Holiday radio show

Even though the school is on Christmas break, Valerie and I traveled to WMAL for our biweekly talk show...it's too much fun to skip. Here is the link to the podcast.

http://www.archive.org/details/20101220RMA

WFTR radio show, December 6, 2010

Here's the link to the podcast of our WFTR radio show. A lively one, with topics ranging (and deranging) from Wikileaks to California's gay marriage proposition with some economics and demographics thrown in for good measure. Our moderator is Team Captain Valerie Pratt, and our guests are Tyler Atkinson, John Christoph, Alex Neumeier and Micah Peregrino.

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaRadioClubhouse12610

Freezing in New Jersey

Princeton pictures from Sunday afternoon before we headed for home. I think Jackson has recovered.

We had a great time, and our kids did surprisingly well. Our Varsity LDer and one of our JV LDers, Ben Nelson, were one win away from breaking into final rounds. All of our folks got good speaker points. There's no experience to compare with a tournament with 800 schools in it. This weekend when we have a WACFL tournament at Westfield High School, we'll be fresh from Princeton and loaded for bear.

The Princeton campus itself is worth the trip. It looks like they could have shot the Harry Potter movies there...after all, the debating society that ran the tournament was founded by Woodrow Wilson. I also want to put in a good word for the Candlewood Suites hotel where we stayed. They very kindly moved their breakfast up an hour earlier than usual, so we could get to the competition on time Saturday morning.

Princeton Saturday

We're wrapping up an exhausting day at Princeton. Our competitors are done; all did well but no one broke. Pictures tomorrow. Coach Taafel and I have to judge a round of the finals tomorrow morning, but the kids can sleep in.

All our novices did quite well considering this is their first national tournament experience. It was a great way to prepare for GMU next month and U Penn in February. Princeton is an amazing campus, and New Jersey was nice enough not to snow on us this year.

Our Varsity LDer, John Christoph, just missed breaking in a very strong field. Our Varsity PF team, Valerie Pratt and Jackson Mcgraw, were charging hard through the first three rounds when things got interesting. Jackson developed stomach pains and we took him to the hospital. To our great relief he's fine now, but the team had to drop out of the tournament.

Things do happen on debate trips. For me, it's great to see the enthusiasm and great attitudes...all of our kids are real troopers. You can't measure that with trophies.

Princeton!

We made it! Better yet, all of our novice LDers cleared the waiting list, so everyone is competing! We ran into our old friend Ryan Black on the way to the first round.

Princeton Classic schedule

Friday morning, we're on our way to New Jersey for the Princeton Classic tournament! We'll have two teams in Public Forum, and John Christoph will be in Varsity Lincoln Douglas; our three Novice LDers are on the waiting list and will very likely get a chance to compete, but will at least observe rounds at one of the premier tournaments in the country. Over 800 schools are competing this year. Here is the schedule:

Friday: LD on campus, PF at Princeton HS

2:30-4:00 Registration in McCosh

5:00 Round 1

7:00 Round 2

Saturday on Princeton campus GA/JA in McCosh

8:00 Round 3

10:30 Round 4

1:00 Round 5

3:30 Round 6

6:00 VLD 7, NLD & PF Double Ocs

Sunday on Princeton campus (McCosh)

8:00 VLD Double Ocs

9:00 PF & NLD Octos

10:30 VLD Octos, PF & NLD Quarters

11:45 VLD Quarters, PF & NLD Semis

1:00 PF & NLD Finals, VLD Semis

2:00 VLD Finals

3:00 Awards

 

We're baaaack!

After a month's hiatus due to scheduling difficulties, we assaulted the airwaves once again yesterday with our WFTR Radio Forum! Here's the link to the podcast:

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaSpeechDebateRadioClubhouse

Team Captain Valerie Pratt moderated, and we had a lively guest panel consisting of Ben Nelson, Tyler Atkinson, Alex Neumeier, Ben Schoonover and Marc Eichenwald. Oddly enough, little was said about last week's election. We thoroughly investigated America's relationship with India and had a lot of fun with California's recent rejection of legalized marijuana.

If WFTR doesn't get a nasty warning message (in Morse code) from the FCC, we'll do it again in two weeks!

Podcast link

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaRadioClubhouse_285

There's the link to our latest Radio Forum broadcast, from Monday night.

WFTR Radio Show, Facebook connection

We're on the air today at 6 pm on WFTR, 1450 AM. If you're in Warren County and can hear us, you can hit our Facebook page and we'll post your comments (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/R-MA-Debate-Team-Radio-Forum/239081184725)... at least, we will if we can get the Internet connection working. This is as close as we can get to a live phone-in format. (Anyone know how to use Twitter?)

WFTR podcast

Here is the link to the podcast of our Radio Forum on WFTR, Monday September 13:

 

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaSpeechDebateRadioShow_43

 

Back on the air!

WFTR has not only survived years of debaters on the airwaves, they keep inviting us back for more! We should have the podcast available for download tomorrow.

Wake wrap

None of our teams broke to finals. But all three of our judges had to judge the last round of the day, so we were all pretty tired when we made it back to the hotel and conked out. Getting organized now for breakfast and the trip home.

Even though we didn't win anything, it was an excellent tournament. Our freshmen got a chance to see what debate is all about. They learned on their feet, rewrote and tweaked their cases, shared and helped each other, and had a great time. Two judges told me how impressed they were with our kids. We accomplished a lot on this trip.

Last round

The teams are off to the last rounds of the day. It's raining, we're all tired and a bit bedraggled...and looking forward to dinner and the hotel. We have to stick around until 1930 to find out if anyone broke to octofinals, and if any of our judges are needed. We've spent a lot of time discussing the cases we've heard and tweaking our own. Spirits are high. Our freshmen are having a great time and eager to tackle the next tournament now that they've seen what it's like.

Wake Saturday

We made it to Saturday rounds on time, thanks to the fact that Valerie cooked breakfast for everyone...one advantage of staying in a hotel with suites. Wake Forest is a beautiful campus, and all of our rounds are in buildings that are close to each other, thank goodness.

We're at Wake!

First round is over. One more round tonight.

On the way to Wake

Wake schedule

The schedule for this week's Wake Forest Earlybird Tournament is up on our cell-phone-friendly page. If your phone can browse the Web, point the browser at debatealert.net.

 

Team practice

Fwd: 2010 Wake Forest University Tournament entries

We're lined up for the first tournament of the year, the Early Bird at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. We're taking four Public Forum teams:

John Christoph - Peter Jin
Jackson McGraw - Tyler Atkinson
Valerie Pratt - Jonathan Pedersen
Micah Peregrino - Ben Nelson

We'll head out Friday morning (September 10) and the first round is Friday afternoon. This year I have resolved to take more pictures and put them up here where people can see them, and I've figured out how to do that from my cell phone, so we'll give it a try. They probably won't be very good pictures, but that's probably better than no pictures at all. I hope.

Last week we met our new coach, James Taafel, who was one of Mr. Gregg's star debaters and has returned to teach at R-MA. This is going to be a great year!

New Year!

We're on our way for another year of R-MA Speech and Debate! Our first tournament will be in only three weeks: the Early Bird at Wake Forest, September 10-12. Returners are pulling together and working on the topic (off shore drilling). Next Tuesday is Registration, so check with Valerie at the Debate table when you check in. Watch this space for practice schedules. We will be starting up the WFTR Radio Forum programs this month too, every other Monday like we did last year.

May 31 WFTR Radio Forum

Our last Radio Forum show for this year is in the can. We taped it for broadcast on May 31 to give Lonnie the Station Manager a chance to have an actual holiday on Monday. For those of you outside the WFTR broadcast area, here's the link to the podcast: http://www.archive.org/details/20100531RMA

We'll be back on the air when school starts in the fall...we're already making plans! Our undying gratitude to Lonnie and WFTR for giving us the chance to do an actual radio talk show. It's a genuine thrill and a lot of fun.

May 17 Show Podcast

Here is the link to the podcast of our latest WFTR Radio Forum! David McAteer's final performance, since he's graduating this year. A very, well, maybe "lively" is a good word, show.

 

http://www.archive.org/details/RMA20100517

On the air again!

We're on the air again on Monday May 17 at 6 pm on WFTR-AM! If you're close, listen to us at 1450 AM. If you're not, catch our podcasts, linked here. If you want to join in, hit our Facebook page and we'll read your comments on the air!

May 3 Radio Show

Kicking off the merry month of May is our latest edition of the R-MA Speech and Debate Team Forum on WFTR-AM! Moderator Valerie Pratt was joined by David McAteer, Jon Pedersen, Jessica Vaughn and Jackson McGraw. Topics included the Gulf oil spill, the car bomb in Times Square, and why Valerie's dad can't seem to get the bumper music to come up on cue.

 

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaSpeechDebateRadioShow20100503

 

 

 

April 19 WFTR Radio Show

Here's the link to the podcast of our latest Radio Forum:

http://www.archive.org/edit/RmaSpeechDebateRadioShow20100419

Our moderator was Team Captain Valerie Pratt, and our guests were Jon Pedersen, Peter Jin and Ben Schoonover. A grand old time was had.

WFTR radio show, Spring Break edition

Everyone is away on Spring Break, but we did the radio show anyway, with moderator Valerie Pratt and faithful lone team member Jonathan Pedersen. In spite of the old man wanting to talk about NASA and Jon wanting to talk about Chinese drywall, we still managed to talk about health care.

We have an absolute blast doing these shows, and if you listen to the podcasts you can tell. When we come into the studio we're always thinking, "Can I think of enough interesting things to say to make it through the hour?" Then, 50 minutes later, we're thinking "The show's almost over? But I've got more to say!"

Thanks again to Lonnie at WFTR for always being glad to see us. Maybe the Starbucks coffee we bring helps.

 

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaRadioClubhouse

 

 

Our latest radio show podcast

Salt! And health care!

http://www.archive.org/details/RandolphMaconAcademyRadioClubhouse

 

Radio Forum, March 8 edition

We had a lively show on Monday! Co-Captains David McAteer and Valerie Pratt led the discussion, and our guests were team members Jon Pedersen, Jackson McGraw and Jessica Vaughan. We talked about politics, health care, runaway Toyotas and more. Here is the link to the podcast:

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaSpeechDebate20100308

 

Participate in our next Radio Forum!

On our WFTR Radio Forum  yesterday, we talked about some outreach...namely, encouraging listeners to participate. We have one part of it set up now. If listening to our podcasts inspires you to think of a topic we should cover, or you have comments about something we've discussed, send us an email at debate@rma.edu. We're working on setting up a Facebook page and a Twitter feed as well, but the email is in place now. Bring it on!

Podcast of our February 22 radio show

Other than the old man's usual miscues, this was a good one! Lively discussions on books, politics, health care...it got interesting on gays in the military.

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaSpeechDebateRadioForum

 

Snowed out

The snowstorm shut down the school, for the first time in years, and also cancelled our trip to Philadelphia. Darn.

Snowpocalypse

Looks as though we're not going to be able to do the radio show tomorrow night (Feb 8) due to the ridiculous snowstorm. Rats.

On the other hand, Friday we're headed for the Liberty Bell Classic tournament at U Penn! Last year Valerie Pratt and Will Dungan took first place in Public Forum at the LBC, so we have great memories of U Penn that do not involve cheesesteak. This year Valerie and Jackson McGraw are doing Congress, Peter Jin is doing Lincoln Douglas, and Jessica Vaughn and David McAteer are teaming up for Public Forum.

Link to 1/25/10 Radio Forum podcast

http://www.archive.org/details/RmaSpeechAndDebate

Doug Pratt
www.pratthobbies.com

"When you harbor bitterness, happiness docks elsewhere."
--Mark Twain

Radio Forum, Monday January 25

Monday's radio show was excellent. I'll post the link as soon as I get it, but meanwhile here is a peek into the WFTR studio!

WACFL 4

Lake Braddock High School... We had a big crew this time! We had two PF teams: McAteer and Kolton, and Vaughn and Adams. McGraw, Pedersen and Skeffington did Congress, and Coach Burt ran a room. Pratt did her first tournament in Extemp, and did well. Christoph and Jin did Lincoln Douglas, and Christoph took second place in Novice! A very good day for everybody.

Podcast of WFTR radio show from January 11

Here is the link to the podcast of yesterday's Radio Forum! Excellent show, lots of fun. Our guests were Jessica Vaughn, Peter Jin and David McAteer, led as usual by Coach Lauren Burt and Captain Valerie Pratt.

 

http://www.archive.org/details/20100111RmaRadioClubhouse

 

 

 

Next radio show Monday, January 11

We'll be back on the air on Monday January 11 at 6 pm on WFTR-AM! I'm trying to set up a Facebook page so people can send messages to us during the show, but I'm fumbling around a lot. If I can get the Facebook thing figured out I'll try for a Twitter feed.