Flashback to Sunday, March 25: ACC Tournament 2007

Oh, quizzing, how I miss thou! I miss the sound of the buzzers going off. I miss the hardcore studying. I especially miss every one of my quizzer friends. It's upsetting because truth is hitting me. The few quizzers older than me are done quizzing and I'll never see them again. Quizzers not on my team I won't see again until 2008 quizzing. The quizzers on my quiz team I will see at least one more time, and I'm hoping 2 more times after that. That's a total of 3 times in a matter of 9 months until 2008. That's depressing. So what to do? All I have is the memories of the past. So I'll live on them. Let's start with the stories of the stuff you didn't hear: the tournaments. Let's go back to the ACC Tournament.

~~~~~***FLASHBACK***~~~~~

It was on Sunday, March 25. I was beginning to get over a fever. It had been anywhere between 100.1 to 103.7. Later I would find out this is broncitus. I had a sore throat so bad that it hurt every time I swallowed. It was easier to swallow liquids than solids, so I was on a liquids only diet. The previous night I had an extra practice. I broke my liquids only diet by having Mrs. Deitrick's lasagna. We weren't all there. Mike had to work, and so did Tim. At least Tim came over for questions around 11 PM. I wasn't there for that. I decided to sleep at home for my health and the health of the other quizzers. I quizzed late, later than I would perfer, but a quiz out is a quiz out.

We had 9 AM practice as well. Our team was together for the first time since Thursday. We looked awesome together with our new shirts. They were cerulean T-shirts. On the front it said "Spring City 2007" and on the back it had the verse we chose that best represented the team. It was Luke 19:40, "If they keep quiet, then the stones will CRY OUT." My quizzing buddy for the day was Stitch. We fit as much practice matches in as possible during that hour. After the worship songs in church, the church prayed for the quiz team and then we were off to Lancaster Bible College.

Spring City was in Group F, a group with 7 teams. We had 6 matches that day. They were against (in order of occurance): Strasburg 1, Maple Grove 1, Petra 7, Neffsville 1, E-Town 3, Bowmansville 2. The first 5 matches we got team bonus. The first 4 we scored in the triple digits. The E-Town 3 match we won with 90 points and 80 points against Bowmansville 2. I can't remember too many specifics, but I'll go over what highlights I do remember. Against E-Town 3 we only scored 90 points, but we had control of the match. We got to about question 12 and the only way for them to win was with help from us by losing points because of errors, which we had a lot. So we specifically told our quizzers not to buzz in unless they 100% knew the rest of the question and the whole answer. It's something that i don't think I'll ever say to quizzers again. The match against Bowmansville 2 was an impressive performance. Last time we won against them the score was 135 to 40. They were still a below average team. For them to hold us to 80 points was pretty impressive. The most exciting match was against Maple Grove 1. At the end of question 14 the score was tied. Question 15 started out "What did the blind man shout..." and Chelsea buzzed in. It was a good buzz, but Chelsea couldn't think it up in the 30 seconds. The bonus went to Maple Grove 1. "What did the blind man shout all the more?" It was one of those reverse situation questions that Mrs. Deitrick always asked that I didn't like. The Maple Grove quizzer didn't recognize this. She guessed "Praises to God?" All the quizzers on Spring City who knew it let out this huge sigh of relief. She was also wrong. We went to 3 extra questions. Spring City came out of the overtime victorious.

So Spring City finished 1st place in Group F, 6-0. This was enough to get us to the playoffs. The other team going to the playoffs was 2nd place E-Town 3 with a 5-1 record, the only loss being against us. We were satisfied with our performance. We took pictures of the Group. We then went to the playoff bracket to find out our opponent. It was Weaverland 1. We had a picnic lunch in the gym. Bryan and Tim were more occupied in basketball rather than eating. They did eat eventually.

We got back in the Good Shepherd Chapel by 6:15. The quizzing movie was first. It had an interesting mix of 2 songs. I was in it twice, once in a picture freeze frame and a short clip with me wearing my crown on the fun night. Then the announced the top 60 quizzers list. Both Tim and I made it. With my 530 points, I finished in 16th place. It was good to see Tim get back in the top 60 quizzers. Andrew Weiler once again was a perfect quizzer. That means he quizzed out 35 season matches in a row. Amazing. Another quizzer that finished perfect was Renee Weaver from Akron. I'm guessing she's somehow related to Lisa Weaver, a perfect quizzer for 2 consecutive years as well. Someday, that'll be me. All I want is one year perfect.

Now the playoffs were to begin. Round 1 against Weaverland 1. I don't remember it too well. All I remember was trailing Weaverland 1. I remember by the end of question 13, Weaverland was winning 80 to 50 and all that could get us the win was team bonus. All the starters were still up. Tim sacrificed his seat willingly to let Chelsea get in. I pulled my buzzer away because all that mattered was either Christine or Chelsea getting in for team bonus. We tried and failed. Weaverland 1 won 90 to 45. We lost points to errors as well. We were devastated, Tim the worst. Mike later told Brandon that I took it fairly well. I would have taken it worst if I realized like the rest of the team that we quizzed against Weaverland 1 before and one. Yup, week 3 of the season we won 90 to 65. We had the power to win and we didn't. It's like Tim said. If only we could lose one in the group in order to win that first round playoff match, we would have done it. But it doesn't work that way. Don't be sorry for me, I already won this tournament. Feel sorry for Tim, his second year in a row he made the playoffs but not even to the semifinal matches. Poor Tim.

I stayed until the end as usual. I saw Slate Hill 1 quiz against Petra 1 again as the season final rematch. Once again, Slate Hill 1 was victorious. Petra 1 had their second loss of the year, against the same team. Having a feeling that Slate Hill 1 had a possibility of going all the way, I watched them for the rest of the playoffs. The next they quizzed against was Strasburg 1, and they took that victory. In their semifinal match, Slate Hill 1 quizzed against E-Town 3, a team we beat in our group. They had beat Paradise 4 and Byerland 1 to get to where they were, but they couldn't get pass Slate Hill 1. Slate Hill 1 took the match, winning 110 to 55. I quickly went to the sanctuary to see if I could catch the tail end of Rockville vs. Petra 5. At the end of question 15, Rockville and Petra 5 had tied it up. They were given 3 extra question. After 18 questions, Rockville won 100 to 85. Before the final match of the tournament, Fred handed out the awards for 3rd place. They went to Petra 5 and E-Town 3. Yes, E-Town finished 3rd place for the 2nd consecutive year. Then the final match was ready. It was a repat season semifinal match: Slate Hill 1 vs. Rockville. It was just last week Slate Hill 1 beat Rockville with a score 110 to 65. I was sure things would turn out the same way. This match was closer. It came down to the last question. Slate Hill had the lead 65 to 55. On the last question, the Rockville quizzer buzzed in and quizzed out. Rockville won against Slate Hill 1, 70 to 65. Slate Hill 1 finished 2nd place, and Rockville was the champions of the 2007 ACC Tournament. Congratulations to Rockville on a sucessful tournament championship! I was very impressed on how Rockville did not give up just because they saw they lost against this team, but put their heart into it to come over it and win!

~~~~*** END FLASHBACK***~~~~~

Looking back, I am still upset we lost to a team that we beat before, but besides that, we did pretty good. We swept through our group like it was nothing. For the 3rd time in 4 years, we brought Spring City out of the round robin and into the playoffs. I overcame my sickness, and didn't perform too bad. God took my weakness, and made it His strength. And while doing all of this, we had a fun time. That matters too. Now, I wish they would just post that final standings so we can see where our lower quizzers finished.