almost begging to him. "Just do this for me, please?"
It doesn't make any sense! Why is it that the quiz bowl team is unable to get reinforcements when they need it? And Audrey seems to be implying not even Natalie could do it! Why me? There are smarter kids than I who didn't eat up their Rule of Two allowances! Audrey's request sends him into a tailspin.
"Why me?" Pablo's confusion is clear in his voice. "What made the debate team unable to use its reserved quiz bowl spot? Also, really, I'm not that smart!"
"My quiz bowl teammates looked high and low across campus, and unfortunately, a lot of debaters just don't use their brains the same as I do! A lot of people feel like it's not for them somehow!" Audrey answers him. "You seem able to hold up to the pressures of the game!"
"Fine, I'll go ask my parents! I'll call you back later, see ya!"
And that certainly includes a couple of kids smarter than even him, the basketball player ruminates, while Pablo hangs up the phone to ask his parents permission to join the quiz bowl team.
"Mom, dad, I was invited to join the quiz bowl team; they really needed help!" Pablo tells his parents, still under the shock of the VAs not making the playoffs. "Can I play quiz bowl?"
"I'll let you play quiz bowl on one condition: you have to play for the rest of the season!" Pablo's mother informs him.
"The quiz bowl team must really have exhausted their options for them to take a chance on you! That, or you have a crush on a player!" Pablo's father comments on Pablo being invited to play on the quiz bowl team. "When is your first tournament?"
"November seventeenth, in Metairie" Pablo answers them.
"I don't expect much, but colleges will want to see people do more extracurriculars and perform consistently" Pablo's mom warns him. "And you must give us the entire schedule of practices and tournaments; you said your first tournament is in Metairie so please notify me about tournament start times"
"The quiz bowl team has given you a chance; please, don't squander it! These quiz bowlers might think little of you at first, especially since, more than any other sport, football has a reputation for dumbing down players" Pablo's dad sermons him.
But at the same time, Pablo is still a better student than a lot of the people on the football team, and I can actually see it being a game of elimination for the quiz bowl team to get help, Pablo's dad ruminates while it's clear to their son that he has their blessing to play.
Now that Pablo has his parents' blessing to play quiz bowl, he then calls Audrey back.
"I accept. I will go play on the quiz bowl team. However, my parents would prefer that I play the remainder of the season" Pablo proceeds to tell her.
"Now, listen carefully: if you want to play quiz bowl for the rest of the season, beyond that one tournament, you must earn the respect of the rest of the team. Here respect is earned by work ethic and in-game performance, as well as treating your teammates with respect" Audrey warns him.
Much like life on the football team, really; there, too, respect is earned with work ethic and in-game performance. That's perhaps why most players seemed to tolerate the DE and DT blasting music in the bus, Pablo sighs, while he receives an email from her containing the team's schedule for the season, practices and tournaments, as well as links to quiz bowl training material. I have my work cut out for me: I'll be spending the rest of the quiz bowl season with seven or eight kids I feel are all smarter than I am. Not that I'm dumb by any means, he realizes that he has a lot of work to do to earn his quiz bowl teammates' respect.