Quick reference: There are ten (10) of us that I can think of off the top of my head. In Alpha order, they are:

Andy Goss – Fairfax, VA

Tracy Hresko – Honolulu, HI

Bryce Inouye – Chapel Hill, NC

Tennyson Liu – State College, PA

John Massari – Sayerville, NJ

Mike Nehme – Ocala, FL

Brian Planchard – Shreveport, LA

Lala Qadir – La Plata, MD

Navin Sharma – Irmo, SC

David Shifren – Syosset, NY

SLIGHTLY MORE IN-DEPTH:

It’s appropriate that Andy’s the first person in alphabetical order (and, by extension, the first person listed). He’s also the first person anyone from another team recognizes. Andy is responsible for the majority of posts to the mailing list emanating from Duke, and he also designed and donated space for the web page. As to his play, he’s the person most likely to head off a sports question at the pass, but he has a little more knowledge than just trash. We think.

For a while, we figured Tracy to be the token female on the team. However, in practice she has been much more than that, actually being competitive against Brian and Andy in a free-for-all, much to their surprise. She has shown great interest in the tournament scene, but has also many other commitments. If her calendar ever frees her to play alongside her Duke brethren at a tournament, watch out!

Bryce is widely acknowledged with trying to keep the team intact through its 1997 doldrum year. He is also responsible for recruiting an outstanding class (Class of 2001) to the team, including the leadership duo of Tennyson and Navin. Thankfully, Bryce decided to continue his studies at Duke rather than his local "community college", so we will benefit from his wisdom for a few more years. In addition, Bryce occasionally posts to the mailing list to provide a calmer experienced voice which balances out Andy’s youthful overexcited voice. Oh yeah, he’s also our best player. His 40 ppg before finals at Sectionals would have qualified him as an all-star had such awards been given.

As mentioned in Bryce’s bio, Tennyson is the unsung administrative leader of the team. His focus on decision skills not only make him a good captain, but also allow us to be safe in knowing that he’ll be around to help in any war with the administration that might come up. His duties as RA at Duke preclude him from attending too many tournaments; however, at Penn Bowl, it was largely through his leadership abilities that we even finished as well as we did.

John has the spirit of the game in him. He is always willing to help at practice, and his car on campus has become an invaluable asset to the team. Along with dramatic foil David, he is part of the NYNJA (New York New Jersey Argument) at every practice. Even he admits that his contributions at tournaments have been limited, but with a solid art history base, he can be a lift for a young squad.

Mike’s kind of hard to miss in a crowd. The largest of us in height and stature, his presence is easily detected at practice. His slow, mumbling speech and easygoing tactics are other trademarks. Navin noted early in the year an apparent laziness within him, but was soon proven wrong by Mike’s dedication. Unfortunately, like Tracy, he has had other commitments which have kept him from attending tournaments so far. He’ll be ready, though.

Brian is the resident historian on our team. As Treasurer, he makes sure the bills all get sent to the right locations (and the proper students get reimbursed). The pride of Catto Magnet, he has experience being a one-man show that has proven to be to our benefit. Of course, he and Mike don’t seem to be getting along too well, which leads to hilarious arguments concerning things I really shouldn’t say here. Brian was our leading scorer at Penn Bowl, and would have been at more had his Student Government meetings not kept interfering with practices.

Lala first aided the team at the high school tournament held at Duke. She seemed to like it well enough, and she started coming to a few practices. Since she officially joined the team (at this point, multiple practices late in the year constitutes joining) after all tournaments had occurred, she could not contribute in that fashion. However, she provides a certain friendly aura that the team sorely needs (imagine Andy, Mike, Brian, David, and John as the experienced ones in practice and you’ll see what I mean).

Navin took the right-hand man post to Tennyson’s leadership among undergrads upon arriving to the team. He has been a consistent performer, aiding out on tons of science knowledge and, of course, keeping humor throughout games. His experience at practice of indoctrinating the freshmen to serious play cannot be measured, and his behind-the-scenes work with Tennyson is also invaluable. He’s a better player than stats measure; he often suffers a shadow effect, and contributes more on bonuses than his share of tossups would indicate.

David constitutes the New York half of the NYNJA with John. This can lead to some amount of headache if the two are on the same team, so of course we try to have it happen as often as possible. David definitely has more quirks than any other member of the team, including his need for caffeine and his propensity to run humor into the ground. However, he has proven to be a very strong player on the team, and we definitely would be able to use him on our squad at future adventures. David’s strength generally lies in getting stuff no one else does; in theory, this includes Scriptural history, but as he puts it, "Just because I’m the token Jew doesn’t mean I know this." David has also been the Official Purveyor of Falsified Identification, which works like a charm despite the fact that the picture looks absolutely nothing like him. No, we don't get it either.

Is something wrong with your info? Should we add you? Subtract you? Take your cosine? Email apg@duke.edu and send in the corrections.

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Go to hell Carolina!