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
NoVaFL 2 Full Results Packets
16 years ago
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