Do you remember the 2009 Invitational? I remember.

We all know this is long overdue. It's been about two months since the Invitational all the way over in Northwest Ohio. We all know who the winners were and who won what. But I haven't told you in detail what happened. I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats for the past 2 months, waiting to hear what happened (yeah right), so here is the written account of Spring City's adventure into Ohio. Now since this happened a while ago, my memory isn't as sharp as it usually is in details, but I remember the main parts well.

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THURSDAY NIGHT:
From my college, right after my last class, I went right to the Deitricks, not stopping at home. I grabbed a dinner from the college cafe and ate on the ride there. So when I arrived, I was ready to quiz, but just like the previous year, I was the first to arrive, and had to wait for the others. The Deitricks were surprised to see me missing all the hair I had been wearing since the beginning of the year was now gone. Robert arrived next, and he came in with more of a shocker. Robert was sporting the mohawk. It was very well done. Mike came in with...Brazil nuts, and then everyone else came in. Of course, we all had our luggage. The girls of course won with the most stuff...well, at least the most stuff going to Ohio. Sure, I had a lot of stuff, but I only took half of it to Ohio. The other half was just the stuff I normally bring home from college on the weekends. Practice went normal and smoothly. I just relished into the setting as I realized I was at my last practice ever as a quizzer, and so was Mike. At the end of our practice, as we rolled up the buzzers for one last time, Mike said goodbye to his buzzer Mellow Yellow and I said goodbye to my buzzer Black Thunder. Then I knighted Robert with it, giving him my blessing, that he may be blessed in quizzing as I am.

After practice we went into the kitchen for snacks. Alyssa set up the bar to show us how well she could fake pull ups. I showed her how to do real pull ups. I did 3, which is impressive, considering a couple years earlier I wouldn't be able to do any. Mike and Tim left after snacks, back to Tim's place, where they would spend the night and meet us early the next morning. The rest of us stayed the night at the Deitricks. Dave and Alyssa watched the Power of Ten movie. After that, it was all Nintendo Wii. Robert had been talking about pool with me, so we tried a game of pool. After that we all played bowling, a game we all could play. I was humbled as I watched everyone, mainly Chelsea, beat me at my game, and lose my pro ranking. Alyssa remembered wii boxing from last year and wanted to do it again. I got back at everyone by beating them in wii boxing. unfortunately, that has nothing to do with ranking. Mrs. Deitrick made sure we didn't go to bed too late. Robert and I listened to the material before we went to bed.

FRIDAY:
Compared to last year, we all got up on time, quickly got ready, and left at a good time. Since the busses were leaving at 7 AM, we had to get up at a really early time. It was still dark when we left Pottstown. I was playing my Nintendo DS the whole way up because personal handheld video games were not allowed on the busses. We got there in enough time, at the same time everyone else was loading up. We met Tim and Mike there. Good to know they also could get up in time to meet us at the right location. We got all our stuff and loaded into onto our bus. Our Bus was bus number 5. We were on the same bus with Timberline (both teams), Living Rock (all 3 teams), Grace & Truth (they have just one team, like we do), along with 5 staff. Since Spring City was the last ones on, we were scattered about, mainly in the middle section. With this being my first Ohio trip without Christine, I sat with Robert. We found seats and got situated. A little after 7 PM, we left the Dutch Wonderland Parking Lot, with a unified yell of "BYE HOUSE!"

Since 7 PM is still considered early for most of us, and also considering that many of us had to get up before then, most people on the bus were still tired and opted to sleep. I didn't sleep because I go by the rule "No sleeping on the Ohio bus" so I went into some quizzing studying (yes, already). Tim was the funniest to watch sleeping. He was leaning back in his chair, mouth gaping wide open. I would crumple up small balls of paper and try to shoot them in his mouth. Cathy Riehl tried to help me by giving me bite size snacks for ammo. Still, my aim could not make a basket into Tim's mouth. A few hours later everyone was more awake and ready to play. Tim suggested Mafia, of course, and most everyone wanted to jump in. We were just underway to our first mafia game....when we pulled into Somerset.

Somerset is the annual Ohio trip stop. We stop there for both going to Ohio, and coming back from Ohio. So this was visit number 9. Remembering the hot cocoa from the last visit, I made sure I went back to the Starbucks for one. Since Robert was following me around, I asked him where he wanted to go. He insisted we go to McDonald's, so we went there. It was still early in the morning, early enough for McDonald's to still be on its breakfast menu. I rather have the lunch/dinner menu, but I found chicken muffin I could eat. I needed to eat because we were told we weren't making another meal stop for 4 to 5 hours. As we were eating, I looked at the window and saw a van decked out like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo! That was new. Once we were done eating, we waited to get on the bus. The bus doors opened, everyone got on their bus, and we continued on our trip.

Once we got onto the highway again, we were ready to play mafia...but then we were interrupted again. Merv wanted the youth to take a survey for a sermon he was preparing. So we answered a bunch of question. Some of them very prodding, like asking how far you would go with a date and your most embarassing secret. Others were just funny, like what food comes to mind first when you think of mennonite food. But the funniest part was Mike taking the survey. Naturally, Mike did not have a pen on hand. So he borred one from Cait Rihel - a nice pink pen with a sparkling pink tassel on the end. It so went along with manly Mike. After filling out our surveys, we were finally ready to play mafia. These mafia games were huge. We played about 6-10 games. A game ranged between in the 20s when it came to people playing. Most of the time we had 5-6 mafia in each game. I played every role at least once. The same was true for him, but he didn't have good fortune in the game. Spring City quizzers knew how good Tim was at mafia, and it only took one game for everyone else to figure that out too. So for the next 4 games or so, everyone made sure Tim was the first one to be executed by the vote. But it's not like it mattered. The next few games made me realize why Tim and Cait worked as a couple. Cait was just as ruthless as a player as Tim. Most of the time she was the mafia and got away with it. She would either bring the mafia to victory still alive or be the last mafia standing. After a while, I noticed Tim was getting frustrated not being able to play more than one round, so I led a campaign to try to keep him alive for a few more turns. That was a mistake. Because on that round, both Tim and Cait were in the mafia, and there were like the mafia Bonnie and Clyde. By the time I had figured out the two of them were it together, they killed me that night. Not one of my finest moments in the game. But I will tell you my finest moment. I was the mafia. I had realized who the last detective was (there was 2 detectives because the games were so large) for we had killed the one detective. So I convinced everyone that I was the detective and the real detective was in the mafia. Everyone fell for it, and I led the mafia to victory. Needless to say no one trusted me the next round, so when I did try it again, I was discovered immediately. Playing mafia took us all the way to our next stop.

After stepping into Ohio passed the border, the busses stopped at a rest stop. This was only 10 minute break for thos who needed to use the bathrooms and stand up outside. I took the chance to stand up outside and stretch my legs. But before you knew it, we had to get back on the bus for more bus ride. Once again, we started up mafia. By this time, some people were tired with mafia, and only the hardcore players wanted to play. So now games were only 15-19 people, with much less charcters. Most of the time, I was jsut a townsperson, so nothing exciting for me. But one of the funniest moments was near the end. BJ from Timberline had discovered Tim was in the mafia and discovered Tim had a snacks barrell at the same time. He started yelling, "Tim is in the mafia!" and Tim yelled back, "If you make any accusation of me in the mafia, you're not getting any snacks!" Hugging the barrell, BJ yelled, "TIM IS NOT IN THE MAFIA! TIM IS NOT IN THE MAFIA!" Apparently he was and he won the game using his little bribe. lol. We still played mafia until the next real rest stop.

This was the same rest stop we were at the last trip to the Northwest section of Ohio. With a major highway between it, half the busses went to one side, and other half went to the other side. We were lucky enough to get to the side with the mall. I went to McDonalds for dinner, and got a Happy Meal for the toy of a quizzing buddy. On the box, it had a punch-out of a blue eyeball, and the box said, "Stick this to your forehead and pretend you're a giant blue blob." Of course, this gave my ideas ;) . I had dinner with Robert and Ed White from Slate Hill. After that, we explored the mall, including going into Gamestops and Borders, for Robert's sake. We then went back to the buses, and with a little time to spare, played some hacky sack. Then back on the busses again. By now everyone was tired with mafia, so there were no new games of that. Surprisingly, a lot of people studied. That's usually something I do. lol. It started with a few people studying, and then some people wanted to get involved, and before you know it, a lot of people were studying. Coach Dave let some quizzers from Timberline borrow his questions. With his handwriting, there was a small dispute over what preposition he wrote down. lol. I got the chance to impress the Timberline quizzers with how well I knew my situation questions, but also got to fit in my own questions. Others were not as interested in studying. Mike found himself a motorcycle magaize. Tim and Mike drooled over pictures of bikes. Finally, at roughly 7 PM, 12 hours later, we arrived in Archibold, Ohio. It was a small town surrounded by farm land. Coach Dave best described it like a checkerboard: flat and square.

All 8 busses were pulled into St. John's parking lot. We were told that a coach from each team would go inside the church building and wait for their host while the rest would wait inside. Seriously, you can't expect that from teenagers who have been on a bus pretty much all day. Everyone gathered up their stuff in the bus, stepped off, went below the bush to get their luggage, and went to the church's back lawn. It had a small playground and a few picnic tables. Some played catch, others played hacky sack, but I think a lot of us were just glad to get off and stand up. It was mainly the guys playing hacky-sack and catch, and the girls on the playground. Of course Spring City was one of the last teams to find their host, as it usually seems. So we were there for a while. Alyssa sat in the tire swing as we waited. Tim and Mike wanted to help Alyssa have more fun, so they pushed her on the swing with all their might. Needless to say, Alyssa went flying everywhere. So the crazier 3 on Spring City were going wild with the tire swing, while the calmer 3 of Robert, Chelsea and I just stood and watch. Finally, our hosts arrived. We loaded everything into their truck and car, and they drove us to their house.

Our host family was an older couple: Paul & Carol Stuckey. They were retired farmers who were now living on a much smaller plot. Their children were grown up, and had given them grandchildren, who many were quizzing for a few of the quiz teams. It was a short drive to their house, but Paul Stuckey took us on a slightly longer route that was more scenic. Ohio did look lovely that time of year. Once at the house, we entered through the garage with all their stuff. The Deitricks were shown to their room, and the girls to their own private room, considering there was only two of them. The boys had 2 options: sleep on living room floor or sleep on the TV room floor. We chose the living room floor because the carpet was thicker. As we were getting situated, the Stuckeys invited us into their kitchen for snacks. They had fully prepared for this, giving us sodas, chips, cake, ice cream, crackers, chesses and fruit. This being our first time eating since the last rest stop 3 hours before, we ate our fill. After everyone had enough to eat, we went into TV room for the last practice of the year and my last practice as a quizzer :( . Dave and Vicki went around asking questions from their sets respectively. We practiced to the best of our ability, but after an early morning and a long trip, we were dead tired. We finished up the night watching some of the NCAA Final Four Tournament, and then went to bed.

SATURDAY:
I got up early at 7 AM for a shower. By the time I got out, all the other quizzers on my team were up as well. We ate breakfast, got dressed (all wearing our team shirts) and left on time. On the way there, Paul Stuckey drove us by the Sand Ridge farm to show us where the infamous team was from. Mr. Deitrick would haved preferred he didn't. Speaking of which, a Zion team was being hosted by Sand Ridge. It was an intersting experience for them, so interesting Dustin just had to video tape it to show us all. Sand Ridge's trophies were nicely cased on display and the brackets they championed wallpapered the room. While it kind of upset me, I wasn't upset for too long as God reminded me, "Oh come on, Graham, you would do that too if you won that much and the Deitricks allowed you." It was true.

We arrived at Archibold High School just before the morning announcements. It was hard finding 8 seats in a row, but we did and sat down. Around 8:45 a.m., Northwest Ohio cordinator Gerald Schoenhals got behind a microphone to explain how the events of the day were going to go down. So let me take this time to explain to you how the tournament worked...

The tournament was centered around a giant double elimination bracket. All 79 teams (ACC: 52, Northwest Ohio: 12, West Liberty: 7, Wayne County: 6, Virginia: 2) go to the double elimination bracket. To figure out how to appropriately seed teams to like strength, there would be one placement much. Win or lose, you still go to the double elimination, it's just that the win or losee puts you in other winners of losers. The placement match opponent was based off like strength in season the season, which is a week-by-week breakdown of the material. If you lost twice in double elimination bracket, you're out of the main bracket (obviously), but not out of the overall tournament necesarily. Only the top 6 teams of the double elimination bracket were done after losing twice. For the other 73 teams, when they lost twice, the would be put in a smaller single elimination bracket. Now since 2004 we've been use to a smaller single elimination bracket, but there was only one. This year there was five! Teams that lost the 1st round of the loser side of the double elimination bracket went to the Adam & Eve bracket. Teams that lost in the 2nd round went to the Noah & Family bracket. Those that lost 3rd round of the losers half went to the Abraham & Sarah bracket. Those that lost 4th and 5th round Isaac & Rebekah bracket, and the losers in rounds 6 to 8 go to the Jacob & Rachel bracket. Each bracket had 16 teams, except for Jacob & Rachel, which had 10 teams. Since all teams in the same single elimination bracket lost in the same round of the double elimination bracket second chance side, they too are also of like strength. Lose once, and you're officially out of the overall tournament, but win them all (usually 4), then the team wins that bracket championship, with a plaque to remember it by. Now that you know, it will help you understand. Back to announcements...

...Gerald Schoenhals continued with explaining about more of the day's events. He explained how meals would work, open gym policy and about a fun match that would be happening 6 p.m. I got excited thinking about that considering I was in the last fun match two weekends before. At that time, our ACC cordinator Fred walks up to Dave and asks, "Where is Graham? I need him." So I went with Fred just outside the auditorium. There I met with Jeremiah Dunst from Zion 2 and Charleton King from Parkesburg Baptist. Fred explained, "Ok, during the fun match each conference will have their top 4 quizzers up there. We have 3 perfect quizzers, but since Grace Point is not here, neither is Joel Delinger, so we only have 2 perfect quizzers. That leaves 2 open spaces. There are 3 quizzers tied for 4th place. We need to figure out which 2 of you will fill the two open spaces. We were thinking about doing it by the least amount of errors, but that might be unfair to Graham..." on which I chimed in and said, "Hey! I only had 8 errors all season." Fred continued, "The only way we figured it would be fair is for it to be pull names." So my fate in being the fun all-star match was dependant on the lot. So in accordance with Proverbs, which says the lot is in the hands of th Lord, I prayed. The first name drawn was...Charleton. I prayed harder. The second name drawn....was mine! I was going to be in the fun match with the ACC all-stars. This meant a lot to me because it means I was going the represent the best of the ACC. I thanked Jeremiah, who looked slightly disappointed, because this meant so much to me. I guess at this point I should also thank Joel Delinger. By not being there, there was a better oppurtunity for me to be in the fun match. I got back into the auditorium for the tail end of th announcements. We were off to find our room for our match.

We found our room with minutes to spare. The staff was already there. Shortly after, our opponent, Rivercorner, arrived. And that was it. I don't know if it because we were in another state or because both Spring City and Rivercorner only have one team or just simply because 9 a.m. is too early for fans to wake up and watch quizzing. All that was in the room was the 2 quiz teams, along with their coaches, and the staff. Not a watcher was in sight. It made the room feel very empty. The staff had to follow timing protocol and so we had to sit and wait a couple minutes for 9 a.m. to arrive. So on the dot of of 9:00, we started our match. Maybe it was too early for quizzers as well because both sides made critical mistakes in the match. It made the match close to the end. But when the end came, Spring City won 85 to 75. Like I said, it didn't matter in the sense of making the double elimination bracket. But it was a good start and got us motivated into a winning mood.

Our next match wasn't until 10:20 a.m. So with about an hour until our next match, I got the chance to be an observer. First, I watched Ridgeview 2 vs. Virginia 2 because the winner would be quizzing against us. I saw Virginia 2 win and knew what to expect. Then I went to wait in the room we would quiz next in. I scorekept the match and took my 5-hour energy shot. Now I was ready for for my next quiz match.

Our opponent was Virginia. Once again, despite everyone being there early, we had to wait for 10:20, the official starting time. This gave us time talk with virginia 2. Here's their story: instead of sending whole teams over, they sent whichever quizzers could go over, and put them in a team. Virginia had enough quizzers in Ohio for two teams. We were quizzing against the 2nd team. These quizzers came from different churches. It would be itneresting to see how a newly assembled team chemistry would work. Apparently not well enough. I was able to quiz out. The points I scored is what separated us from them. Spring City won 95 to 65. Spring Cit was advancing in the winners side of the double elimination bracker for another round.

Once again, there was 2 matches between our last match and our next match. The first match I saw was Petra 3 vs. Ridgeview 1 because their opponent would be our next opponent. I scorekept and watch Petra 3 carefully. I could see why the finished 2nd place in our ACC season because they took control of that match. They won, making them our next opponent. Now I had promised my Ohio friend Jessi that I would watch her team quiz, and she wanted some teammates to meet me, so I found a match Chestnut Ridge was in. Things had been pretty rough for Chestnut Ridge. They had lost their first two matches: the placement match and their first match in the double elimination bracket. It was only 11:00 a.m., and they were already in the second chance half of the double elimination bracket. Quizzing an ACC team, there wasn't many fans there watching, so I decided to make the loudest noises, cheering widly. Everyone noticed. Unfortuneatly, my cheering wasn't good enough to give Chestnut Ridge the win. They lost, moving them out of the double elimination bracket and into the Adam & Eve. They would be with 15 other teams that lost the first 2 double elimination bracket matches.

Just before lunch, Spring City had a match. We were up against Petra 3, 2nd place team in the ACC season and a semifinal team in the ACC Tournament. Having quizzed against Petra 2 in the season and Petra 1 in the ACC Tournament, Petra 3 was the third Petra team we quizeed against this year. The last time we quizzed Petra 3 was the exciting match in the 2008 ACC Tournament that went to a sudden death overtime question, which rookie Robert won us the match with a buzz in. Despite a different coach and quizzers, they still were as tough as ever. Tim and I led by quizzing out, but that was the most we could do. Petra 3 was firing on all cylinders, but we were able to hold them back a bit, too. After 15 questions...we were tied. I turned to my coaches and said, "This is feeling very familiar." With Tim and I quizzing out, Spring City had to depend on the the rest of its team, without its top 2 quizzers. But this year things seemed better than the last time. Last time we had 2 rookies. This time everyone up there had at least one year experience. It's funny how things work. Even though we had more experience, we were not able to perform as well. Spring City had been suffering from brain farts all match, but we were hit the hardest in overtime. Petra 3 took control and we lost in overtime with the final score Petra 3: 100, Spring City: 90. We were moving to the second chance end of the double elimination bracket. We were going to quiz against Longenecker at 1:20 p.m.

A little bummed out from the loss, we all decided to go to lunch. Now Archibold had all grades k to 12 on one campus. The high school was is one building and the rest was in another building. The high school building was where all the quizzing was happening. The cafeteria was in the other building. So all the teams had to take a walk outside to go to lunch. Luckily it wasn't too cold outside. The sign to the cafeteria said "Tasty food here" (read Genesis 27 if you don't get the joke here). We got in line just when it was early enough to still be short. It only took a few minutes to get longer. Lunch most consisted of meats like sloppy joe and ham, and gave very little options for vegetarians like Chelsea :-P . I had the brilliant of idea of making meat burritos: wrapping my sloppy joe in a ham wrap. It was so greasy that I had to use a fork. I finished lunch early, and with an hour time block with no quizzing reseved for lunch, I had time to go update my personal bracket with the larger one. There I met up with some of Slate Hill 1 and found out how they were doing. They were still in the winners side of the bracket, winning all 3 matches they had in the winners bracket, despite losing the placement match to Sand Ridge. I had noticed they quizzed against Longenecker and asked how they were. While Slate Hill 1 won the match, they said Longenecker gave them a run for their money. I knew were going to be facing a tough team, as they historically are.

Matches began again at 1:00 p.m. and with our match at 1:20, I had time to watch a match. I found my Ohio friends at Chestnut Ridge were quizzing their first match in the Adam & Eve bracket, so I went to that. It was Chestnut Ridge vs. Poplar Ridge. Both were Ohio teams, both teams wore purple team shirts, and both teams had yet to win their first match of the day. Once again, I assumed the role of the loud one, cheering for the purple team (joke because they were both wearing purple. I wanted to cheer for my friends on Chestnut Ridge, but with Poplar Ridge being so small and being winless, I didn't want to sound like I was against them either). My cheering helped Chestnut Ridge this time, as they won the match. I was happy to see my Ohio friends win their match, but I also kind of felt bad for Poplar Ridge because they were out of the tournament, quizzing only four matches, and not winning a single one.

I arrived at the classroom where I match would be a few minutes early. There was a match still going on in the classroom, and so I waited outside. One by one my teammates appeared and waited...well, all but Mike. Where was Mike? Well, he had a little accident. While I got done lunch and went to see quizmatches, many of my teammates went to go playground to play. Just like the day before, Alyssa was sitting on the playground's merry-go-round, and Mike was pushing her with all his strength. And somehow Mike's ratty pants caught onto the merry-go-round and ripped a giant in them. Of course it had to be at the worse possible place: the crotch area. So with packaging tape and a lot of paper towels, a make-shift patch for the hole. This is a very typical Mike-esque way for him to end his career. lol.

Now it was time for our match. Like I said, our opponents were Longenecker. This would be the only Ohio team we quizzed all tournament. We quizzed against Longenecker last year. In that match, we lost to them, putting us in the losers bracket. Longnecker was 2nd in Wayne County. They have a history of doing well in the Invitational. I've had a history with Longenecker. Longnecker dates back to my first Ohio Tournament back when I was still quizzing for Ark Bible. It was because of them we didn't make the playoffs (that was back when there was a round robin, and only 32 teams made a double elimination playoffs). So it was fitting that in my last tournament and last year I was facing them again. I, of course, sat across from their number one quizzer. Just like Slate Hill 1 said, Longenecker gave us a run for our money. We could not keep up with Longenecker. It was so bad even I couldn't compete with them. Every time I knew it, they buzzed in faster. When I was able to get it, I errored. In frustration, I made a kamakaze buzz in on question 15, errored my third time, erroring out. Spring City lost 60 to 95. With a one-two hit, Spring City had fallen out of the double-elimination bracket due to 2 consecutive losses. Since we lost in the 3rd round fo the double elimination second chance bracket, Spring City was moving onto the Abraham & Sarah single elimination bracket.

I had time before our next match, so I went to watch an interesting match I found on the winners side of the double elimination bracket. Somehow Bowmansville 1 and Bowmansville 2 had found themselves facing each other in the winners side of the double elimination bracket. The coaches wanted to make this the ultimate grudge match, so they sat brothers across from each other! I cheered for both teams with my generic yell of "Go Bowmansville!" Every time I watch one of these matches, I can't help but wonder, "How many times have these two teams gone up against each other in practice, laughing and having fun, now having to come together for a serious match, which will decide the fate of both teams?" The winners of the inner-church grudge match was the ACC Tournament champion Bowmansville 1. With still some time to spare, I watched my Ohio friends Chestnut Ridge play their second match in the Adam & Eve bracket. Their opponents were Virginia 1, the opposite Viriginia team to the one we quizzed. Chestnut Ridge won the match and advanced their bracket. After a 3-match losing streak, Chestnut Ridge was now on a 2-match winning streak. Now it was time for Spring City's match.

As I said, Spring City was in the Abraham & Sarah bracket. This was a single elimination bracket. One loss and we were done. There were 16 teams in this bracket; all of them lost in the 3rd round of the double elimination second chance bracket. I remember telling my team earlier "If we make it onto one of these brackets, we better go all the way." I had no intention of losing, but going on a 4-match winning streak to win the bracket championship. Our first opponent was Maple Grove 1. This was not the same Maple Grove 1 of history that won championships. This was a weaker one. Because the church was celebrating its 100 year anniversary, back when it was a much plainer church, the quiz team wore plain jackets. That match was a total turn around from the previous one. I went from erroring out to quizzing. Two of my other teammates also quizzed out. We also added team bonus to it. Maple Grove 1 wasn't doing too hot. They had errored enough that they were losing points. In the end, Spring City won 135 to 5. Maple Grove 1 was done their tournament, but Spring City was still going.

Winning meant we had a consecutive match. We had to hurry to the next room for our next match. Our opponent was Forest Hills. We had quizzed Forest Hills during the 6th week of the season. We won 100 to 30, with both Robert and I quizzing out. That much was a serious turning point in our season. Now we needed a win to get us more seriously into the bracket. Although we took a fairly sizable lead, the match was close. I errored just as much as I got right. On one I errored on naming the 10 people's land God would give Abraham. It was embarassing because I had already said it one or two matches, but because I said Amonnmites instead of Amorites, I was wrong. I did manage to quiz out. It scared because I thought I was going to error out again. By question 14, we were winning 80-50. Forest Hills was one away from team bonus. If they got team bonus on question 15, we'd be in a tied and need to go to extra questions again. But alas they were unable. We did win 80 to 50. Spring City advanced. I was scared a lot of the match, thinking this could be our last, but I had a laugh moment midway through. Part way into the match, a loud engine drove by. Mike's head perked up like Pavlov's dog when he heard the sound. He wanted to go run out and see what it was. So Mike.

There was only a short break between our matches, so I the time to update my bracket. I was please to see that Chestnut Ridge had continued onto a 3-match winning streak and made it to the final match of the Adam & Eve bracket. Speaking of Chestnut Ridge, I met up at the brackets with Erica, one of the quizzers on the team. She was quite the interesting character. We talked about quizzing. She threatened to slap me for saying all Ohio teams were the same to us in Pennsylvania. lol. I didn't have a lot of time to talk or fill out my bracket, as my team's next match was soon.


We were in the semifinal of the Abraham & Sarah bracket; we were with 3 other teams. By now the weaker teams that lost in the double elimination's third round were out and only the stronger remained. By now, it was dominant of ACC teams. In the music room, our opponent was Hinkletown 1. I remember quizzing them in the 7th week of the season. We won that much, but not as much as we wanted. But for this tournament all that mattered was winning. Well, we couldn't even do that. I was able to quiz, and it was a late one, too, but that was the highlight. I really felt helpless there. Yes, I scored my maximum of 35 points, but after that, I could do no more. I just had to sit and watch. Things didn't get better. Spring City kept erroring. We collected five errors and lost 5 points. By question 13, I knew the team wasn't going to recover from this match. It was painful to see everything come to an end and it was out of my control. At the end of question 14, I yelled out, "LONG LIVE THE FLAMING AMISH!" in honor and gratitude of my past 5 years with Spring City. I hope it also showed a thankfulness to teammates for making a great team. Question 15 passed, and that ended. Spring City lost and was out of the Invitational tournament.

So just like that it was over. With that, I closed my Invitational tournament, my quizzing year, and my quizzzing career. After 8 years of seasons, ACC Tournaments, and Invitationals, after 256 quizmatches, it was all over. There was no "try again next year" because next year I could not return as a quizzer. I had to accept all I have done just the way it was, realizing that I could not try to beat it. That was it; I was done for.

A little bummed out about my career as a quizzer coming to an end, I moved over to the auditorium to watch the final matches of the Noah & Family bracket and Abraham & Sarah bracket. Entering the room, I ran into Chestnut Ridge. They had just won the final match of the Adam & Eve bracket. So after a 3-match losing streak, they went on a 4-match winning streak to become the champions of the Adam & Eve bracket. I tried my best to congratulate them, still a little down about my ending quizzer career. I took my seat in the auditorium and waited for the matches. While waiting, Jessi and I exchanged phone numbers and talked. The match was between two West Liberty teams: Grace Chapel and Calvary 3 (not the Calvary we knew). Grace Chapel took their seats...but Calvary 3 didn't...and the quizmatch started. In fact, I noticed that the quizzers on Calvary 3 didn't sit down until they had gotten a buzz in right that went towards team bonus. I can't say exactly why. Some have suggested it's a way to "encourage" the quizzers to get that buzz in right for team bonus. Others thought it was an easy way to keep track of what was needed for team bonus. Tim thought he heard that when West Liberty quizzed their season, that was the official rule: you didn't sit down until you got a buzz in correctly. Maybe Calvary continued to follow the rule through the invitational. Whatever the reason, it was totally different to me. As the match progressed, one by one the Calvary quizzers would sit down as they buzzed in and got it right. By the end of the match, 3 were sitting, but one remained standing. Standing didn't give Calvary the advantage because Grace Chapel won and became the champions of the Noah and Family bracket.

The next match was the championship of the Abraham & Sarah bracket. If we would have won just one more match, we would be quizzing in this one. I knew the one team was going to be Hinkletown 1. Then I saw the second team enter the auditorium: Petra 1. I thought this would have been an interesting match if we would have quizzed this match against them because we quizzed them just 6 days earlier for 1st place of our ACC Tournament group. It was good to see 2 ACC teams make the final match of this bracket, so I really didn't care who the winner was. The winner turned out to be Petra 1. I continued to sit in the auditorium for a match between Petra 3 and E-Town 1 on the winners side of the double elimination bracket. E-Town 1 won that match. During that match, Mr. Deitrick found me to give me my meal ticket. With my meal ticket in hand, I went to dinner.

This dinner was more friendly than to vegetarians like Chelsea this time. The main course was speghetti, with a choice between tomato sauce and chesse sauce. I loaded my with cheese sauce. A side salad and cake for dessert. I had dinner with Robert and his godparents. His godparents live in Ohio and came to see us quiz. Unfortunately, they had got to Archibold right after our lost to Hinkletown 1. We got talking about quizzing and has it goes down. After dinner, I went to the giant brackets to update mine. Then I went to the auditorium.

For I was on, for one last match. Would I consider this my last match? Yes and no. I don't consider this a match because it was a fun match which had no effect on my personal standings or my team's standings. So it wasn't "real" in that sense. But I was actually quizzing with quizzers from other teams, and I wanted to do my best, especially after my last fun match performance. It has been my goal to quiz out in a fun match. I just enjoyed the fact that I was quizzing because I don't know if/when I'll be in this position ever again. The ACC team consisted of perfect quizzers Luisa Miller (Slate Hill 1) and Jordan Kenner (E-Town 1) and one-short quizzers Charleton King (Parkesburg) and myself (Spring City, lol). On Wayne County's team I noticed Naomi Eberly (Chestnut Ridge) and Michelle Raber (Longenecker), since I sat across from her in my match against Longenecker. On West Liberty's team was our the brother and sister Landon Stapleton (Crossway) and Lauren Stapleton (Calvary 2). On Northwest Ohio's all-star team had quizzers from Lockport 1 and Sand Ridge - their top 2 teams. Man, it was crazy fast. I was a little bit frustrated because I couldn't get in. But I was pumped and ready to go. Finally, I heard the quizmaster announce, "This question is a sitation question" and I knew it was coming to me. I heard, "Give..." and I went for the early buzz...but I didn't get it. But because I was the 2nd fastest to buzz in, the bonus would go towards me. Whether the person did not hear correctly, or enough, or just didn't know the answer, he errored. The bonus came to me, "Give me children or else I die." I knew this from erroring on it in the last fun match I was in. I answered confidently "Rachel to Jacob" and got my first points on a fun match. The questions continued. Luisa quizzed out for us, which was a big help. Later on, the quizmaster said, "This next question will also be a situation question." After getting the first one, I wanted the second one. I went for it, buzzing in, and I got in! I knew it from the little that I heard. I confidently gave the quizmaster, and he said I was right! Jeremiah and I figured out after the match that was only 1 of 4 correct buzz ins. On question 15, I had still not gotten in, so I went kamakaze but didn't get in. In the end, the winner was the ACC, scoring 65 points. While I didn't quiz out, I was satisfied with the results. It was a complete turn around from the last match.

At 6:30 the matches continued as usual. So I continued as usual to watch the championship matches of the single elimination brackets. The next one was the Isaac & Rebekah bracket. My friends from Zion 1. They were up against Petra 5. Ironically, the opponenet Petra 5 beat to get into this final match was Zion 2. It would have been interesting if Petra 5 would have suffered the loss. It would have been the 2 Zion teams in a match for the championship. But it was Petra 5 vs. Zion 1. Zion 1 fought there hardest, but it was no match for them. Petra 5 beat the 2 Zion teams consecutively to take the Isaac & Rebekah championship. This is the 2nd single elimination bracket a Petra team had taken.

With the next single bracket championship match not happening for another 40 minutes, I had the choice between watching its semifinal match or watching a match in the second chance side of the double elimination bracket. I chose the latter because it was an intersting match. It was Sand Ridge vs. Slate Hill 1. The best way to describe why is to say that Slate Hill 1 is pretty much the ACC version of Sand Ridge. Now they did quiz against each other in the placement bracket, and Sand Ridge won, but I wasn't able to see it because Spring City was quizzing at the same time. Now I was able to see that match, and with more on the line this time, I was going to see a good match. And it was a good match. But as close as Slate Hill 1 is like Sand Ridge in the ACC, they simply weren't Sand Ridge. Sand Ridge did win the match. And at the point Slate Hill 1 was in the double elimination bracket, there was no single elimination bracket for them to go to. They were done.

Now it was time for the last single elimination championship. In the Jacob & Rachel bracket, it was Goods 1 (ACC) vs. Orville (Wayne County). This was the first single elimination final match that the final 2 teams were from 2 different quizzing conferences. It was a tough match for Goods 1, considering Orville was the top team of Wayne County. Yet the winner was not Orville, but rather Goods 1. Orrville did put up a tough fight, but the victorious team was Goods 1. This meant that the ACC would take 3 of the single elimination plaques.

All the single elimination brackets were now done and dealt with, and back on the double elimination bracket, 4 teams remained. The only team left on the winner's side was Northwest Ohio's Lockport 1. The final match of the night would take 1 more team out of the picture. It was Petra 3 (ACC) vs. Sand Ridge (NW). Yes, this was the same team that we lost to and sent us to the second chance side of the bracket. It was an exciting match with one of the top teams of the ACC facing one of the top teams of Northwest Ohio. Yet Sand Ridge continued their march to the final match, beating Petra 3. So the quizzing night came to an end with 3 teams left: Lockport 1 (NW), Sand Ridge (NW), and E-Town 1 (ACC).

We had a problem trying to get everyone back together on my team. Since we fell out of the tournament, we had been scattered. Last time we saw Tim, Cait was yelling at him. So for all we knew, he was dead in a ditch. lol. The Mullin girls and Mike were in and out of the gym, so we had to find if they were in or out. Robert was becoming very antasy beceause of this, so antsy he was becoming hyper. It was really weird. I had never seen Robert this hyper, and neither had Alyssa. It was so weird to her, she didn't want to do anything with Robert. When we got back, the host couple had another impressive layout of food out for us. Exhausted from the day, we all plopped in front of the television to watch the divisional finals of Ohio High School basketball (apparently it's very big in Ohio). I took out old brackets and compared them to this year to see how we did. We also took the oppurtunity to look at old pictures. Most of us were tired and just went to bed. I stayed up for the whole game, and in the mean time changed my mp3 player from text to music, and also had a conversation with Alyssa. Then I too went to bed.

SUNDAY:
This morning we didn't have to get as early because the matches were later, and we weren't in any of them. I always wondered what it would be like to have to study on Saturday night and quickly review on Sunday morning during the Invitational. Yet we had to get up early enough because not only did we have to do the usual morning rituals, but also had to pack up for another long drive home. Still tired, I was slow to get up. Robert thought it would be a good idea to get us up with ice. Tim and Mike didn't receive the idea too well, as they wrestled him to the ground. I did get up with enough time, but barely enough as I was still checking if I had everything as the rest of the team was walking out the door. We loaded all our stuff onto the car, took final pictures, thanked our hosts, and left for the school.

When we got to Archibold High School, we went straight to the cafeteria. Still, it was very full. I was surprised that they opened only one side of the bleachers and not both sides of the gymnasium. The events were split into 3 parts: worship, the speaker, and the quizzing. The worship was lead by a group from Bluffton University. I thought I saw them come in the day before. They were pretty good.

There were two definite matches on Sunday, with a third pending. The first match would determine what team got to play Lockport 1 in the final. The losing team would have to accept 3rd place. Both teams had a good history in the Invitational. E-Town 3 had placed 3rd in the Invitational in 2006 and 2007. Sand Ridge had taken the championship for the past 3 consecutive years. The fans were divided by conference. One would have thought that everyone would cheer for E-Town 3 because they didn't want to see Sand Ridge win yet another Invitational championship. But it was not so. All of the Northwest Ohio quiz teams wanted to see both teams in the final match from their conference. So all of Northwest Ohio cheered for Sand Ridge. But this was not a Ohio thing. A lot of teams from Wayne County and West Liberty cheered for E-Town 3. E-Town 3's perfect quizzer Jordan Keener struggled to quiz out, but did, and Sand Ridge's top quizzer Whitney Stamm. After 15 questions, Sand Ridge won and was going to the Invitational Double Elimination bracket final match for the fourth consecutive year. E-Town 3 would finished 3rd place in the Invitational for the 3rd time in the past 4 years.

So the final match was Lockport 1 vs. Sand Ridge. Now with both teams from Northwest Ohio in the final match, all Northwest Ohio teams joined the rest of the quizzing teams in cheering for Lockport 1. Despite the final match having both teams from the same conference, the host conference, it was still a good match because these were the top 2 teams from Northwest Ohio. Both teams were jumpy in the match. The only problem was that Lockport 1 was jumpy too early in the question. They were getting a lot of errors. In fact, they had 5 errors. A few of us we worried Lockport 1 was trying the same error strategy Longenecker tried against Sand Ridge in 2007. The errors did hurt as not only did Lockport 1 lose 5 points, but Sand Ridge was easily picking them up. Sand Ridge themselves only errored twice. Sand Ridge won, 100 to 60. This was Lockport 1's first loss in the whole tournament, including the placement match. But since this was Lockport 1's first loss in a double elimination bracket, Lockport 1 could not be out of it. So there had to be another match between the same two teams. This one would decide the champion. With another match coming, this would be the 3rd time they would be facing each other in the tournament. With the series between the teams tied 1-1, it could be anyone's match.

With teams switching sides, the match was ready. Sand Ridge took a lead, and some of us were worried that Sand Ridge would win a 4th consecutive time. Mr. Deitrick was even afraid that people would start booing if this was so. But this match was about to take a turn, as Lockport started catching up. This match was so much closer than compared to the last one. Not only was it close in points, but it was also close in errors. Lockport 1 received 4 errors, and Sand Ridge got 6 errors, causing them to lose 10 points. With them losing those points, and Lockport 1 gaining points from their bonuses, it may have ben what cost Sand Ridge the match and the championship. After the quizzer answered, "Its belly" to answer correctly the last question "On what will the serpent crawl?" the match was over, and Lockport 1 was the victorius team, winning 65 to 50. So let me pause and take this time write the finals results...

DOUBLE ELIMINATION BRACKET

1st place: Lockport 1 (Northwest Ohio)
2nd place: Sand Ridge (Northwest Ohio)
3rd place: E-Town 3 (ACC)
4th place: Petra 3 (ACC) (Not awarded)
5th place: Slate Hill 1 (ACC) & Strasburg 3 (ACC) (Not awarded)

SINGLE ELIMINATION BRACKET CHAMPIONS
Adam & Eve Bracket: Chestnut Ridge (Wayne County)
Noah & Family Bracket: Grace Chapel (West Liberty)
Abraham & Sarah Bracket: Petra 1 (ACC)
Isaac & Rebekah Bracket: Petra 5 (ACC)
Jacob & Rachel Bracket: Goods 1 (ACC)

The speaker did a good job. He was an ex-quizzer who remembered the excitement of being in a quizmatch. He thought it would be fitting to have the message come from the quizing material, so it was right from Genesis 12:1-4, where God calls Abraham. The message focused around on us needing to answer God's call for our lives, and to drown out all excuses and distraction that might be drawing us away from that call. To illustrate this, the Bluffton group did a small skit. Everything ended with a final announcement from the coordinator of Wayne County. I immediately knew this meant that next year's invitional would be held in Kidron, Ohio. Sure enough, I was right. Then the following annoucement was the material for next year: 1 & 2 Corinthians. This would be interesting with all the theology in it.

Everything was now done. Fred directed us back to the busses. They were all lined up outside the front of the building, waiting for us. Of course we didn't immediately get on. We were congratulating the winners, and talking to all our Ohio friends. I got more quizzers to sign my orange shirt. Robert was ready to be done the busy weekend and wanted to go home. He was trying to get the rest of the team on the bus, more than our coaches were. He had also gotten us a seat on the back of the bus, right next to the bathroom. As we were walking to the bus, Robert turns to me and says, "Oh yeah, something about our bus being a boat." Before I could say "what?" I stepped onto the bus and heard "WE'RE ON A BOAT!" from Saturday Night Live's The Lonely Island. If you don't know what I'm talking about - good. Don't go looking for it. Yeah, I heard that all bus ride back home, even up to the end.

Besides that, the bus ride was a good one. All the staff in the ACC decided it would be simpler to have the same bus assignments as we did on they way up than to switch everything around. So once again we were with Living Rock, Timberline and Grace & Truth. Once again, there were many games of Mafia. Players in each game could range between the low teens and low 20s. I seemed to be in the mafia a lot. While we had many good narrators, the actual game play got worse as we went on. Like I said, I was constantly on the mafia. Now, a good mafia works together to get rid of the everyone. Every time I was in the mafia, it seemed like the mafia members just cared about keeping themselves alive in the game. The mafia would vote for their own mafia to execute! It was just bad strategy. I can't stand bad strategy, so after a couple games, I just quit and returned back to my seat in the back. I spent a lot of my time playing Guitar Hero Decades on my DS. Yeah, I know we weren't suppose to, but some of the Living Rock kids in the back were also on their DS or PSP, so I joined on that, too. But the group had other fun too. During rest stops, we tried to see how many people we could fit in a rest room. We needed small people, and Robert was game to do it. The first rest stop we were able to fit 7 people in a restroom. On the second stop, they successfully put in 8, door closed and all. Of course everyone fell out when the door opened.

Speaking of rest stops, the rest stops were pretty much the same as the last time. Our first one was in the same mall area our last stop when driving up, except this time we were on the non-mall side. When we stop there, we saw a lady dressed up like the Statue of Liberty, trying to sell insurance. Always something interesting at this rest stops. I went to Wendy's, for I had an urge for a Baconator. I had lunch with Slate Hill, and Robert rejoined me later. Our second stop was back at Somerset. This would be now the 10th Somerset stop in my quizzing career. If we assume every stop was an hour long, that would mean that I have spent a total of 10 hours of my life in Somerset. Since I had been dragging Robert around a lot this trip, I let Robert choose where we were going to eat. He chose this restaurant across the street where the Deitricks were going. So we had dinner together. I wasn't too much fun at that point. Tired and sad about quizzing ending, I was a little down. The Deitricks noticed this, so Mrs. Deitrick asks, "Graham, is somebody picking on you?" lol. Mrs. D. was always the mother type. Dinner was hurried as they got our plates to us a little before we had to leave. We had to quickly eat and leave.

We got back into Dutch Wonderland's parking lot very late. In fact, we passed Lancaster Bible College. I was so close to my dorm, which I had to return to on the Monday following. When we got into Dutch Wonderland's parking lot, everyone stormed off to get their luggage. The tired adult coaches just wanted to get home, but a lot of the quizzers, knowing this is the end, made sure they said goodbye to everyone. I made sure I made my goodbyes, as I knew I was sucking out the last seconds of being considered a quizzer. Tim and Mike went back to Tim's place, while the Deitricks loaded us back into church van to drop the Mullins off at their house, then bring Robert and I back to their place. While exhausted, we still talked about our wonderful Ohio experience. Both Robert and I would leave the Deitricks the next morning.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Not to good into too much analysis and reflection, I'm still thinking about the Invitational. While writing this and trying to remember everything, I was looking through text messages, pictures, and the brackets. Comparing past bracket to this bracket, statistically, this has been Spring City's 2nd worse Invitational performance, the worse being in 2006 in Wayne County. In both we fell out of the double elimination tournament in back-to-back losses, but this year we had a slot in a single elimination bracket, which gave us 3 more matches. We quizzed a total of 7 matches, and the win-loss record was 4-3. I can't say that that it wasn't our fault, but I can't say that it was totally our fault either. We did suffer from brain farts, and arguably, if we didn't, we could have done better. But I don't feel the same disappointment as I did in 2006. Why is this? I think there is 2 main reasons. First, it was the people I was with. I was 2 quizzers who were new to the Ohio experience and seeking the fun in it, and I was with the 3 people who I have quizzed the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (tied) longest with. This was a great bunch of quizzers, with great coaches, which them themselves made the trip worth it. The second reason, I believe, is that with my quizzing career coming to an end, I observed the tournamet not by how well were doing or how much we were winning and advancing, but just enjoying quizzing for what it is. Enjoying the match for every question, every buzz in, every bonus and every point. Enjoying the thrill of it all. I made sure my last quizzing experience would be a memorable one, even without winning the whole thing. Mission accomplished. Great year, Spring City!