Team Illinois 2001

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We had planned to return to the Waffle House for breakfast, but there was a line we could not deal with because we were running late. So we had to break our don't-eat-at-the-same-place-twice rule and go back to Big Boy (wearing our Waffle House buttons, of course). They seated us immediately at back-to-back tables for 4 (there was this cool removable divider that made it a big table for 8) and the service was great. Jim ordered coffee and they brought it with a tall glass of ice water. A moment later, the waiter returned with a second glass of ice water and placed it in front of Jim. We didn't think much of that until, after Jim had finished about half the first glass of ice water, the waiter promptly brought him a THIRD glass of ice water. At this point I challenged Jim: When the waiter brought the food, and asked if anyone needed anything, could Jim ask for another glass of ice water without laughing? Jim was confident he could pull it off ... but in fact, wasn't able to. The rest of our breakfast was uneventful, but tasty.

When we arrived at the competition building, the parking lot that had been nearly empty on Saturday was nearly full -- probably 2000 cars. Turns out, they were having R.O.T.C graduation. We wanted to stay to see them shoot off the old-fashioned cannon, but we would have missed our matches.

As an exhibition team, we were scheduled into the consolation matches, made up of 8 other teams that had NOT made the playoffs; one team had in fact left Saturday after their last match. Needless to say, they were not up to our level of competition, and our first two matches were a 430-70 defeat of Rufus King HS from Milwaukee and a 380-65 defeat of the North Olmstead B team from near Cincinnati.

Our third match was a "bye", but we set up our own scrimmage: Team Yogesh vs. The Waffle House Five. Team Yogesh led 120-80 after the first period, but was down 145-165 after two periods. Grabbing three power toss-ups in the final period, Team Yogesh managed to tie the score at 255 going into the last question. The Waffle House Five put on their Thinking Caps and won it, 285-255. Kudos to Yogesh for even agreeing to the match; congratulations for doing so well! Yogesh is truly amazing and we are ALL glad he's on Team Illinois and not one of the other teams we will face next weekend.

It was lunch time, and as we jumped in the van we suddenly found ourselves in a line of 2000 cars -- the 2000 R.O.T.C. Graduates -- trying to leave the campus all at the same time. We were convinced that ALL the restaurants would be filled to overflowing, but to our surprise ALL those cars turned left to get to the Interstate and we pulled into a near-empty Burger King lot. Of course Stephen asked if they had any Free Stuff and he was rewarded with a 3" button that says, "Good things come to those who king size." Unfortunately, they were down to their last couple buttons so the rest of us were out of luck.

Our next match was another blowout -- 365 to 60 against Turpin HS from Ohio. The final "pool play" match was against the North Olmstead A team. The coaches told Team Illinois to play Florida Style -- NO GUESSING. They were NOT to ring in unless they KNEW the answer. This allowed the other team some leeway to hear more of the question being read, and in fact to steal a few we knew. But Team Illinois came through, getting 18 of the 28 toss-up questions in the match correct, with only 2 incorrect, and won the match 440-210.

In the original plan we were told we COULD compete for the Consolation Championship, but the winner of the other "pool" was Solon from Ohio, a team we had defeated soundly on Saturday. The PACE People (reluctantly) asked us if we wanted to give up our berth in the Consolation Championship match, and to their surprise we quickly said "yes". This made two other teams extremely happy: Rufus King, our Neighbors to the North, who advanced from our "pool", and Solon, who suddenly had a chance to play against a "regular" team. The Solon players were in fact ecstatic; they thanked us profusely and wished us luck in Florida next week. In the end, they defeated Rufus King and came by to share their Consolation Winnings with us -- an Official Bowling Green State Universtity Coaster and an It's Academic plastic Flexi-Ruler. (The amount of Free Stuff we have accumulated on this trip is, well, amazing.)

Meanwhile, the two semi-final matches in the Playoffs (the Championship Half of the tournament) had been decided: State College Pennsylvania vs. Detroit Central Catholic; and Detroit Country Day School (which is in Beverly Hills) vs. Georgetown Day School. The two winners would meet to decide the Championship. When we discovered that there was no third-place match scheduled for them, we offered to play the loser of the DCDS vs. GDS game for the Exhibition Championship. Both teams agreed to the offer, but one of them, of course,  had to win their match; Georgetown Country Day did so in a close match and headed off to play the other winner, State College.

In the Exhibition Championship match, Team Illinois led 140-80 after the first period and 250-120 after two periods. Detroit Country Day rallied and outscored us 120-90 in the third period, but our lead held and we won the match 340-240. Again, a good time was had by all and the Michiganders wished us well in Florida. By the way, team that will represent Michigan next week is Dwight David Eisenhower HS, a perennially tough team to beat.

But that's not all, folks ...

As we convened for the Awards Ceremony, the list of eight players who had made the All-Tournament team was read, and Yogesh was among them. The eight were assembled into two teams in the front of the auditorium, and what followed was a Fun Match of entirely NON-ACADEMIC questions. Everyone roared as they were bombarded with questions on movies, TV, and sports -- there was applause when they got them right, and hoots & howls when they missed.

The trophies were FINALLY presented to the winning teams, and we had to feel good knowing that we had taken State College -- the FIVE TIME CHAMPS of this tournament -- to the brink, losing just 405-425 the day before. State College had had another very close match in the Finals, defeating Detroit Central Catholic only by getting the last question correct.

Oh -- Team Illinois was awarded a Big Box of Mega Warheads Sour Ooze Chewz for coming as an Exhibition Team and for doing so well.

We headed out to a place called "The Junction" for dinner but a serendipitous wrong turn placed us squarely in front of Panera Bread which Coach Grierson suggested would be an excellent choice. The food was indeed GREAT, although they were out of the ONE thing that Gary wanted -- a hot Chicken sandwich. Gary -- no worries -- settled for a hot Portabello sandwich. Stephen was in such awe over the food, that he forgot to ask for any Free Stuff.

But that's not all, folks ...

We set up for a Florida-Style match with State College, making three teams, since State College had brought 8 players to Ohio. One of their coaches played with their "B" team. Right before we began, one of the PACE Tournament Organizers, Brian, happened by and joined the State College "A" team.

The matched turned out to be a PERFECT example of how the right strategy will win games in Florida. Team Illinois answered 18 questions correctly, and just 4 incorrectly, for a total of 255 points, winning the match. The Pennsylvania "B" team, with their Coach playing, also gave only 4 wrong answers, but with just 15 right ended up with 210 points. The Pennsylvania "A" team, aided by Brian, rang in 23 times but in doing so gave just 13 right answers and a whopping 10 wrong answers for a total of 115 points.

Brian then read another batch of pop-culture questions to the assembled group, and it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys. State College headed off, wishing us the best in Florida (another team from Pennsylvania will represent that state), and we had our final Team Meeting of the weekend.

The six Illinois All-Stars have come together as a true Team Illinois, and are well-prepared to make us all proud in Florida next week. Please -- don't get sick this week; get LOTS of sleep; remember your Team Illinois Shirt; and come prepared to play YOUR best against the best in the nation.

Tomorrow -- no news. We drive back to Chicago and head to Union Station. Jim gets home about half hour later, David an hour after that. Stephen, Yogesh, and Eric will take the train together and be home early evening. Gary gets the Travel Award for the longest trip, a five hour train to Centralia.

Coach Grierson