The following day, she checks on the nascent social media pages of the Tulane Class of 2039 (which she considers more reliable than the Tulane Quiz Bowl social media pages) in search of the two or three missing roster spots for next year (depending on whether Bethany, whom Imélie contacted at LQBA Fall, gets in, ED or EA, and subsequently accepts to play for the Green Wave), knowing that, by this point people that applied under early decision and early action mostly received their decisions, good or bad. There is not much I can hope out of Tulane in regular decision, in recent years most of the undergraduate class is filled by January 1. However, the two people that I have staff the ACF Regionals didn't show they have improved enough for even a B-team for now. So scouting time has begun, Imélie starts thinking as she recognizes Bethany on some of the social media content, in that she is admitted to Tulane under ED, and she then proceeds to contact her about extending a formal offer to join, for the 2035-2036 season, the Tulane Green Wave quiz bowl team. Which she promptly accepts, in light of Tulane having a better gender balance than some other collegiate quiz bowl teams she could have played for.
The latest article of For 10 points, fix this community, which Bethany provides her, starts talking about how uncommon it is to see women in collegiate quiz bowl, and how Tulane's meteoric rise also came with a much better gender balance and, with it, better sensitivity of gender issues, at least as far as this team is concerned. Which she reads about how Tulane won Winter with 2 girls and commenting about how Imélie was one of the best female science players nationwide (there wasn't a whole lot of them at the graduate level, most of them are undergrads), as well as how she takes the tournament director role of ACF South-Central Regionals seriously.
Already that 3 girls out of 6 is very good, I'll check on the leads of the other leads I can get, knowing that the history/RPMSS spot on the vacancies posted is now locked in. I can always split the final opening in two, if it happens that the best remaining prospects are strong in either literature or fine arts but not both. That, even though most literature players I have known that are capable of playing lit in collegiate quiz bowl also are interested in fine arts, too, and history/RPMSS will usually do geography too; M&S players are all over the place outside of that from my experiences, Imélie ponders about what the commitment from Bethany implies for the rest of the Green Wave quiz bowl recruiting for next season.
"Woohoo! Bethany accepted the Green Wave quiz bowl offer!" Imélie exclaims, jumping for joy.
"Who Bethany even is?" Sun asks, not having any recollection of any specific player at State.
"She plays for the Majors, she is a senior in high school and she is going to Tulane next year. You saw her play at State without realizing it was, well, her"
"I'm sure she is a smart, hardworking person the way everyone on the current Green Wave team is. As far as I can make out, she has fast reaction times as well as a good memory, and the same can be said of you"
"I'm happy to see that at least some in-state quiz bowl talent can stay in-state even if it meant going to Tulane, with everything that implies in terms of grades and test scores"
I am confident that most prospects currently on the table will have the academic goods to succeed in the classroom and not just with a buzzer, Imélie keeps thinking about the academic standards she set on the remaining players left to obtain, as well as when she tried in-person scouting at LQBA Fall Invitational South, which led to Tulane landing Bethany for next year. Bethany did meet the standards for in-state auto-admission under early decision after all...
In her mind, one of the two new players should be female, and she feels she can more easily compromise on whether the two remaining players are in-state or out-of-state because she already has 3 Louisiana players on the team. I might take a chance on the ex-Vandebilt Catholic player that I snubbed in April if there really is no remaining player in Tulane's incoming class that is better than that person! That being said, most schools aren't nearly as systematic as Tulane when it comes to recruiting new players; yes, other schools hold tryouts, but unless we're talking about, like, UChicago or Harvard, most college teams are open access, Imélie thinks while emailing Alyssa regarding any Hullabaloo coverage of quiz bowl: "Now that Bethany is confirmed for next year, please talk about the team's openings wherever you write next about Green Wave quiz bowl in the Hullabaloo. Maybe there are some prospects waiting in the wings for a shot at playing next year that didn't hear about the team until we started winning and we host ACF Regionals"
At the same time, Alyssa is writing about the upcoming ACF Regionals and the tentative locations of game rooms at Boggs for the Hullabaloo, along with the schedule of games, with the appropriate disclaimer at the top because she is herself on the team, and, of course, must not mention herself when writing about Green Wave quiz bowl, nor can she allude to herself in passing. In short, write as if she wasn't part of the team.
Meanwhile, in Austin, Bruce starts dreaming of defeating Tulane on their home turf. After all, Texas has been 0-5 vs Tulane in quiz bowl games this season, and all five of these losses have been nail-biters, three of which were on Texas' home turf because Winter was hosted by Texas. Rumors abound on the circuit that Tulane's quiz bowl program, while appearing to the likes of For 10 points, fix this community as progressive and gender-sensitive, as well as undergoing what can only be qualified as a meteoric rise, is run by a coach that pushes the players to the brink, that will comb the incoming class for signs of strengths in a specific area of need - this far out from next year? And they do this assuming their current squad will keep playing? The coach certainly cares about the team, but this is NOT NCAA D1 sports! Imélie is running the Green Wave counter to the best practices of quiz bowl team management! But since Imélie is the TD of the South-Central mirror of the ACF Regional, we stand a much better chance because the Green Wave is a Division 2 team without her! Bruce starts dreaming of what book prizes she will hand him after Texas wins the mirror and therefore qualifies for the Nationals.
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He believes Imélie to be a bean-counter that, while having enough books to comply with ACF hosting regulations, will have bought used books from clearance sales or garage sales to get to the compliance requirements (top 2 teams plus top 4 individual scorers, assuming neither of the top 2 teams are shorthanded).
And yet, the prospects that put forward that might show some promise to Imélie's eyes include... a Kansas scholars bowl star player? Oh my God, not Kansas! Has anything changed since my high school days, where the Kansas quiz bowl circuit was described as the North Korea of high school quiz bowl back then? Imélie has a flash of some obscure discussion she had online back in high school about why Kansas was conspicuously absent from HSNCT despite clearly having enough talent to at least partake in that tournament. She feels the need to prompt the prospect, Patricia, residing on the Kansas side of Kansas City's metro area, via email on whether the manifest of KSHSAA restrictions dating from that era is still in effect. If KSHSAA's restrictions from my high school days are still in effect, unfortunately, that person will need a lot of adjustment going from Kansas' state format to ACF or NAQT! I need that information to decide on that one prospect.
Also, she wastes no time combing the NAQT records of other prospects that declared to be either literature, fine arts players, or both. Ideally, in Imélie's mind, the ideal candidate to play on the Green Wave next year should be able to do well in both these areas, and she then has more wiggle room to fill some diversity need or simply take the best player available outside of literature/fine arts with the final spot. But none of these prospects attended schools that took part in ACF Fall high school mirrors. Usually quiz bowlers are honest regarding their experiences of quiz bowling so when they say that they specialize in literature and/or fine arts, I usually take their word for it. Because quiz bowl is more niche than, say, mathletics, I'm not surprised there aren't that many prospects to choose from. The entering class at Tulane is approximately 2000 students these days. A high-end estimate is about 5% of them will have done quiz bowl, because quiz bowl draws disproportionately from the upper echelons of the academic ladder, and Tulane as well, but the low-end estimate is that you have 60% of the class being filled via early action and early decision so I can expect about 60 students total to choose from at this point of the game. Of that there's about one-third that play, or played, quiz bowl as literature and/or fine arts players, Imélie analyzes the size of the problem she is faced and whether her last-resort option needs to be exercised, that is, taking the ex-Vandebilt Catholic player to play on the B team.
Yet, she was able to pick out the best 4 out of about 60-100 last year, and she got lucky, and she has no right to assume that she will be able to do so the same this year even though there are only two spots left. But combing their records also takes a new dimension since she also pores over their teams' performances at tournaments to factor in their strength of schedule; playing well when the field is good is not the same as playing well when the field is not so good. Who am I kidding? Why go all the trouble for more detailed scouting now when I didn't do so in April? Alyssa was our best rookie this fall, but she had the benefit of going deeper into the HSNCT than the other 3. While I wish Bethany to go deep in the HSNCT, she is good for about 40-50 PP20TUH right now but good luck trying to get that kind of PP20TUH at the HSNCT! Marcia was our best scorer when I first went there, despite having heard fewer tossups than I did, she got 32-something PP20TUH that year, while I scored a little less than that. Why is it that I am reminded of my past participations at the HSNCT when I am trying to piece together that particular prospect's SOS? Imélie thinks while she has her eyes still on their school's track record for the season.
"What is it that you gain by looking at a team of origin's tournament records?" Sun asks, not knowing why Imélie would look at team tournament performance on a game-by-game basis. "As if you didn't already have enough of a prospect's stat line!"
"A prospect stat line can only tell so much without proper context. Playing well on a good team is not the same as playing well on a bad team. In addition, against whom you score those points makes a stat line, on its own, not mean a whole lot without it" Imélie explains where each of these stat lines fit.
"You start to sound like a football scout and not a quiz bowl coach!"
"A lot of very good quiz bowlers leave quiz bowl behind in college, and even more so those who didn't play so well, and did so because it looked good on a college application. Tulane's successes this year have a lot to do with scouting; I usually believe that a strong high school player should be able to transition to the college game if properly supported; strong play against strong opposition is the best predictor of collegiate success, to me anyway"
"All right, you win. Tulane is making out like the Moneyball of collegiate quiz bowl"
By December 24, she has finished scouting for prospects, while also studying literature and fine arts as relevant for SCT participation. May as well extend an offer to the best player capable of dealing in both literature and fine arts; from what I've seen prospects that are purely literature players tend not to be as good as those who deal in both, Imélie thinks, believing that an offer to play quiz bowl for the Green Wave, delivered in writing, is Tulane's Christmas gift to that prospect, while also sending out another offer to another player that she feels is the best player otherwise available to Tulane.