R-MA State Champions

In competing at one of the largest NFL Qualifying tournaments in the nation, in the nation’s largest District, R-MA came to the campus of Robinson High School and George Mason University loaded to bear and ready to take heads on January 25/26. Bear was found and heads taken, as R-MA took once again the Championship Cup for NFL States – the most competitive tournament in Virginia.

Following a long finals week and extensive practices, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team was ready for this long-awaited tournament. Not only was the state championship in the largest and most comprehensive state league in Virginia on the line, but – most importantly for the kids – the top three entries in each event gained their slot at NFL Nationals held this year in Las Vegas in June.

As Rev. Gregg is the State Chair and Tournament Director, for about two weeks before the tournament he was "up to my nethers in alligators" and really wasn’t able to devote the time in the second-half of the month as he was in the first-half to ensure that teams were working. Quoting Mr. Gregg, "This is where the sacrifice of Myers Park pays off– getting the extra rounds on the resolution and knowing the arguments. The rest, kids, is up to you and your desire. The ‘Screwing Around Light’ if off and the ‘Get Your Crap Together Light’ is on and blinking."

Ably helped by Captain Brennan Morris, the Public Forum teams were prepped and ran an incredible number of rounds. Returners Gigi Baughman and Martha Galewski, as well as other members of the team, stepped in to make sure that we would have solid PF representation at this tournament. Civil Disobedience was argued, counter-argued, and counter-counter argued over the month. Feet of files were filed in the appropriate continent – yes, Africa had been rebuilt and was better, stronger, faster than before – and rounds were prepped.

On a sad note, due to an overlooked infraction, one of our strong PF team members was restricted to campus. His partner, as a real step-up kinda guy, asked to be added into Lincoln Douglas Debate, though he had never debated this form of debate before, as well as went triple-entered in Foreign Extemp and Congress. But the student restricted really showed incredible amounts of character... coming in on Thursday afternoon and preparing the call-up team of Mangen and McCotter with his case and arguments, working with the team that would be taking his place. As Rev. Gregg put it, "I know of few adults who have the greatness of heart and solid character to show that kind of self-sacrifice. But that wasn’t the end of the work... Tommy woke up at 6:00 a.m. on Friday and was there, lugging boxes, crates, files, and luggage to the bus to see of his team. Of all my years of coaching, I have seldom seen such remarkable self-sacrifice in a student."

Loading the bus to the gills... bringing over 18 boxes of trophies, four printers, three laptops, boxes of ballots and forms, 12 huge file boxes of extemp, four cases of water, two cases of energy drinks, and three cases of food, flowpads, and pens... the R-MA Speech and Debate machine showed its full power at the tournament, taking home the State Championship for the fourth consecutive year, as well as The American Legion School of Excellence Award in Public Forum and Student Congress, the George Mason School of Excellence Award in Speech, the Cardinal Cup Champion for Large-School Sweepstakes, and – for the second time in only three years – the NFL Traveling Trophy.

Students saw huge successes at this tournament:
Brennan Morris, 1st in Foreign Extemp, 2nd in Oratory, 5th in the Senate (National Qualifier).
Valerie Pratt, 2nd in Public Forum, Semifinals in Domestic Extemp (National Qualifier).
Martha Galewski, 2nd in Domestic Extemp and 3rd in Oratory (Nationals Qualifier).
KC Mangen and Nora McCotter, 3rd in Public Forum (National Qualifier).
Max Ramundo, 3rd in Domestic Extemp (Nationals Qualifier).
Kaleb Gerber and Marianne Nell, 5th in Public Forum (National Qualifier).
Will Dungan, 5th in Foreign Extemp, Octofinals in LD Debate
Katie Hoptiak, Semifinals in Foreign Extemp and Quarterfinals in LD Debate.
Evan Pionkowski, Semifinals in Domestic Extemp and Quarterfinals in Public Forum.
Tyler Solley, Semifinals in Oratory
Gigi Baughman and Xing Zhang, Semifinals in Duo Interp

Pictures at: http://pbase.com/fglds

WACFL 4 IE/PF

On Saturday, January 16, R-MA Speech and Debate traveled to Edison High School in Alexndria to compete in the Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensics League Preliminary Speech/ Public Forum Tournament #4.

WACFL, though originally founded to meet the needs of private schools, is primarily made up of a 40 public and private schools in Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia. Each preliminary tournament adds to a student’s bids for WACFL Metrofinals at the end of February and early March. Metrofinals will determine which six students from the Northern Virginia area will attend CFL Grand Nationals at the end of May in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Waking up too darn early (0500) and loading the bus in the cold and dark (0545) to leave campus by 0600 to eat McGriddles and McDonald’s, our students settled into the routing of locking and loading before we rolled into the parking lot at Thomas Alva Edison High School. Like a line of ants with grain-carrying mouths, our debaters and speakers started bringing in all the 12 files, the three cases of water, the case of energy drinks, and the two cases of beef jerky and cheese crackers that fuels the machine that is R-MA Speech and Debate.

We were joined by alumni Robert E. "Bo" Snitchler (Dickinson), Yuliya Orlva (Bryn Mawr), Sean Dunaway (Grinnell), and RK "LB" McDaniel (Hampton-Sydney) in the judging pool and the team members saw through interacting with the alumni, that speech and debate is not just a team, it very much is a family that stretches beyond graduation and beyond the walls of R-MA.

Following four rounds of speech and four rounds of Public Forum, the results were a solid statement on the strength of this new R-MA Speech and Debate team:

Public Forum:
5th Varsity... The Team of Gerber and Nell
4th JV... The Team of Collins and Pionkowski

Speech:
Coming Soon!

Following our victory, we went to Don Pablo’s to celebrate Gigi’s 18th birthday with sombrero and Amerixan Food. We only have two last WACFL Preliminary tournaments – one in Speech and one in PF – to secure our last slots for WACFL Metros.

Pictures can be found at: http://fglds.pbase.com

NoVaFL Season Champions

On Wednesday, January 12, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team hit the road for the Northern Virginia Forensics League Tor Johnson Championship at West Potomac High School in Alexandria. The Northern Virginia Forensics League (NoVaFL) is composed of around 20 schools in the DC-metroplex – all in excess of a thousand students.

Following a tough tournament, R-MA was able to come away with its seventh-straight season championship trophy in NoVaFL – beating five former VHSL State Champions. Though West Springfield was able to slip by us to take home the Tor Johnson Championship Trophy by only 3 points out of 128, we did take home sweepstakes. Quoting Mr. Gregg, "The Tor Johnson Championship cup is always up for grabs... we’ve missed out on it about three times over the years; though grabbing season sweepstakes. The Tor is a two-round tournament and, here, the much larger teams that the DC schools can muster against us come in handy to pad-out events. It’s good strategy and I definitely take my hat off to West Springfield."

At this tournament, we were joined by R-MA Alumni, Yuliya Orlova, Sean Dunaway, David Tuck, Patrick Mahoney, and RK McDaniel. It really is great seeing the end-result of our program... after all the rounds, after all the trips, to hear your alumni talk well of the program and its impact means more than any trophies we’ve ever won.

Though saddled with a great deal of sickness, R-MA was still able to field a good-sized team and
took home a significant number of trophies:
Coming Soon

Pictures available at http://pbase.com/fglds

ShenVaFL Champions

On Thursday, Jan. 7, following a great flurry of activity to reprint and reconstruct an entire Continent in the Extemp Files, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team competed in the Shenandoah Valley Forensics League Tor Johnson Championship Tournament, hosted at Sherando High School. Though the Shenandoah Valley sounds like it may be an easy walk in the park, this league is one of the most competitive of the mid-week leagues ... with four state championship and runner-up schools all vying for the championship.

This year, R-MA was able to retain its championship in the season and final tournament against the hard and magnificent competition of our friendly rival, Madison County (a 13-year VHSL Speech and Debate Championship school). Through pushing past Madison by a mere 3 points at the championship, R-MA was able to take home the ShenVaFL Tor Johnson Championship Cup, as well as its third ShenVaFL Season Cup for Large Schools. Yes, though R-MA is almost the smallest school in the league, due to the size of our team, we are the largest in the state.

Though Bus 24 was laid up in the shop for a shreded belt, we were able to get one of the new bus for the short trip to Sherando. Though the bus had a bit more zip, we had grown accustomed to Bus 24 and its cushioned ride with easy-access files. But, helped by Mr. Pratt who purchased supplies for us, we were able to transport all the files, trophies, ballots, and everything necessary to run a large 16-school tournament.

The results were impressive:
Impromptu
1st.. Tyler Solley

Domestic Extemp
2nd.. Martha Galewski

Foreign Extemp
1st.. Brennan Morris

Constitutional Comm.
2nd.. Gigi Baughman
3rd.. Xing Zhang

Declamation
2nd (tie).. Xing Zhang and Apryl Sands

Poetry
3rd.. Apryl Sands

LD Novice
3rd.. Katherine Hoptiak

Public Forum Novice
1st.. Gerber/ Nell
2nd.. Pionkowski/ Collins

Public Forum Open
1st.. Dungan/ Dungan
2nd.. Pratt/ Morrow
3rd.. McCotter/ McCotter

Congress
5th.. Jackson McGraw

Original Oratory
1st.. Martha Galewski
4th.. Tyler Solley
5th (tie).. Brennan Morris and Gigi Baughman

Laird Lewis a Cautious Success

Posted by Brennan Morris
FGLDS President

Debate often requires a great deal of sacrifice from its students... early mornings loading the bus, late nights in rounds, long trips to tournaments in cities few of the students have ever heard of. But the Laird Lewis Invitational on January 3-6 was, for many, the ultimate in sacrifice... missing out on the four days of Christmas Vacation to compete at a large national tournament in Charlotte, NC.

Though many of the students had to sacrifice to come to the tournament, no one travelled farther than T. Graham Morrow, flying from Niger, through Charles de Galle Airport, and finally picked up by the Pratt family at Dulles.

In getting to the tournament, the R-MA Debate Bus made the circuit from Front Royal, where the files were loaded by John Holsinger and Mr. Gregg, to the Manassas Borders parking lot and picking up most of the students, to Colonial Forge and picking up Nora McCotter, to Durham, NC to pick up our final piece of the puzzle – Allyn Collins. But the trip passed quickly, as the students got reacquainted with one another and got to serious prepping out on the new January Resolution: "Resolved: In a democracy, Civil Disobedience is an appropriate weapon in the fight for justice." As this was a new resolution, the debaters made that commitment to travel to a very tough tournament in order to be the best prepared for NFL Qualifiers/ VaFL States at the end of the month.

Staying in the fabulous Staybridge Suites, following dinner at the only Checkers Dining Room.. complete with roller-skating waitresses, the team worked heavily that morning on the practice rounds before registration. Working so hard, it was a scramble-dash to get to registration before it closed. Scouting out the fabulous Myers Park High School and then hitting Taco Bell for a quick and nutritious meal, we set up our LZ (landing zone) in the cafeteria and prepared for the double-patterned six rounds, bouncing between extemporaneous speaking and Public Forum rounds from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening.

This tournament being one of the few where Mr. Gregg was not in Tab, he prepped out students between rounds and worrying over the judge pools for VaFL States. It was a special and rare treat to the students to be able to have Mr. Gregg on-hand for prep and running arguments past in real-time.

On Saturday, we saw that John Holsinger had broken to semifinals in Declamation and the team of Kaleb Gerber and Marianne Nell had broken to quarterfinals in Public Forum. Following awards and a nerve-wracking easter egg hunt for our portfolios and bags, the first round of the National Public Forum Challenge, sponsored by Crossfire Briefs, began. Our invited team, the team of Morris and Morrow, tried out a new libertarian/ social contract case. The results were not so good; but a valuable lesson was learned – keep the arguments simple and straightforward.
As the tournament ran later than we anticipated, the R-MA team stayed an additional night in the hotel, watching scary movies, doing homework, or engaged in violent Risk games that endlessly reduced one freshman to the small island of Madagascar.

When we returned to campus Monday evening, we found that we had only left a laptop and the entire Africa Extemp File in North Carolina. The laptop was recovered and sent fed ex. The Africa file was devoured by other teams, leaving only an empty husk. Lessons learned: One) Everyone packs their own laptop and puts it in their seat, Two) If 12 boxes of files come off the bus, 12 go back on and to always bolt and load after the last speaker, Three) Prepare even more and review and rewrite cases for NFL States at the end of the month.

Pictures can be found at: http://fglds.pbase.com/