So things have been pretty hectic around here.
After my last post I realized that I’ve been a way too much of a forensics-debate kick for the last six weeks, and I’m glad that the season is largely over. Since I’ve last posted, I helped run Memorial’s forensics tournament, drove through a billard to get to New London’s tournament, judged way too much poorly done interp at Hartford, went back to Sheboygan for a few days, watched my brother lose his first boxing match, got a perscription for my “sinus infection,” spent Easter with both of my grandparents, drove back to Madison only to go back to Sheboygan to run the LD division at Sheboygan North’s tournament four days later and then come back to Madison a day after that, chose our state team the next day, coach LD later that afternoon, coach every day during that week in preparation for NFL qualifiers, drive to West Bend for NFL Qualifiers and be disappointed and happy with the results at the same time (we didn’t get our top LD and Duo through, but we did get our top DI, Orator, and Extemper), take a day off, and coach all of the next week for the state tournament, drive to Ripon last friday, and then come back to Madison very late at night only to pass out and finally breathe. And somewhere in there, I studied for two midterms and wrote four papers, not to mention two debate cases, as well as looking at about 20 apartments for next year. And in between trips to Madison and Sheboygan I found out Brian got an at large bid to the TOC.
Phew. That was beginning to sound like a run-on sentence. Or a Tom Clancy novel. But seriously, I’ve felt that this forensics season was like a non-stop rush and that it completely blew by.
But the forensics season for me is largely over. Of course there’s the TOC, CFL and NFL, but only one of those I have to coach at. CFL I probably should coach at, Jake definatelly could be a star, but he needs a lot of work. But I don’t have to, because I’m just hired (and really only getting paid to be) a judge for my alma mater. For NFL, we only have interp kids going, so really I’d just be there to be a caperone and a tourist. It sounds like we will be driving to the TOC, and thus, I will get to go along. What makes this even better, is that the Mifflin Street Block Party is the following weekend, so that I won’t miss my favorite Madison event.
And I’m pretty content with how this season ended too. When I attended NFL nationals for my first and only time as a competitor at the end of my senior year, I found that I enjoyed the experience so much that I ought to become a coach and it should be my goal to make it back to Nationals as a coach. Early last year, when our team was pretty large and it definitely looked like Memorial Debate would continue through the years, I set a second goal for our program: to close out a final round of a tournament. Technically, I can achieve both goals this year. We qualified three people to go to NFL Nationals in Philly and I may have to go along depending on how travel plans work out. (I also could chose to go along too). But I know I made that goal with debate in mind, not speech and acting. And this weekend, Brian and Zac closed out the WFCA State tournament. Which is awesome, considering that Jeremy was the third seed. But the WFCA tournament decided that LD for the first time since the organization adopted it, was not going to count for team points, which adversely affected some schools to the benefit of others (Marquette and Brookfield, to the benefit of Memorial and Appleton). Because of this, there were only eight competitors there. So instead of having the numbers to warrent breaking to quarters like the tournament usually has (approximately 20-25 debaters), this week there were only eight and they broke strait to finals. (They may have broken to semi’s had Memorial’s debaters not have taken the top three spots.)
The “real” state tournament (or rather the one perferred by LD coaches) is the WDCA’s in Decemember. That tournament uses prelim rounds, six rounds, a power-pairing procedure, school names, and even has a method of judge preferencing. The WFCA tournament uses four, random, preliminary rounds, uses an alphanumberic code, and offers no system of prefencing. In addition, where the WFCA tournament starts awards is always at Quarter-Finals. The DCA decides what elimination round to use off of a written, predetermined formula.
Regardless, I’m proud because I feel I’ve grown as a coach. I’ve accomplished goals that I’ve set for myself, even if I didn’t achieve them in ways I thought I would. Goal Setting is a very “adult” thing to do, even if adults rarely achieve their goals, and actually achieving those goals shows effective coaching and teaching. Moreover, Memorial’s 3rd place finish (including the completely unforseen “no-clears” of a former state champion and a national qualifier) has made me realize why I did this activity and stuck with it in the first place. I did this activity to give back to it, not to win every tournament. Sure, it would have been nice to be an assistant coach if Memorial became the first team in the history of the WFCA to win the state tournament four years in a row. But seeing the success of some of our indvidual students, and the relationships between all of us (students among students and coaches to students), made it abundantly clear the ability of the activity to bring these positive qualities out in individuals is why I should be coaching, and indeed, why I get such great joy out of doing it, even if the season gets pretty exhusting at times.
I’ve rambled on enough. It’s time to kick back, relax, and begin some Simon and Garfunkel…. (alright, so only avid readers and Jess will understand this).
