WFTR Radio Shows

Been remiss in getting the WFTR Radio Shows up on the blog....

October 27
Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Election and Universal Health Care
Brennan Morris, Valerie Pratt, Will Dungan, Stephen Maddock
http://www.archive.org/details/RmaDebate10.27.08

October 13
Analysis of the November Public Forum Topic on Universal Health Care
Brennan Morris, John Morgan Christoph, Will Dungan, Paul Smith
http://www.archive.org/details/RmaDebate101308

September 29
Analysis of the October Public Forum Topic on Increasing US Nuclear Energy
Brennan Morris, John Morgan Christoph, Valerie Pratt, Will Dungan
http://www.archive.org/details/rmadebate0929

September 15
Analysis of the September Public Forum Topic
Brennan Morris, John Morgan Christoph, Valerie Pratt, David McAteer
http://www.archive.org/details/Rmadebate09.15.2008a

R-MA Takes Perfect Card at WACFL Speech 1

Setting our goal to post a Perfect Season, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team has completed its final October League Tournament with a perfect Card. This means that R-MA is 3-0 in regular season play -- undefeated in NoVaFL, ShenVaFL, and WACFL.

The Friday night before the tournament, we continued the Friday Practice and Nerditorium Exercise. Working with John Holsinger on his Declamation with the Ducks of Displeasure, we polished his piece to a good hue of confidence and poise. Additionally, Brennan Morris was able to give three exemplar Extemp speeches. While this was going on, the Nerditorium was ambling aimlessly toward developing Role Playing Characters in the Lecture Room... mostly listening to really poor Country music while Ryan rolled around in a wheelchair (not mine -- somehow we have picked up an extra). At the end of the Friday Night Practice, the Nerds had not been able to fully develop their virtual characters while John and Brennan were virtually charactersitically hard-working and driven.

Waking up at 5 in the morning, I had time to compose a cup of espresso before John is dropped off to pack the laptop and help me get the Debate Bus up and rolling to power up the hill to pick up virtually all the speechers. All, with the exception of one, were ready to roll. The exception had developed a mysterious Saturday morning illness that miraculously had cleared up a few hours later for the Asian Outing.

But the indominatable Speechers were able to roll down the hill by 0605 for our Traditional McDonalds Breakfast on the road to Broad Run and WACFL Speech 1.

Now, I love Tom Tom (or, Mr. Tom, as he is known with respect) and he has taken us without a hitch to many a tournament. But when you ask Mr. Tom to avoid a $2 toll road, he will take you through every unmarked and uninhabited road to get to your destination. But get us to Broad Run, Mr. Tom did, and we rolled into the Broad Run parking lot exactly at 0801 to get to the Registration Table and set up Extemp.

During the WACFL Speech Tournament, Broad Run ran its annual Spartan Invitational and I was drafted, while running Extemp Prep, into tabbing the Student Congress Tournament while still pumping out Extempers for their draw and rooms.

The Tournament was fairly uneventful, except for the John Holsinger Comedy Show in Extemp Prep and Ryan getting to use his Cthulu AGD in Extemp (perhaps the last time he will be running in this event), and we got to Awards on time. R-MA was able to place, gain a Metro Qualifier, or Ace in every event in which we entered:

2nd Oral Interp: Ryan Black
3rd Impromptu: Brennan Morris
4th Declamation: John Christoph
4th Oratory: John Holsinger
AQ Declamation: John Holsinger
AQ Extemp: Brennan Morris
Metro Qualifier Extemp: Will Dungan

We needed four Aces (top third of the event) to gain a Perfect Card. We came away with nearly twice that many and placed more than any other school in the Arlington Diocese. This is a great Novice Team! By way of contrast, at the first WACFL Speech last year, we only gained 3 Aces and that dogged us all the way through the season... giving us only 2nd in Speech for the Season... and breaking our 7-year Champion Streak last year. This year, we are loaded for Bear.

As way of celebration, we all had dinner at Don Pablo's homogenous TexMexican Restaurant and reviewed ballots and celebrated Stephen Maddock's unBirthday and marked his meeting quotas for term life insurance policies.

Great thanks to Lauren Burt (Assistant Coach), Tabi Allen (Most Faithful Alumna), Mr. Pratt (president of the FGLDS Booster Society), and Mr. Maddock Sr. -- coming all the way from Washington State to judge.

Our next WACFL Tournament is Saturday, 8 November.

U Penn Champions

Champions! Traveling to the University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic in Philadelphia, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team carried away three Champions –iIn Public Forum Debate (the Team of Pratt and Dungan) and Extemporaneous Speaking (Brennan Morris). This with the break into Semifinal Oratory (John Holsinger and Brennan Morris) marks one of the most successful U Penn experiences to date.

The Liberty Bell Classic featured 890 competitors from 15 states – as far away as Florida, Texas, and Washington State. It features a bid to the prestigious Debate Tournament of Champions (Univ of Kentucky) at Quarterfinals and a bid to the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (Northwestern Univ) at Semifinals in Extemp. R-MA was gratified to receive both bids. Now fully qualified to the Extemp TOC, Brennan Morris has a guaranteed slot to the Northwestern Tournament in May. Valerie and Will have one leg of their bid to Kentucky.

Much thanks goes to our Assistant Coach Lauren Burt and the Head of the Booster Society, Doug Pratt, who both handled a total of 12 rounds of judging and countless hours of onsite counseling and coaching. This is our last national circuit tournament until Villiger at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia at the beginning of Thanksgiving Break. An important tournament, as Brennan has been asked to apply for the $100,000 forensics scholarship through the St. Joseph’s team… a scholarship awarded three years ago to our own Yuliya Orlova.

The day-by-day Blogs are posted below:

Friday, October 17, 2008
Getting on the bus and out the gates at 1300 hrs, we headed out on this bright autumnal day to the 17th annual Liberty Bell Classic at U Penn. snarled for a bit around Baltimore, we were able to arrive on schedule at the hotel to meet up with Mr. Pratt and head out to another authentic Jersey dinner (one of the great traditions of the pre Northeastern tournament trips stretching back forever) to get the kiddies in the Staybridge Suites by the 2200 lights out for the 0600 wake up. A small group on the short bus; but it's looking like it's going to be a great tournament.

Satuday, October 17, 2008
Dang! I don't remember it being this cold at U Penn. Time to crack out the long coats next circuit tournament (Villiger in Philadelphia - right at the start of Thanksgiving Break). The day started at 0600 with breakfast and then a half-hour drive across the Ben Frnaklin bridge into the City of Brotherly Love. U Penn is a nice and compact campus with lots of Starbucks nearby (can someone say oversaturation?). But the smallness of size did not effect the thrills of what came to be known as, 'The John Holsinger Experience.' Like the Las Vegas Star Trek Experience, the John Holsinger Experience features nerds riding up and down a sensory overload where you don't know what's around the next corner. When we arrived, we downloaded the postings to the Czar Phone for where all the speech people were supposed to be. But then we got a call from John in the main hall, saying that the schematics had changed and all the rooms were wrong. So, after feverish calls to our interpers and a message sent to Brennan in Extemp Prep that his oratory room had changed, we thought that had solved the problem. Then 15 minutes later, we got the call from John that he had flipped his and Brennan's room. We sent another runner to Extemp Prep to communicate the third room to Brennan. Then we got a call from the Interpers, saying that the original schematic was right. So we sent another message to Brennan in Extemp with the third room change. By the end of the room changes, Brennan got to his room - but by the second round and had missed speaking in his first round entirely. What a ride! The rest of the day proceeded smoothly and without further mishap. The team of Dungan and Pratt worked hard on Big Picture, while Will was double-entered in Extemp. Andre and Ryan came out of their Interp Rounds very strong, considering both had changed their poetry program the day before. The team of Smith and Maddock crankily ended their day with Paul getting pressed so hard in the last round that he walked over to his opponent and said, "Here, here's the warrant," slapping the card on her desk. The team ended its day at the Star of Sitar Indian Restaurant (helped in its parking by a helpful homeless man) for some incredible and incredibly cheap Indian food. At dinner, we checked Da Czar Phone and found that Brennan had cleared to semis the next morning in Extemp, that John had cleared in Oratory, and that Brennan - even though he had missed a round and was given a low score for no-show, had also cleared to Semis in Extemp. Perhaps the person MOST relieved and excited was John for that clearing. At the end of the day, when Ryan and Mr Gregg returned to our suite, following a conference on his next piece, we were greeted for some reason by a glass of icewater with a thank you from the staff of The John Holsinger Experience.

Sunday, October 19, 2008
Posted: 10:30
The PF went back to campus early (0700) for their 0730 posting, while the rest got to sleep in. As recompense for the schedule, the speechies did get to clean and load the bus. Arriving on campus at 0900, we hurriedly scrambled to relocate the extemp files from one room to another before the 0930 draw. Then settled in for the wait...

Posted: 10:30
Just got news: WILL and VALERIE broke to Octofinals. Have sent them to their room. Congrats, Will and Val, for your first break in the year.

Posted: 11:30
Brennan has advanced to Finals in Extemp. Valerie and Will cleared Octofinals in Public Forum and are now in Quarters. Both oratories advancing to Semis dropped before getting to Finals.

Posted: 12:30
Valerie and Will have cleared Quarters and are now in Semis facing Regis.

Posted: 1:30
Big News.... just phoned-in from Assistant Coach Lauren Burt... The PF Team of Pratt and Dungan cleared their semifinal round and are now in Finals. This tournament was Will's first breaking at a national circuit tournament and Valerie's second - the first being Princeton doubles, clearing to octos. They are now in their round. We have cleared the extemp prep room (after a feverish early morning unannounced move). Students have mostly finished their homework (Smith, Black, Butler, Maddock) are doing it (The John Holsinger), in rounds, or are eating. We are awaiting the outcome of the PF round and Awards in the next hour.

Posted: 3:30
Champions!

R-MA Takes Sweeps at ShenVaFL 1

On Tuesday, 14 October, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team rolled down to Broadway Virginia to compete at the Season Opener for the Shenandoah Valley Forensics League -- a growing league of private and public schools stretching from Winchester down to Buffalo Gap. At the tournament, 16 schools were represented and over 152 competitors in 14 different events.


At this tournament, R-MA leapt ahead of our schools, winning the tournament. Our final score was 79 to Fresta Valley's 59 and Harrisonburg's 58.


Individual Results:

Domestic Extemp: 1 Brennan Morris, 2 Valerie Pratt
Duo: 8 Kaleb Gerber Mary Ann Nell
Foreign Extemp: 1 Will Dungan, 3 Matt Walsh
Impromptu: 3 Will Dungan
Declamation: 1 John Holsinger
Oratory: 1 Brennan Morris, 2 John Holsinger, 4 Valerie Pratt
Poetry: 3 Andre Butler
Prose: 2 Andre Butler
Storytelling: 7 Matt Walsh
Public Forum Novice: 1 Paul Smith and Stephen Maddock
Public Forum JV: 1 Jon Christoph and David McAteer

R-MA Places a Team at WACFL 1 PF

Waking up at the ungodly hour of 5:00 a.m. (for some who misread the schematic, 4:00 a.m.), the R-MA Debate Squad traveled the two hours early in the morning to WACFL PF 1 at Massaponax High School south of Fredericksburg. The results were very good.

The team of Maddock and Smith went an undefeated 4-0 and took 2nd only on 4 adjusted speaker points in JV. The teams of Holsinger and Black, and McAteer and Christoph went 2-2 each. The team of Pratt and Dungan in Varsity had a rougher time, but are resolved to come back with a vengeance.

Joined by alumna Tabi Allen and our Assistant Coach, Lauren Burt, the team had a great first CFL tournament and are optimistic about the future. Dining at the large-quantitied, but poorly seasoned Golden Corral for dinner, the R-MA Debate Team returned late to campus, after a 15-hour day, at 9:00 p.m.

R-MA Victorious at first local NoVaFL

On Wednesday, 8 October, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team traveled to NoVaFL 1, hosted by Battlefield HS. Of the 15 schools and 164 entries, R-MA took on strong and seasoned competition from the largest schools in Northern Virginia... 12 schools with enrollments of 1,000-2,000.

In this arena, R-MA took 86 points to Edison's 66 points and West Springfield's 56. Our fairly novice team showed their mettle and everyone came home with an award.

The full results follow:
Domestic Extemp
2 Evan Pionkowski Randolph Macon Acad. 3 2 5
6 John Holsinger Randolph Macon Acad. 6 7 13

Dramatic Interp
2 1302 Evan Pionkowski Randolph Macon Acad. 2 2 4

Extemp Commentary
2 401 William Brown Randolph Macon Acad. 2 2 4

Foreign Extemp
1 301 Brennan Morris Randolph Macon Acad. 1 1 2

Humorous Intep
3 1201 Ryan Black Randolph Macon Acad. 2 4 6

Impromptu
2T 105 Brennan Morris Randolph Macon Acad. 1 2 3

Oratory
2T 502 John Holsinger Randolph Macon Acad. 2 3 5

Poetry
6T 803 Dominique Attanasio Randolph Macon Acad. 4 3 7

PF Novice Top Speakers
5T. Randolph Macon Academy Stephen Maddock 42.00

PF Novice Placements
2T. Randolph Macon Academy SM (Ryan Smith & Stephen Maddock) 2 80 27 -27 5 .65 717

PF Open Top Speakers
1. Randolph Macon Will Dungan 45.00
2T. Randolph Macon Valerie Pratt 43.00
4T. Randolph Macon Kaleb Gerber 42.00 14.00

PF Open Placement
1T. Randolph Macon PD (Valerie Pratt & Will Dungan) 3 88 29 -29 2 3.16 470
1T. Randolph Macon GN (Caleb Gerber & Mary Ann Nell) 3 82.5 27.5 -27.5 3 1.56 233
1T. Randolph Macon MM (David McAteer & David MacAteer) 3 81 26 -26 1 .95 901

Student Congress
2T. Randolph-Macon Academy Jackson McGraw

WFTR First October PF Resolution Briefing

On Monday, 29 September, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team again hit the airwaves to have a wild time arguing and counterarguing the recent PF Resolution and argue the merits of the increased use of nuclear energy. So, in disputing the merits of cheap power, the dangers of nuclear waste, and calculating time in measurements of Herndons, we had a great time and wanted to share it with you:

http://www.archive.org/download/rmadebate0929/rmadebate0929_vbr.m3u

2008/09 R-MA Speech/Debate Varsity Team

After two tournaments and with the evaluation of the coaches, we are proud to announce the R-MA Speech and Debate Varsity Team for 2008/09:

Dominique Attanasio, Ryan Black,
Andre Butler, John Morgan Christoph, Will Dungan, Kleb Gerber, John Holsinger, Stephen Maddock, Brennan Morris, Marianne Nell, Evan Pionkowski, Valerie Pratt, Paul Smith

Middle School JV Captain:
Jackson McGraw

Students signified their acceptance of the Varsity position offered by being present for the Varsity portrait at the Cadet Statue directly following Retreat Formation.

Varsity Speech and Debate must maintain a 3.3 GPA. Those not maintaining this minimum are placed on probation and are to present Academic Accountability Cards in each of their classes.

We are very proud of this year's team and believe that they will add to the winning tradition of R-MA Speech and Debate.
~bag

Yale Report

We had an unexpected, but welcomed guest, Dean Jonathan Ezell, along with us on this tournament. The Dean decided that it was time to see just what R-MA Debate does on one of these large national-circuit tournaments and was very pleased at the respect our team garners on the national level, the professionalism of our students, and the sheer magnitude of what a national circuit tournament entails.

Leaving R-MA at 1315 hrs, we settled down to delightful sack lunches as we rolled the Debate Bus through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania... stopping for gas and snacks around 1700 hrs. Pressing on through the rest of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, past New York (always the Tappan Zee Bridge), and into Connecticut, we stopped for authentic dinner food at the Athenian Diner about 30 minutes (half a Herndon) away from New Haven. We always like to stop at an authentic regional restaurant to load up on comfort food and get acclimated to a new area. Rolling into the hotel (always Holiday Inn Express), we started the team meeting around 2230 and got the assessment that we were six shoes shy of a full wardrobe, as well as numerous umbrellas were missing. Not bad for 14 teenagers. Getting into bed at 2300 for lights out, the students stayed asleep until wake up at 0700 and breakfast at 0800.

We then commenced, with the help of Coach Burt, a 4-round Round Robin in Public Forum while Da Czar worked with the Speech students beside the pool for the poor acoustics and sound distractions (if they can speak in a pool, they can speak in a round).

Heading into New Haven for Registration and a late lunch around 1400hrs, the students were dropped off to explore the city and find the best places to eat with the Assistant Coach, while the Dean and Czar tried with some success to find a restaurant where you could park a bus (GoodFellas... a mafia-themed restaurant that played on the overhead flatscreens Casino, Goodfellas, Scarface, and another mafia flick all at the same time). Picking up the team after their traditional photo outside the Skull and Bones around 1600hrs, we took the public forum teams and the Assistant Coach to the Cooperative Arts High School where PF rounds would be held. Then the speechies and Da Czar headed back to the hotel for rounds with Mr. Pratt, who came up to help out and Da Czar. Picking up the PF Squad around 9 p.m., the team had some authentic New York/Haven pizza before heading to bed at 10p for the next day.

Rising at 6:00 a.m., the entire team headed to New Haven and Yale for the Saturday competition. Rising early, we secured our traditional parking space at the gate of Yale, under the arch, where the bus remained until we left campus at 9:00 p.m. With Mr. Pratt's chase vehicle minivan, were were able to shuttle Public Forum to the Cooperative Arts High School and get our lone Congressor, Jackson McGraw, across campus for his long day in chambers. Settling in with the Speechers, at Yale, we rolled them out for their rounds and got them into the rooms. As it was the first speech outing for many of them, they were nervous but excited. To quote Dominque Attanasio at her first tournament, "I was incredibly scared just before it was my turn to speak; but I didn't want to let the team down and I got up and did it. And it felt WONDERFUL!" Andre Butler said, "That round was flawless and I held them from the moment I got up." Evan Pionkowski said, "It was my first time with a new piece, but I felt like I was connecting." Ryan Black said, "This beats LARPA (Live Action Role Play). But the costumes could be better."

With Da Czar rolling around New Haven in the chase vehicle, getting sandwiches, water, and students dropped off where they needed to be, the tournament ran faster than ever for him. To quote: "I got lost, lost, and lost even with GPS." Leaving campus at 9:00 p.m., following a New Haven dinner, we returned to the hotel to await postings. Veteran Brennan Morris double-broke into Quarters for Oratory and Extemp.

Coming to Yale early on Sunday morning, we again hit our parking sweet spot, got Brennan to his rounds, and waited for the news and did homework. Breaking past Quarters in both events, Oratory and Extemp, Brennan was busy being in two different rooms across campus at the same time in the same speaking order. Dropping at Semis, we were able to head back to R-MA around 1400hrs and get on campus around 2300hrs.

Yale is our farthest circuit tournament, but was a great success for our students, breaking into semis in two events and then having a good win/loss record in debate, plus testing out new pieces at the national circuit, we look forward to our next local tournament on October 8 at Battlefield High School.

Thanks to Dean Ezell, Mr. Pratt, and Lauren Burt for making Yale a smooth tournament and a memorable one.

MVP: Brennan Morris
Novice MVP: Andre Butler (receiving the Yale sweatshirt for a rank of "1" in his first round.
Trouper: the team of Nell and Gerber

Yale Report - A Parent's Perspective

The Yale Classic debate tournament was quite an event, with teams from all around the East Coast. I counted two dozen schools on the various papers posted around the judge's lounge, and I'm sure there were many more. Our team went to compete in Public Forum debate, Oral Interpretation (Poetry and Prose), Congress and Extemp. The team bus blasted off from campus on Thursday afternoon, and I arrived in New Haven Friday morning. My role was judging Interpretation events, helping out the team with practice sessions wherever I could, and using my car to ferry team members to the buildings where their events were held.

Yale...what a beautiful campus. Or at least, I'm sure it's beautiful when it's not dripping. The weather all weekend ranged from thick, oily mist to frog-choking downpour and all the stops in between. Mr Gregg, ever the master of logistics, parked the team bus under an archway behind the building housing the main debate offices, so we had a dry center of operations.

The event was spread all over New Haven in various Yale buildings. Frankly, I don't see how they expected people to get around, especially considering the lousy weather. As I made my way around the city trying to find which cathedral-like building housed the current round of Interp or Extemp that my passenger needed to attend, I couldn't help but admire the grand architecture, the ancient trees, the many small parks, and the strange twisted logic that laid the whole city out in streets that are one-way the wrong way.

Thank God for a GPS receiver that could punch through the cloud cover. I delivered our Congresser, Jackson, to the outside of the building for the morning session and he battled his way to the right room. He ended up delivering two speeches in the first session, a strong performance. Our new Assistant Coach, Lauren Burt, was Virginia state champion in Congress in her senior year at Westfield High School, and she has been encouraging more interest in the event among the R-MA kids. Lauren is a superb debater, organized to the hilt, respected by the team and very knowledgeable. She's going to make a big difference this year.

Our Public Forum teams did better at Yale than at the Wake Forest event two weeks ago, but no one broke to eliminations. They're already at work on next month's resolution, and I think we'll see some awards coming home from the next big event (Liberty Bell Classic in Philadelphia, Oct. 17-19). They will have a local WACFL (Washington Area Catholic Forensics League...don't feel bad, the acronyms still confuse the heck out of me) meet at Massaponax on October 11 to tune up for Philly. This month's resolution involves nuclear power, and energy is a hot political issue, so the team has a lot of passion for the subject. I like what I'm hearing in practice rounds, and Lauren is drilling the kids individually to improve their performances. This is going to be good.

When I got my judging assignments I started to appreciate tournaments that are held in one building. After being deposited on the corner of an ornate Yale structure, I usually had to walk around at least three sides of it, trying doors along my way until I encountered one that was open. In the first building I mis-read my judging sheet and spent ten minutes looking for a room on the third floor that didn't exist. Since the elevators weren't working, I found a stairwell at the rear and made another discovery: you could get into the stairwell but not out. Banging on a succession of doors led to my eventual rescue. Thanks to another judge who had made the same mistake I did, I found a room full of Prose Interpers waiting for me in the basement.

I think I've figured out how Yale works. If you can figure out the campus in four years, you get a degree.

The rounds of Interpers I judged were uniformly excellent, making it very hard to rank them. I have to say, I didn't see any performance that was stronger than our kids had shown me in practice sessions. I think we could do quite well in Oral Interpretation with more practice; our kids have selected strong material and they are getting very good with it. The problem is always how to stand out from the crowd. Win or lose, though, the ability to stand up and do a poem or a dramatic reading is something they will value the rest of their lives. I know it's come in handy for me.

Our Captain, Brennan Morris, broke to semifinals in Extemp only to be brought up short by a challenge to a source. Because of a quirk in our filing system and bad timing in general, the situation couldn't be resolved. Brennan, being the positive man that he is, immediately set about completely revising the Extemp filing system and re-doing the files so as to be prepared for a similar situation. He's been at it all week with help from the rest of the team; it's a big job. Personally, I'm proud of Brennan for the way he handled himself in a difficult situation. I have seen many older men who did not exhibit as much poise and maturity.

I think we were all ready to head for home Sunday afternoon as we splashed our way out of Connecticut. The sun broke through the clouds when we got out of New Jersey and smiled on us all the way down I-81. I got home, mega-dosed the Vitamin C, and conked out. But the sore throat that had started up late Sunday still whacked me the next day; too many miles and too much rain for the old immune system. That's why it took me a week to get around to writing the report. I'll do better this month. We should have some pictures pretty soon, too.
Submitted by Douglas Pratt,
FGLDS Booster President