By Marianne Nell and Kaleb Gerber
R-MA took the largest numbers in its history to the WACFL Public Forum Metrofinal tournament at Massaponax High school on Friday, February 29th through Sunday, March 1st. Students only gain entrance to this National Qualifier through placing at a preliminary WACFL tournament in their division. At the end of the tournament, R-MA took two of the top-six places and qualified twice as many teams as last year to CFL Grand Nationals. This year, CFL Grand Nationals will be in Appleton, Wisconsin.
The following members of the R-MA Speech and Debate team attended this tournament: T. Graham Morrow, Valerie Pratt, Marianne Nell, Kaleb Gerber, Will Dungan, and Tommy Forte. Other Junior Varsity and Varsity Public Forum teams also attended this tournament including Whitman, Chantilly, Massaponax, Yorktown, and Broad Run; however, they were categorized into two divisions, Washington and Arlington. The Junior Varsity Public Forum teams were competing simply for recognition and awards, unlike the Varsity Public Forum teams which were competing for one of the six slots to Nationals in Wisconsin.
“Although there were no Whitman teams in Arlington division, the competition was still far steeper than I had imagined” mentioned Tommy Forte after just finishing up a Public Forum round. This WACFL was the first tournament using the March Public Forum resolution, “that the current system of presidential primaries is contrary to democratic values.” The freshness of the resolution made it a difficult topic to debate without prior practice; however, R-MA came prepared and managed to win two of the six National Qualifying slots.
As T. Graham Morrow pointed out, “It was all about effort; I was constantly consulting with my partner and exchanging thoughts with my teammates which I know would eventually help me to succeed.” In conclusion, the tournament was a big success for R-MA. Old friends were greeted, stimulating ideas were exchanged, and overall everyone had a good time. "
Qualifying to CFL Nationals in Public Forum were:
The team of Pratt and Morrow
The team of Forte and Dungan
Pictures available at: http://www.pbase.com/fglds
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