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.