Tournament Schedule
The competition schedule has been posted on the State Tournament page of our website in the Forms & Documents section. Please be sure to check the schedule and let your team families know your team’s performance times. Plan to arrive at least two hours prior to your performance time if your central challenge is first (unless you are doing Do or DI, which doesn’t need as much prep time). Of course, if the team performs at 8:00 a.m., you don’t need to be that early. But later in the day the campus gets very busy and you will need time to scout the site, unload the team’s things, park the car, and get situated. Elevators and loading zones will be quite full and moving slowly.Some of you may decide to travel on Friday and stay in a nearby hotel since some of the times are rather early. Though Maryland DI does not recommend any particular hotel, we suggest using hotels in the BWI airport area, which is less than 5 miles away. We advise against the hotels on Route 40, just north of the UMBC Beltway exit.
Tournament Map
A map of the campus with DI sites marked is available in the Forms & Documents section. Please share it with your team and all people that will be cheering on the team. Parking instructions can be found on the map.
Loading Zones
Also posted on our site is a detailed listing of the loading zones for each challenge. Please be sure to check that out before you head to the tournament. This tournament is so much larger than any of our Regional Tournaments that things can get pretty crazy during loading. Be sure that you do not leave any vehicles unattended in the circle by The Commons or at any spot that is not an official parking space. We are told that the UMBC police will be ticketing vehicles that block access or are left unattended.
Team Check-In
Please be sure to check in at our Registration Table on the first floor of The Commons when you arrive. Registration will be open from 7:30 a.m. until all teams have checked in. Your registration packet will include team manager name badges, programs for all of your team members and the managers, personalized participation certificates, and any relevant last minute announcements. Team Managers will need a name tag in order to accompany teams in Instant Challenge. If you have a very early IC time, the appraisers will be flexible and allow you to enter without a name tag, so no need to panic. Make sure that you are able to give the check-in staff your team number, as the packets will be organized by number.
Food
Food will be available from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. in The Commons. There will be coffee, pastries, pizza, southwest cuisine, mesquite grill, sandwiches, wraps, etc. See the full list of food venues on our website on the State Tournament page. There’s not much in the way of food near the campus, so stay and enjoy the great food at UMBC. Please remember that while you relax at the food venues, keep noise to a minimum because Challenge A middle/secondary will be taking place just one level up in an open area. We want those teams to have a quiet performance area.
Trading Zone 1:00 p.m. – 5:00p.m. Main Street, The Commons
Last year’s Trading Zone was so incredibly successful that we are repeating it this year. Those who have been to Globals know all about the frenetic pin trading that happens there. Well, we want a little taste of that at States. So, we will be selling $5 grab bags at the souvenir stand. The bags contain all kinds of goodies – pins, shirts, toys, hats, etc. Your kids can buy a grab bag early in the day (there are only about 200 of them, so they will go fast) and then come to the Trading Zone near the souvenir stand to trade grab bag contents with other kids. Those who want to bring pins from previous years’ trips to Globals or Regional tournaments can do so as well. Shirts, hats and novelties make great traders, too. Children in the trading zone must be accompanied by an adult.
Souvenirs
Maryland DI relies on proceeds from our souvenir sales to help finance the costs of our tournaments and trainings. Please support us by patronizing the Souvenir Table in the Main Street area on the first floor of The Commons, right around the corner from the food. The Table will be opened from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. There will be lots of pins, shirts, crazy hats, and novelties. In addition to the $5 grab bags, there will be a $5 bargain bucket of shirts and lots of other clearance priced items. We will also have some pin sets from other states and countries from the 2009 Globals, some with matching shirts or other interesting complements. They are unique items and very cool! There will be a Pin Hat Raffle at States with even more DI pins from all over the world than were on the hats at Regionals. Please support Maryland DI by purchasing tickets for this raffle. Some of the best pins were saved for this hat, so stop by the souvenir stand to get your tickets. The drawing will be held at the Awards Ceremony.
Dancing to the Music – 4:30 -6:00
We are hoping to have a DJ entertain the kids between the competition and the Awards Ceremony. We are working out details with the University so that we can gather on the Commons Terrace, right outside from the food court, and the lawn below, to do a little dancing and relaxing. If it rains, the music will be inside by the souvenir stand, but we’ll have to keep the kids a bit more restrained, as there’s not much room to run there. Hopefully we will be able to provide this entertainment for the kids.
Awards Ceremony
The Awards Ceremony starts at 6:30, but teams need to be there at 6:10 to line up for the parade of teams. The ceremony will be held in the Retriever Activities Center (RAC). Spectators should sit in the upper level seats. Teams will line up at 6:10 on the sidewalk between the RAC and the Sondheim and Math/Psych Buildings (where the teams will do IC). Officials will be there to organize the teams into Regions so they can march into the arena with all the teams from their regions. If it is raining hard, we will forgo the team parade and teams will just go inside the arena and sit on the lower level. We will give our supporters a chance to cheer our regions during our ceremony. The ceremony should last about an hour. Please tell your team parents that we would like everyone to stay for the entire ceremony and not leave when your team’s challenge has been called. Let’s all stay to cheer on the other challenges and make every team feel special! Teams qualifying for Globals will need to stay for a short meeting after the ceremony.
Tournament Behavior
Please remind your team that we are the guests of UMBC and must behave like proper guests. All children must be accompanied by an adult at all times while on campus. Trash must be thrown in trash receptacles. Any destructive, disruptive, or out of control behavior will not be tolerated and may result in a deduction against the offender’s team score.
We encourage the kids to mingle with other teams, watch lots of great solutions, enjoy the open spaces, and have a great time. In fact, bring along balls, Frisbees or anything that might help the kids blow off some steam and enjoy what we hope will be a beautiful day.
Tournament Schedule
The competition schedule has been posted on the State Tournament page of our website in the Forms & Documents section. Please be sure to check the schedule and let your team families know your team’s performance times. Plan to arrive at least two hours prior to your performance time if your central challenge is first (unless you are doing Do or DI, which doesn’t need as much prep time). Of course, if the team performs at 8:00 a.m., you don’t need to be that early. But later in the day the campus gets very busy and you will need time to scout the site, unload the team’s things, park the car, and get situated. Elevators and loading zones will be quite full and moving slowly.Some of you may decide to travel on Friday and stay in a nearby hotel since some of the times are rather early. Though Maryland DI does not recommend any particular hotel, we suggest using hotels in the BWI airport area, which is less than 5 miles away. We advise against the hotels on Route 40, just north of the UMBC Beltway exit.
Tournament Map
A map of the campus with DI sites marked is available in the Forms & Documents section. Please share it with your team and all people that will be cheering on the team. Parking instructions can be found on the map.
Loading Zones
Also posted on our site is a detailed listing of the loading zones for each challenge. Please be sure to check that out before you head to the tournament. This tournament is so much larger than any of our Regional Tournaments that things can get pretty crazy during loading. Be sure that you do not leave any vehicles unattended in the circle by The Commons or at any spot that is not an official parking space. We are told that the UMBC police will be ticketing vehicles that block access or are left unattended.
Team Check-In
Please be sure to check in at our Registration Table on the first floor of The Commons when you arrive. Registration will be open from 7:30 a.m. until all teams have checked in. Your registration packet will include team manager name badges, programs for all of your team members and the managers, personalized participation certificates, and any relevant last minute announcements. Team Managers will need a name tag in order to accompany teams in Instant Challenge. If you have a very early IC time, the appraisers will be flexible and allow you to enter without a name tag, so no need to panic. Make sure that you are able to give the check-in staff your team number, as the packets will be organized by number.
Food
Food will be available from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. in The Commons. There will be coffee, pastries, pizza, southwest cuisine, mesquite grill, sandwiches, wraps, etc. See the full list of food venues on our website on the State Tournament page. There’s not much in the way of food near the campus, so stay and enjoy the great food at UMBC. Please remember that while you relax at the food venues, keep noise to a minimum because Challenge A middle/secondary will be taking place just one level up in an open area. We want those teams to have a quiet performance area.
Trading Zone 1:00 p.m. – 5:00p.m. Main Street, The Commons
Last year’s Trading Zone was so incredibly successful that we are repeating it this year. Those who have been to Globals know all about the frenetic pin trading that happens there. Well, we want a little taste of that at States. So, we will be selling $5 grab bags at the souvenir stand. The bags contain all kinds of goodies – pins, shirts, toys, hats, etc. Your kids can buy a grab bag early in the day (there are only about 200 of them, so they will go fast) and then come to the Trading Zone near the souvenir stand to trade grab bag contents with other kids. Those who want to bring pins from previous years’ trips to Globals or Regional tournaments can do so as well. Shirts, hats and novelties make great traders, too. Children in the trading zone must be accompanied by an adult.
Souvenirs
Maryland DI relies on proceeds from our souvenir sales to help finance the costs of our tournaments and trainings. Please support us by patronizing the Souvenir Table in the Main Street area on the first floor of The Commons, right around the corner from the food. The Table will be opened from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. There will be lots of pins, shirts, crazy hats, and novelties. In addition to the $5 grab bags, there will be a $5 bargain bucket of shirts and lots of other clearance priced items. We will also have some pin sets from other states and countries from the 2009 Globals, some with matching shirts or other interesting complements. They are unique items and very cool! There will be a Pin Hat Raffle at States with even more DI pins from all over the world than were on the hats at Regionals. Please support Maryland DI by purchasing tickets for this raffle. Some of the best pins were saved for this hat, so stop by the souvenir stand to get your tickets. The drawing will be held at the Awards Ceremony.
Dancing to the Music – 4:30 -6:00
We are hoping to have a DJ entertain the kids between the competition and the Awards Ceremony. We are working out details with the University so that we can gather on the Commons Terrace, right outside from the food court, and the lawn below, to do a little dancing and relaxing. If it rains, the music will be inside by the souvenir stand, but we’ll have to keep the kids a bit more restrained, as there’s not much room to run there. Hopefully we will be able to provide this entertainment for the kids.
Awards Ceremony
The Awards Ceremony starts at 6:30, but teams need to be there at 6:10 to line up for the parade of teams. The ceremony will be held in the Retriever Activities Center (RAC). Spectators should sit in the upper level seats. Teams will line up at 6:10 on the sidewalk between the RAC and the Sondheim and Math/Psych Buildings (where the teams will do IC). Officials will be there to organize the teams into Regions so they can march into the arena with all the teams from their regions. If it is raining hard, we will forgo the team parade and teams will just go inside the arena and sit on the lower level. We will give our supporters a chance to cheer our regions during our ceremony. The ceremony should last about an hour. Please tell your team parents that we would like everyone to stay for the entire ceremony and not leave when your team’s challenge has been called. Let’s all stay to cheer on the other challenges and make every team feel special! Teams qualifying for Globals will need to stay for a short meeting after the ceremony.
Tournament Behavior
Please remind your team that we are the guests of UMBC and must behave like proper guests. All children must be accompanied by an adult at all times while on campus. Trash must be thrown in trash receptacles. Any destructive, disruptive, or out of control behavior will not be tolerated and may result in a deduction against the offender’s team score.
We encourage the kids to mingle with other teams, watch lots of great solutions, enjoy the open spaces, and have a great time. In fact, bring along balls, Frisbees or anything that might help the kids blow off some steam and enjoy what we hope will be a beautiful day.