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.