Minnesota 2014

[haverstall]

Good Job to everyone who attended Div. C State! There were a lot of awesome and competitive teams in addition to some great sportsmanship!
See you all next year! (although I'll be a grad )

It's the inevitable ending. You should help out with events next year if you go to the U!

Speaking of which, having some sort of alumni group of MNers would be interesting, just to help MNSO with volunteering and stuff. This year, we got a lot of grads helping out, as well as non-coaches participating in running events, so clearly there is a need.

I wonder if there is enough manpower to resurrect an invitational tournament in Minnesota (maybe at the U?). I'd love to see that happen!

It would be pretty cool. The only issue of course is the MN SO schedule. Although, the schedule might look a bit better for next year. Boyceville is first week of December, and State write now is being considered for March 28th. Hopefully that means that Regionals is now middle of February, which would leave some time right before Regionals to have a tournament. I would love to put on something, much like the Wayzata Invite, with a more localized approach and Div B content as well. There are so many Div C competitions, but definitely not enough Div B invites.

[Unome]

Congratulations to Mounds View HS for placing 2nd at the National Tournament!

[sciolycoach]

I, too, would like to extend a congratulations to Mounds View for their outstanding representation of their state and the greater Midwestern area. Congratulations on all of your hard work and success!

On another note, and this is certainly less publicized but also highly exciting news, but I would also like to congratulate Neil Michels from Apple Valley for receiving the (one of two this year) National Science Olympiad Distinguished Service Award. I can think of nobody more deserving of this honor as he (and his wife too) have tirelessly volunteered for Science Olympiad for the entire 30 years of its existence! A truly remarkable feat!

On one last note, for your planning purposes, the Boyceville Invite is confirmed on Saturday, Dec 6th, 2014, and the UWRF (Div C Only) Invite is confirmed on Saturday, Jan 24, 2015. We hope to see many of you, your teammates, and your coaches next year for another year of excitement!

Andy Hamm
Boyceville Science Olympiad

[haverstall]

Greetings y'all.

I've been considering running a Div B invitational, and potentially a Div C invitational at the U for quite some time. Still not 100% sure if we can pull this off (mainly due to concerns about space, as well as where to run lab events), but if you're going to be in Minnesota early-mid January, we would love your help in setting this up.

You can join the Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1463164370589279/

In addition, I'm looking to also offer our services as a test-writing group to the Minnesota SO community. I've been writing tests for Div C for 2 years, and I feel if we can get more alumni into the business of test writing, it'll be a lot easier for coaches to concentrate on coaching their own teams rather than worrying about test writing.

So if you're at all interested, feel free to join the group. And if you happen to be going to the U next year, I do plan on forming a student group on campus, so stay posted for that.