Dear Team
Neuqua Valley High School Regional Tournament Results: Impressions & Random Thoughts. What a day! Has it soaked in yet? We’re going to State to compete in the big leagues! (Sorry this is long. Standard code word procedure applies.) Did you notice that after the overall results were announced and people were screaming in shock, one of the Neuqua coaches (MC of the awards ceremony) came over to hug me and congratulate all of you on our first ever trip to State in Div. C while his team, the Regional Champs, were lined up and waiting to take their “We’re going to State photo.” Let that soak in. Throughout the day I overheard about four conversations about our shirts. The funniest one was a mom and daughter walking toward me. By the time our paths crossed the mom was saying, “But what’s a Supreme shirt?” I could almost hear the daughter’s eyes rolling. About the Spirit Award. A few years ago, during our 10-year winning streak, ISO leadership sent a memo to coaches coaching them how to win the Spirit Award. Some suggestions were to dress up in theme costume, decorate homeroom doors or hallway, learn cheer type pep rally group chants, etc. Does this sound familiar? Lyons Township did all of that at this Regional and won the Spirit Award. They even got their coach to do a cheer stomp at the awards table after the votes were counted! With all their colorful effort this is still only the first time they or anybody else has won the Spirit Award at any of our Regionals in over 10 years. When that memo came out, I brought the topic to our students for a vote. Did we want to change our efforts and develop pep rally skills or did we want to continue our commitment to judge and leadership appreciation and use the opportunity to emphasize interpersonal skills? Those students said we’re not about gimmicks. We’re about genuine interactions and respect. So, we started giving out thank you cards with sweets inside as we greeted and thanked our judges. It worked for another three years until our streak ended this weekend. Personally, I am fine with the idea that ISO wants to make the Spirit Award about pep rally behavior as long as we still prioritize our commitment to behavior that exemplifies character and integrity. An evidence of this emphasis is a conversation I had with a new Mission judge at the end of the day. He complimented Ray and Ben on their character saying they listened well to advice and feedback. They were not argumentative and respected the rules being enforced while still appropriately advocating for their positions. When their device mis-fired in a way that Ray didn’t witness, he took the judge’s word for it. The judge said some students would have pushed back rudely at the loss of points. I know EACH of you are demonstrating this type of integrity in each of your events with your judges and everyone else. It is at the core of who we are whether or not we are publicly recognized for it. Why shouldn’t academic teams have the pep rally hoopla that sports teams do? It just may not be our priority. It wouldn’t be the first brick and mortar school tradition that is different in the homeschool community. Even if the stereotype is true that homeschool students do school in their pajamas, we can choose not to wear pajamas to SO tournaments. Team Results. There were 26 Div. C teams competing at our Regional. 13 were varsity and 13 JV. In case you haven’t heard, we ranked 5th among the varsity teams which qualifies us to compete at State. This could not have happened without all of you working together and pulling strong in your individual events. This is a major group win that could only come from a team effort. Below is a list of how all the teams scored with JV interspersed in gray according to where they ranked overall. Realistically there was no doubt the D204 high schools and Lyons Township (LT) would finish ahead of us. In our Region the battle is for 5th place. (Look at the point spread between the #4 team (Waubonsie) ahead of us and our #5 line on the bar graph.) In the past, we have been beaten by St. Charles East (SCE), Hinsdale South (HS), and Oswego East (OE). Oak Park River Forest (OPRF) is unknown but it is a large school with strong academics so I considered them a wild card. As your medals were being announced it was noticeable to me that SCE, HS, OE, and OPRF were not coming in ahead of us very often keeping us in the running for that #5 spot even though D204 and LT were. You may have noticed my nerves at that point. In the end we beat out the 6th place team by a slim 10 points. A nail biter for sure!
(Waubonsie JV2 landed here.)
Individual Results. The 12 of you collected medals in 14 events, the highest number of medals this team has ever earned at Regional. Last year we earned 9 medals and landed in 6th place (16 points behind OE) our then highest finish ever, but records were made to be broken. You can interpret the individual with this key: * Varsity Medal / Event: / names (Varsity Ranking) / (Overall ranking) *2nd Place Wright Stuff: Elijah & Ben M. (2/12 Varsity) (2/20 overall) *3rd Place A&P: Avyi & Sarah (3/12 Varsity) (3/23 overall) *3rd Place Thermodynamics: Ben W. & Sarah (3/13 Varsity) (4/22 overall) *4th Place Disease Detectives: Sarah & John (4/13 Varsity) (7/24 overall) *5th Place Fermi Questions: Jeff & John (5/13 Varsity) (7/23 overall) *5th Place Fossils: Jeff & Amber (5/13 Varsity) (9/22 overall) *5th Place Protein Modelling: Avyi & John (5/13 Varsity) (6/20 overall) *6th Place Boomilever: Ben W. & Jeff (6/13 Varsity) (9/22 overall) *6th Place Chem Lab: Jeff & Avyi (6/13 Varsity) (10/22 overall) *6th Place Dynamic Planet: Avyi & Cody (6/13 Varsity) (8/19 overall) *6th Place Forensics: John & Amber (6/13 Varsity) (8/23 overall) *6th Place Misison Possible: Ray & Ben M. (6/12 Varsity) (8/16 overall) *6th Place Mousetrap Vehicle: Jeff & Ray (6/13 Varsity) (8/18 overall) *6th Place WIDI: Elijah & Avyi (6/13 Varsity) (7/23 overall) 7th Place Designer Genes: Crystal & Sarah (7/13 Varsity) (12/25 overall) 7th Place Geologic Mapping: Ben W. & Ben M. (7/13 Varsity) (10/22 overall) 8th Place Experimental Design: Crystal, Alissa & Ben M. (8/12 Varsity) (14/22 overall) 9th Place Codebusters: Crystal, Elijah, and Ben M. (9/12 Varsity) (16/24 overall) 10th Place Herpetology: Amber & Sarah (10/12 Varsity) (18/22 overall) 10th Place Sounds of Music: Crystal & Cody (10/12 Varsity) (18/20 overall) 10th Place Water Quality: Elijah & Ray (10/13 Varsity) (16/21 overall) 12th Place Circuit Lab: Ray & John (12/13 Varsity) (18/21 overall) 13th Place Astronomy: Cody & Ben W. (13/13 Varsity) (21/21 overall) What’s Next? Thanks to the 12 of you our season is NOT over yet. We have one more tournament to prepare for. When we go to State, we will be competing among other Single A Regionally qualifying teams from all across the state. They should be less of a force than what we saw in D204, LT, the other powerhouse teams we competed against at Lake Central and the Double AA teams at Huntley. I would expect a similar medal count to how we usually do at Regional but it is still State. We need to prepare. Updated Team Calendar. Was e-mailed out yesterday. Please update your family calendars. SciOly Rules Clarifications and F.A.Q.’s. If you haven’t yet, it is absolutely time now to familiarize yourself with the SOinc.org rules clarifications page. https://www.soinc.org/events/rules-clarifications State Level Rules Specifications. Are highlighted on most rules sheets. You must make sure you are operating with State level parameters or you will not be prepared to earn those points. Build events need to check the specs. Academic events need to check the scope of your contents. Don’t miss this. If you need fresh copy of the rules for your events you can download it from our groups.io site here. https://groups.io/g/NaperValleyScienceOlympiadTeam/files/2019%20Events%20Resources Homework. Plan out your work for the remaining 5 weeks. How well you do at State is completely up to you. Some very impressive “State Academic Awards” are waiting there for you to take. But it’s up to you to stretch yourself enough to grab it. Proposita. It still feels weird that for the first time in 7 years I am not writing a final wrap up note because we’re going to State! I’m ok with this change. I hope you are too. It’s 5 weeks away. Do what you need to do. If you need rest, take it now. If you’re rarein’ to go, gidyup! Either way, pace yourselves. Don’t burn out or get frustrated. Make your learning / event development engaging and fun! This is an amazing opportunity. Let’s make the most of it. Blessings, Mrs. Guo
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Brenda G.Enjoying the journey through my kids' childhood as a home educating mom. (And no, I don't have time for a blog but sometimes you just gotta write.) Archives
April 2019
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