Pre-Holiday Academic Tournament

On behalf of the Vermont-NEA Scholars’ Bowl, I would like to invite your school to the Pre-Holiday Academic Tournament (PHAT), an evening of fun and challenging quiz bowl matches on Friday, December 7, at South Burlington High School in South Burlington, Vt. This tournament is open to all interested teams and will be played on NAQT questions (Set IS-69A), making it an early opportunity to qualify your team for NAQT’s elite national championship tournament.

The format will follow official NAQT rules (http://www.naqt.com/rules.html) except that rounds will be untimed and all matches will be limited to

20 tossup-bonus pairs. Teams will be guaranteed at least six matches though an effort will be made to maximize the number of rounds, with a target of eight matches for all teams.

The tournament entry fee is $30 and schools will be initially limited to a maximum of two teams. Additional teams will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis if the number of rooms and readers available allows it. The registration deadline is December 3.

Interested teams should note that participation might require them to leave school early. Check-in will be held from 3:45 to 3:55 p.m. and matches will begin promptly at 4:15 p.m. The competition will end at approximately 9:15 p.m.

A dinner break will be included in the schedule. Meals will not be provided, but the host team from South Burlington is planning to sell pizza and soda. There are also a number of restaurants within close driving and/or walking distance of the tournament site.

Because we are unable to hire readers for this tournament, the coaches of all participating teams will be expected to moderate matches so that we can keep all teams playing in all rounds. We will have a quick rules meeting to go over the basics and answer questions, but please familiarize yourself and your team with the rules (http://www.naqt.com/rules.html) ahead of time. Also, if you know of anyone (parents, teachers, former players, etc.) who might be willing to volunteer to read matches or keep score please let me know and invite them to come. The more staff we have, the smoother things will run.

If your team plans to participate or if you have questions, please contact me, Kevin Commo, at kcommo@scholarsbowl.org. I can also be reached by phone in the evenings at (802) 862-2848 on Sundays and Mondays or at (802) 660-1884 on Tuesday through Saturday.

School:______________________________
Number of teams (not more than two): ________
Number of additional teams you'd like to put on the waitlist: ________
Number of coaches who will be attending: ________
Number of buzzers you can bring: ________
Total payment due ($30 per team): ________

The field
As of Dec. 5, 2007, the following schools have tentatively planning to attending PHAT:

Champlain Valley (Vt.), 4 teams
South Burlington (Vt.), 3 teams
Fair Haven (Vt.), 2 teams
Burlington (Vt.), 2 teams
Essex (Vt.), 3 team
Mt. Mansfield (Vt.), 1 team
BFA-Fairfax (Vt.), 1 team
Hanover (N.H.), 1 team
Gorham (N.H.), 2 teams
Warrensburg (N.Y.), 2 teams
Colton-Pierrepont (N.Y.), 1 team
Lake George (N.Y.), 1 team

Queensbury (N.Y.), 1 team
Massena (N.Y.), 1 teams
Westport (N.Y.), 1 team