Background: Comments were made during a random flame war that Andy seems to stumble into from time to time. A member of the George Washington team stated that what he perceived as the unilateral attack was unnecessary, and as part of it described Andy as having resurrected a program "in the middle of the Quiz Bowl desert." As humorous as this was to us (we are considering calling our college tournaments Buzzer Oasis Championships in honor of the quote), Bryce felt the need to set things straight. So read on. You might learn something. We did.

I have been somewhat amused by the public perception of the state of QB at Duke and in North Carolina in general. This is an effort to:

1) drum up support for our efforts to revive and reinvigorate a "moribund" state of affairs here in the Triangle; and

2) give an inside perspective from someone other than my esteemed colleague from Virginia Mr. Goss.

I hate long posts, and I seem to have run on and on, so I have inserted section headers so you can skip around.

I. The future of QB in the Triangle

Having spent my undergraduate years at BYU (which qualifies as the US school most in the "desert" in my opinion -- you can't find another active program within an 11-12 hour drive from Provo), I always envied folks in the Boston and DC areas, and even the Bay area, with concentrations of active programs running tournaments. The Triangle seemed like it was on the verge of becoming the same way (Wake, Duke, UNC, NC State are all within 90 minutes of each other), but the timing has not been there, with all four programs losing energy all at the same time. I believe that the best thing for a QB program is other strong programs close by.

**** A request for assistance ****

Can anyone suggest models for cooperative development? What kinds of communication take place in Boston/DC and other "chunky" areas? As for our ideas, we're planning on running a college tournament sometime next year, and would be willing to help get tournaments running at other local schools. If you're listening and in this area, please get in touch with us so we can at least open lines of communication.

II. Recent history of QB at Duke

**** Andy Goss is NOT the only one here doing any work ****

Someone (I can't remember who, sorry) recently credited Andy Goss with heroically and single-handedly restoring a major college QB program in his freshman year. While his contributions have been indeed valuable (actually, invaluable), he is by no means the only, or even the most important, figure in keeping this program alive. He is, as most of you have noticed, the **most vocal**.

**** Wasn't Gourab at Duke? Whatever happened to him?****

When I arrived here at Duke in 1996 from BYU, I found a small but promising program led by the legendary Gourab Bhattacharjee, formerly of Vandy. (He's still here. In fact, I'm going to meet him today for lunch). The undergraduate ranks were thin, however, and the active UGs were all seniors. In 1997, the seniors all graduated without providing any replacement leadership, Gourab decided to retire, NC State and UNC's tournaments died, and we failed to run a HS tournament, and thus failed to generate any revenue. I didn't have enough energy to try to get things going again, but I stuck around long enough to recruit some undergraduates that year who would.

**** What every program needs to stay alive ****

Tennyson Liu, who now acts as club president, came out of this group, and it is largely through his efforts that things are starting to pick back up here. If there is anyone out there (and I know there is -- I've seen your posts) who needs ideas on how to get funding, recruit new people, get people excited, etc., get in touch with me, and I can get you in touch with Tennyson. He doesn't think in terms of QB so much as campus politics and undergraduate life, which is what you really need in order to keep a program running. He's also an RA, and doesn't have much time off for travel, so you probably won't see him around.

****The future at Duke****

Through Tennyson's efforts, recruiting this year went quite well. We were lucky to find Andy Goss and a solid nucleus of young undergraduates who have the desire and energy to keep this thing rolling. I have just left my graduate program in English here, but am re-enrolling in the CS department, so I have another 5 years to look forward to at Duke, and now that I'm not faced with the burden of running a program on my own, I am planning to become a little more active. The combination of Tennyson's leadership, Andy's energy, and my experience will hopefully lead to a revival of QB at Duke and in the Triangle area over the next couple of years.

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