It's August, which means a new season of quizbowl is going to be starting soon! With that, I wanted to get this thread started again this year, as last year's thread was a lot of fun to read, and I'd love for this year's thread to have just as much engagement.

For Washington, Joe Stitz, Cole Phinney, Matt Chalem, Matt Dew and Spencer Johnson have all graduated. Our expected A team for this year is likely to be Jonathan Amlong, Carrie Derner, Ryan Hill and James Collier.

The only other team whose composition I can really comment on is Eureka. As far as I know, Rohan Rai is back, and I believe Derek Demartino is now going to be his main support.

Comment away!

I'm really excited for this upcoming season. The 2016 -2017 year was a little rough. Our entire varsity team graduated and our coach, Mr. Scherrer, retired. It took us a little while to get back into tournaments and a state of normalcy for practices and such, but we definitely know what to do now.
Personally, I'm a little nervous since this is going to be my senior year, and the competition from everyone is going to be tough. However, I look forward to seeing all of my friends again and I hope to make some more. Cheers!

I will reiterate what I posted on the HSQB forum in two installments.

My thought on the coming season:

It will be brilliant.

Inspired by Fred Morlan (and without any statistical analysis whatsoever...) my Preseason Missouri Top 25:

1. Ladue (young team, lots of talent)
2. MICDS (with Alex, a powerhouse)
3. St. Joseph Central (William just gets better)
4. Louisiana (Michael Powers: just gets better)
5. Hallsville (always a tough team)
6. Washington (Jonathan and Carrie are very good)
7. Hickman (always in the mix)
8. Helias (see above)
9. Moberly (very talented group that got better each time I saw them)
10. Fort Osage (A team is #1, #2, #4, and #6 scorers from last year)

For teams 11-25, there is no particular order (especially with KC-area schools that rarely come east)
11. Eureka (I have heard good things about this team, but haven't read for them yet)
12. Savannah (always has a good team, but doesn't travel much to Columbia or STL)
13. Lakeland (William Koch is a good player)
14. Kirksville (always competitive in tournaments I read at)
15. NKC (lost Ian, but always seems to be in the mix)
16. Rock Bridge (unsteady coaching situation, but has talent)
17. Tuscumbia (Dustin and Preston both get better every time I see them)
18. DeSoto (saw them at HSNCT and was impressed)
19. Park Hill South (always has talent, but never comes to Columbia)
20. St. Pius X (they graduated some talent, but they have more in the pipeline)
21. LS North (talented team, too bad they never go to Columbia or HSNCT)
22. Washington B (I know that there will be talent on this team)
23. Hannibal (Pranati keeps improving)
24. Park Hill (another KC-area team with some talent that never comes east
25. Pilot Grove (always has talent, and always a tough matchup)

Other teams: Centralia (Ryan had a down year, but this team will be back), Pleasant Hill (Steve Moore is a good coach that will make any team better), Palmyra (stats show improvement each year), Mexico (stats continue to show improvement), Sullivan (with Jason taking over, this team will get better!!)

Just my take, so don't be too harsh (sadly, I am not as up to date on STL, so I may have left off some good teams that way, like Eureka, (sorry guys!!)

So ...exactly like the Morlan preseason poll then?

EXACTLY