History> 1996-1997 The SecondYear

With many expectations in place, the Iowa team was prepared to grow. And it did. In fact, some of the earliest practices in the 1996-97 school year drew as many as 30 participants. Most notable was the return of James Erwin, who had been involved in the prehistoric funky troika before Trevor and Trent. As he returned to find a brand new team in place, he brought along former Regional teammate Pete Lawrence, and Matt Larson, a civil war buff and eventual core member. Others were brought along for the ride: Brett Willenbring became involved with the team upon the recommendation of Angie Lyon, Corey's sister-in-law Carrie Farrell made a few appearances, and as many as 5 of Trevor's rhetoric students made multiple appearances at practices. This season also saw the addition of Bob Pulju and eventual core member and designated socialite Nichol Vogeler. Even 1993 College Jeopardy! champion Phoebe Juel attended the Iowa practices as a brand new graduate student.

However, the team had reached a critical point. 30 members was too unwieldy and balancing playing time between eager newcomers and expectant returners was too difficult. Two rooms were originally in place for practice but the exodus was inevitable. Almost 75% of the new players that joined in Fall of 1996 left within a month and almost 50% of the returners stopped coming on a regular basis. The look of the team changed somewhat and the core attendance returned to approximately 15.

Competitively, Iowa remained strong but a win continued to elude the Hawks. The two teams that competed at the ISUBAD finished in the middle but it got Matt, Brett and Bob onto the circuit a little more gently with experienced players. Deep Bench was another bust for the team as a whole with a 6th place finish out of 9. The bright spot was that Robert again defended his first singles crown in a field that featured R. Hentzel, John Sheahan and Benoy Chacko. That was followed on the heels by another agonizing 2nd place finish for Trent, Twait, Larson and Schultz at the inaugural NAQT Sectionals, losing out on the title to Minnesota. A team of Erwin, Moran, Vogeler and John Wing finished a strong 4th. Robert and James won gold and bronze medals respectively for their individual performances. Corey Smith also gave the club a huge boost by running a hectic but successful 27-team high school tournament during this semester.

The winter season kicked off with a Sectional A team/B team mishmash of Aaron, James, Mary and Trevor flying off to Philadelphia to represent Iowa at the inaugural NAQT ICT. Joining together for the first time ever, the Iowa 4-some finished 24th out of 64 — an extremely respectable finish for playing without Robert. Particularly sweet was a magnificent Friday night come-from-behind victory over the same Minnesota team that won the Sectionals.

Focus then turned to the CBI Regionals and a team led by Robert Trent and supported admirably by Aaron, Matt, Kjer and Wade finally broke through the barrier — defeating a Hentzel/Kubicek team to finally WIN A TOURNAMENT! Iowa earned a trip to New Jersey. Less exciting was the trip to ACF Regionals at Illinois marked by numerous fiascoes — including the Mary Moran "let's stay for the finals" incident. The two Iowa teams finished in the middle of the field. The season closed with 3 unusual events: 1. Robert and Trevor road-tripped to Wash U. for the Gateway invite and finished 2nd playing as a duo; 2. Iowa hosted the utterly exhausting and exasperating Hawks in Exile tournament at Iowa State University, which everyone who attended enjoyed; 3. Robert withdrew from the CBI Nationals team and a very out of synch Iowa team — captained by a sick and distraught Trevor — played horrendously, finishing 14th. When the semester ended, everyone seemed very relieved. It had been a decent season, but one filled with more trials than triumphs.