A copy of the announcement can be found below. We still provide FREE practice sets and some tournament resources.
HSAPQ is glad to have had the chance to provide quality questions for the VHSL Scholastic Bowl competition between the 2009-10 and 2016-17 seasons -- and NAQT is excited about this possibility. Both companies look forward to the continuance of what is now a 16-year-old tradition of the VHSL Scholastic Bowl having quiz bowl questions of the finest quality.
We at High School Academic Pyramid Questions took great pride in providing quality questions for high school tournaments, and maintained a comprehensive philosophy of quizbowl that stressed accessibility and de-emphasized 'trivia' in favor of significant and interesting academic questions. We encourage former customers to contact National Academic Quiz Tournaments for their tournament question needs.
A full disclosure of our former philosophy and policies can be found here.
In spring 2017, the leadership of High School Academic Pyramid Questions, Inc. (HSAPQ) decided that other personal commitments had taken away from their ability to ensure that quality questions were provided for the Virginia High School League (VHSL) Scholastic Bowl competition. With President Mike Cheyne, Vice-President Tommy Casalaspi, and Secretary/Treasurer Shawn Pickrell all hoping to resign, HSAPQ decided to explore a departure from the regular season question writing market, while still ensuring the VHSL continued to have the highest quality competition.
HSAPQ then began negotiations with National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC (NAQT), in order to ensure that the VHSL maintained an excellent standard of competition. The VHSL was then brought into the negotiation.
As a result of this agreement between the VHSL, HSAPQ, and NAQT:
* HSAPQ has agreed to leave the regular season question writing market.
* NAQT will provide questions for the VHSL state championship and will make VHSL-style questions available for regular-season, regional, and super-regional events.
This agreement took effect on September 25, 2017. VHSL member schools in need of regular season questions should contact NAQT directly, either by email at hosting at naqt dot com or by phone at 888-411-6278. That address and number can also be used for any sort of question about NAQT, its policies, or its products.
Several of NAQT's Invitational Series sets will be converted to VHSL-formatted matches. For 2017-18, the sets to be converted will be IS #169A, #171A, #172, and #174. Further details can be found on NAQT's website at http://www.naqt.com/vhsl.
The agreement will not cover the National All-Star Academic Tournament (NASAT), an end-of-season tournament where participating states send one or more teams of all-stars that HSAPQ has run since 2010. HSAPQ will reach a decision about plans for NASAT 2018 in the coming weeks.
Former writers and editors for HSAPQ will be given an expanded window in which to apply for NAQT positions if they do not already write for NAQT.