May 5th, 2003: Science Bowl!
Well, it came and went -- the 2003 National Science Bowl. I volunteered to help run the event, but that certainly was not independent of the fact that Newton North was competing.
The two Gregs take a break.
The first few days were relaxation, supposedly. As far as the eye could see, there were nerds dressed in their bright orange NSB shirts playing frisbee, basketball, frisbee, and frisbee on the grounds of the National 4H Conference Center.
For some reason the NSB tshirts are always incredibly ugly; I think they make them eye-melting colors so that they can find everyone when it's time to truck them back from the Mall in D.C. (The shirts from my year were bright yellow.) Strangely, even though they let everyone wander around central D.C. for six or seven hours, players would be disqualified if they left the 4H campus otherwise. All in the name of Security, of course. Sigh.
Fast forward to three days later. I have scorekept for six hours and the guys from NNHS have scienced it up for six hours. Overall results were awesome -- between tenth and twelfth in the nation. Of course, had things gone slightly differently, they could have placed even higher, but even twelfth is nothing to sneeze at.
Proof that twelfth is good enough: a check for $1000 for making it into the double elimination rounds (top 18 teams). It technically goes to the high school, from which the Science Team is somewhat, uh, independent, but the money ought to funnel back into the team's funds. From whence it will probably be spent on hookers and crack, knowing these clowns.
Lexington (!)
Archrival Lexington didn't make it out of pool play but did manage to snag a bigass trophy -- the Civility Award. I guess it's kind of hard to have them be your hated enemy when they are so friendly and cooperative...
Presenting the 2003 Newton North Science Bowl Team. What a band of good-looking and well-dressed Asians!
Greg Peterfreund
Yin Shao
Lick-Kong Tam
Hiro Tanaka
Greg Yu
Afterwards, Greg P and I had a lemon-eating contest. Results inconclusive.
