by trbenedict » Mon Jul 03, 2017 1:45 pm
I think my top four would be identical to Pranav's...Scioto will be looking for a bit of support to replace departing senior Enoch Fu, who was an excellent science specialist for them last year (and for Ohio A at NASAT), but Clark didn't make the national A team for nothing. It'll come down to whether one of the remaining Scioto players (Sanjay, Eddy, Gabe) can chip in their 20 per game to fill the gaps and how much Clark continues to branch out. On a hard housewrite or nationals-level set, I think they still have an edge. Hari played great at NASAT and NSC as well, so Beavercreek will be in much the same position, retaining their #1 scorer and looking to David, Ziyi, et al. to take a little larger piece.
I won't delve too deeply into Miami Valley except to say that I think third is the right spot for us right now, and I hope we show good improvement throughout the year.
I guess I'd give Copley a slight edge over Solon today for really no good reason at all...clearly Copley felt the loss of Kevin at the end of the year, but I think the Tommy-Srikar senior punch plus the strong freshman-sophomore class (Jun, Frank, Nathan) should be able to form a pretty typical, specialized CHS squad. It'll be interesting to see if Nathan takes a spot on the A team right away or if he becomes the anchor for Copley B, since his knowledge base might overlap with some of the returning varsity scorers. He's certainly good enough to play and make an impact this year, as demonstrated by his performances at some of last season's HS tournaments. Solon also has a bunch of talented rising youngsters (led by Timmy and Sam), also is trying to replace a senior captain (Timothy), and also will be well-prepared and coached, so who the heck knows.
Olmsted Falls could be a sneaky top-six team this year, given that they return 3/4 of the A team that made the playoffs at this year's HSNCT, and so could Ottawa Hills (everyone's back from the team that was T8 at SSNCT). I think Cloverleaf is also mostly back. Dublin Jerome seems to have a bunch of good players, led by rising senior and Ohio All-Star Andrew Zhang. Don't sleep on Tippecanoe and leading scorer Michael Vestey. Kyle Yu (U.S. Geography Olympiad national champion) is a rising senior for Westlake.
I also would be interested to see where the "next Lakewood" might come from...I'm guessing it'll be another Columbus-area squad (I hear a few more of the big schools are getting established/entering leagues), and Pranav told me that he's seen Poland Seminary putting together good performances in the Mahoning League just based on pure academics (Greg could probably speak more to that).
Just because I watched a decent amount of middle school games last year, here's my Freshman Report (TM), assuming everyone plays, is where I think they are, etc.: I touched on Nathan Hazlett (Copley) above, but he's really good. Was counted on to score across the board for the MS team for three straight years, but I think he's best at literature/humanities? Also moving to 9th grade from Copley-Fairlawn is second scorer Nicholas Carrino, who had a power percentage of over 50% at MSNCT.
Samantha Street (Northmont) ended last season playing for the varsity team, and I wouldn't be shocked if she leads the Bolts in scoring by the end of this year, even with a couple juniors (Caitlin and Ryan) returning for Northmont A. Samantha has a very strong grasp of the literature canon already, and with Kara Combs joining David Jones's coaching staff she'll have no shortage of great guidance. Her, Nathan, Arvind Nair from Hyatts, and William Groger would be my four "blue-chip" recruits if this were the NFL draft or something. Northmont has a bunch of other rising 9th graders as well, the most accomplished of whom is probably Sean Scranton.
With the arrival of Arvind Nair (see above) and RJ LaRosa, Olentangy Liberty adds the rest of the Hyatts nucleus that finished T21 at the 2016 MSNCT, so a youth movement could be brewing in Powell as most of Liberty A graduates. A third Hyatts player, Spencer Green, is moving to (I believe) St. Charles...his rate of improvement has been excellent over the last couple years.
Beavercreek picks up Tegan Kapadia, who played well at History Bee & Bowl as well as Northmont's SCOP mirror...look for him to gain some seasoning on the B team this year and carry a decent load there.
Cleveland Heights/Roxnercello's Leo Keneally is another impact player...I don't know whether he's a 9th grader this year or not, but if he ends up playing for Solon at some point he'll be one to watch.
Jack Szklarz and Camille Wheeler were both strong players for Heritage Classical, but I don't know what grades they're in or what their landscape looks like after middle school as part of the Heritage Classical collective.
Miami Valley adds first and second scorers William Groger and Sahir Kabir from last year's middle school A team.
Apologies if I missed anyone!
Tyler Benedict
Coach, Miami Valley School Quiz Bowl
OAC Committee Middle School Representative
OQBA NASAT and Matt's Buzzers Liaison
Miami Valley School '09