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!