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State is under a month away!! There is so much to do and so very little time to do it! 27 days!!!!!

So, Storm the Castle is going to be held in the armoury. I'm not so sure that they have the approprite size gym to accomidate such an event. I've personally never been there, but do they have about a 35 meter gym with a 40 or so foot celing?

State is in 10 days! Maybe I start a little poll: How much work do you have to do still?
I, for example, still have to practice the Nernst Equation for chemistry and its application, and a bit of optics.
What about you?
And are you excited to go to state?

I know that nobody cheers for Goliath, but it's really not cool to suggest that IU Bloomington is somehow NOT neutral ground. I would point out that only about half of the state tournaments have been held in Bloomington since the Bloomington High Schools have been taking state championships. The last tournament held by Purdue Calumet was won by Bloomington HS North. As an event coordinator at Bloomington my heart sank a bit when I read that post. Also a lot of the event coordinators - including myself - are actually the same people because they travel to state. The last time Purdue Calumet had the state tournament I judged an event there even though I'm from Bloomington.

Another odd rumor that seems to prevail is that the Bloomington schools are larger than Northridge and other strong SO programs, but Bloomington North is has approximately the same enrollment (close enough that it switches which school has more students from year to year) and South has only a few hundred more students. Valpo and Carmel absolutely DWARF these schools. If you want to get excited for the little guy cheer for Whiting HS - if I'm not mistaken they're something like 250 students when most of the big name schools are 1000+ students.

Also Northridge should hardly be viewed as a dark-horse as they've defeated Bloomington North in direct competition at an invite. North got both 4th and 5th so I can't speak for how their team was structured but I think it would be foolish to assume that Bloomington North/Bloomington South will be 1/2. You can never count 'em out because those programs are outstanding, but at the very least Northridge should also be viewed as a likely contender for those precious national seeds.

State's tomorrow! (Shoots self, revives, goes to practice)

Good luck at states tomorrow everyone!

Wow! What an exciting competition. Great job all teams!

Anyway, I think special congratulations go to Northridge for winning the state title in the C division!

Also, congratulations to TJ for winning the B division!

I know this might sound a bit bold coming from Northridge but yesterday was so crazy!!!! During the awards I honestly felt like anyone could have gone! I feel Whiting deserves a special shout out. They definitely came out of nowhere, worked hard and did an amazing job taking third place!
The competition as a whole I'm not going to pretend was perfect, we for sure felt as if a few events could definitely have been run better, but I'm sure everyone felt that way. Overall an exciting, nail-biting day and I know us and Bloomington South are going to do our best at nationals to make Indiana proud! Thanks everyone for the great season so far

I'd also like to congratulate Northridge and point out that (as a coach from Bloomington South) Northridge is clearly having a PINNACLE year (or perhaps the first year of a many-year-pinnacle) as evidenced by impressive scores at prior competitions and a really aggressive invitational schedule.

When I had complaints about how the tournament was run I found myself commiserating with the Northridge folks who seemed to have almost exactly the same complaints, which leads me to conclude that home court advantage was NOT a key element in play here. Northridge is just flat out super awesome this year.

Of course, my students are ridiculously awesome, too. Y'all better bring it for Nationals!

peoneill wrote:I'd also like to congratulate Northridge and point out that (as a coach from Bloomington South) Northridge is clearly having a PINNACLE year (or perhaps the first year of a many-year-pinnacle) as evidenced by impressive scores at prior competitions and a really aggressive invitational schedule.

When I had complaints about how the tournament was run I found myself commiserating with the Northridge folks who seemed to have almost exactly the same complaints, which leads me to conclude that home court advantage was NOT a key element in play here. Northridge is just flat out super awesome this year.

Of course, my students are ridiculously awesome, too. Y'all better bring it for Nationals!

It's nice to know that we can all agree on some of the 'janky-ness' of the competition (that's how our coach elequently put it lol).
Thank you for the kind words but the real credit goes to this year's seniors. There may only be three of them but they have worked their butts off all year and kept us motivated! I can't wait for nationals and I think it's time BOTH Indiana teams take it to the next level!! Top Ten Baby!!!!