My Spring City homies

I am ready for January. Why? It's the beginning of quizzing! Ever since quizzing ended with the secret sponser shing-ding-thing, I have only seen one or two quizzers, the most important quizzers, the ones on my team. Those guys are great. I know we said a lot of good things at the secret sponser reveal, but I want to say my own things now. Don't worry about public embarrassment. I'll do the same thing as I did last year. You have to guess who I am talking about.

You may have been the little one of the group, but you made a big influence. And even though your score was way different than the rest of the guys, you sure fit in with us. You quickly became one of the guys, with your grunting and moaning. And maybe you didn't enjoy it, but it was fun to see you as the demonstrated victim of some wrestling moves. And I hope you recovered from the neck whiplash you got on the invitational. I know you had some pressure on you, having two older brothers quiz at one time and having to do up to their par. But 20 points on the season is a good start, and I saw you really hard during the tournaments. Errors may sound bad, but errors are a sign of trying, so you made some good errors (what an oxymoron). The point is you tried.When you guessed, you had some of the best guesses, especially the right guesses. Seriously, who guesses Mesopotamia? I sometimes think you knew more than you think you did. Don't get too intimidate, remember your brother didn't do too well his first well, and that intimidated him so much he didn't quiz the next year. But look where he ended up. It would be great to have you back on the team. Now that the other two guys have girlfriends, I got no one to go ladying with except you. If you come back on the team next year, we'll go ladying together, and I'll get you a girl. And even better, I'll help you with your quizzing. Who knows, maybe next year we can higher than 292nd. Quizzing will be more fun with my right hand man! (Bryan "Lil' T" Tedor)

In the beginning of the year, I wasn't too sure if you were really into it. It actually seemed like your dad was more excited to quiz than you were. But that first right answer, those first 10 points, it couldn't have come at a better time. Do you not realize that without those points, we would have not been in first place that first week?! You came to help us many more times this year in quizzing. You got us team bonus, too! And as you scored more and more points, I could see how much more eager you were to study and get in a match. Sometimes you were just on fire! Just a little better, and you'll be starting material. That last question of the season, man, that was scary. You buzzed in early on the last question, the one for team bonus. It was so early that no one could guess it. But luckily you remember what we taught you, that Jesus was the all-else-fail answer, and you got it right. 40 points in a season is a good start for a rookie. Who knows what you could next year. If you have a go at it next year, who knows what you'll do? You could get anything from your first quiz out to reaching triple digits in the points. Maybe even be the 4th seat. It would be a lot of pressure to be needed for team bonus. You would have to score 5 times as many points as you did last year. But with more coaching and more studying, you can do it. You can do anything you put your mind to. All the hard work you did you deserved. (Chelsea "El Fuego" Mullins)

Third team's the charm, right? I'm gonna be 100% honest with how I felt about you. In the previous offseason, there you were, going around, gloating about how you were going to have your "super team", fully led and coached by you. To me, all it looked like you were stacking your team, and going anywhere at any cost to get it. I loathed you and wanted to beat you and your team into at a pulp. Then as I watched you go from Reading to Harvest to Zion to Hopewell, and I saw get shot down by every church because they wouldn't allow your dream team. And I laughed at you. I thought to myself, "Finally, the little punk is getting what he deserves." But when I heard that you couldn't get on a team by yourself, almost to the point my mind changed. I didn't hate you anymore, but pitied you. I hate to see good talent go to waste, and you are great talent. You seemed changed by your actions, and so I knew the perfect team for you to be on. I was so excitedly happy when I heard the Deitricks decided to let you on the team. I'm sure if it was because of the experiences in the other teams, but I saw a change in you. You were no longer that quizzer that wanted to exalt himself through his personal score. You were humble about how you were doing, but more focused on how this team was doing. You were such a benefit to this team, in more than just the 480 points you scored (which were helpful). You got everyone on board with quizzing, whether it be veteran or rookie. You weren't an enchanter, but more of an encourager. I think that the success of some of the rookies, and even some veterans, could be brought back to you. Not only did you provide encouragement, but you also put time into helping them practice. You took two big steps this year. You stepped up to lead an extra practice, and you stepped down to give a rookie quizzer a chance to get team bonus when we needed it. You showed coach-like qualities as still a quizzer. I can almost say I was envious of that. I wish I could motivate and help quizzers like you could. I understand you're dissappointed that our team didn't win any bling trophies, because that's what you were aimining. But look at what you did get. You finished 35th place on the top 60 quizzers list, and you won Spring City's first (and maybe only) Barnabas award. I know that they're only individual awards, one recognized by the league, the other only by a church, and that you really want your team to be recognized league wide by a trophy, but remember that the Lord has given you what you deserve, so accept those awards as part as His blessings to you. I pray that one day the Lord will recognize you through your team by giving your team an award. Lastly, I want to say that it was personally a blessing to me to have you on this team. As a said above, I started out this year with hard feelings towards you. By the end of the year, I felt at peace with you, and our relationship reconciled and restored. We were no longer arch rivals, but rather competitive teammates, which I enjoyed. I consider you a friend and a brother that I never had. I hope you see the same in me. (Tim "the encourager" Moss)

I guess the best way to start this is: uuuaaauyghhh. Not even sure that's how it's spelled, if it can be spelled. You're a man of many sound effects. So what you didn't finish as the top 60 like you did last year, you did finish in the top 100 (86th place to be exact). You did have the honor of being 1 of the 3 guys to be perfect quizzers for Spring City the first week. You performance was unpredictable as always, especially with your normal stupid answers, but you pulled through as usual. Sometimes you did scare us when you answered, like when you finished your answer at 28.5 seconds. Even though you had to take your annual baseball trip, you still performed pretty well. You also were able to grow out of your old title, "Mayor of Errorville." That is so good to see you error less, a definite improvement. Don't worry, I find a better one for next year. Truthfully, if you would have been there, I think you would have been in the top 60. But you're a lot of fun outside of a quizmatch, too. It was fun seeing you on that cart, especially on the snow. I still think some of my favorite memories of you are when we go ladying. Let's see, this year was the Argentinian and girl from Reading who thought you were cute. You had me fooled with the second one, when you actually thought you got one, but that didn't work out. I think that was it for this year. Well, you did finally find out what she (you know who) said about you, and we still didn't find Jojo, but it was all good. I guess next year will be different, then. I'll have to go ladying alone. But in these past 3 years, I have gotten to get to known you (or at least who I think you are) and have enjoyed you. I truly like you for who you are. So my advice for you: Don't change. I seriously mean it. Indubiately. (Michael "Mayor of Errorville" Schwager)

Wow. 6 whole years, two teams, and we were still together. I find that awesome. We've been through a lot together, but no matter what happened, we pulled out together. Thanks for everything you've done for me in this friendship. You got me out there a lot of times where I didn't want to be. I wanted to stay inside and practice, you pushed me outside during break time. You were able to talk to me and I to you without any barriers of any sort. I also found it helpful to eat with you so I didn't feel out of place with the little amount of food I ate. Thank you for sitting with me on the bus for all the Invitational trips, even though you kicked me out a few times. It may have been disappointing to only score 120 points this year compared to the 155 you scored last year, but if we added points for all the times we got team bonus, your score would be much more than that. I was 100% honest when I said you were the most dependable person for team bonus. It is so true. Because of that, I think you would be the most desireable quizzer that scores under 200 points. Any quiz team would want somebody that could get team bonus, despite few points. I also found it ironic how you were the team's top errorer at the end of week 1! We only had 2 errors, and they were both yours! It is a true sign you were a part of Spring City. I'm sorry we couldn't end your last year with a bang. That last match of the invitational, don't blame yourself for that. I am just as responsible. You did great these past two years. And I feel that possibly you may have also found a calm in these past 3 years compared to the calamity the 3 years before that. It was great to see you smile even though you may not want to for good reasons. It has been a honor to be with you on the same team for my whole career of quizzing. Thank you for six great years. (Christine "Money in da Bank" Dragan)

Thank you everyone on Spring City 2007. I hope you guys have realized the great accomplishments we acheived. We were on the top of League A for two straight weeks, and one of those weeks, we were the number one of all the ACC teams. We had three perfect quizzers for the first week of quizzing. We scored 1680 points, averaging 99 points. We finished in 5th place in our league, 8th place of all ACC in the season. We were undefeated in our group for the ACC Tournament and brought Spring City to the playoffs for the third time in the past four years. Spring City finished in 9th place in the invitational with four other teams. Our win-loss record of the season was 14-3, the ACC Tournament 6-0 in our group (6-1 with the 1 loss in the playoffs), and the invitational 5-2, totalling a 25-6 win-loss record. While the 2005 Spring City was better in the ACC Tournament, 2007 Spring City did better in both the season and the invitational. But forget about performance, Spring City was great is so many other ways. We came together as a time. We helped each other in studying as much as our coaches did. We sacrificed personal for the team. We were there for each other. This has got to be my favorite year of all quizzing. We were truly a team, we performed to the best of our ability and did well, and had fun doing it. God bless everyone on the team. Now with 3 months until the first quiz match of next year, I look foward to seeing everyone again.