Georgetown Semifinalists

On February 29, 2007 most of the Randolph-Macon Academy Pubic Forum teams left for metros; however, there were still a couple of teams that were left at school. The following morning, on March 1, the teams of Brennan Morris and Martha Galewski, Gigi Baughman and Evan Pionkowski, and John Holsinger and Apryl Sands, left the Georgetown Pubic Forum tournament. Since Mr. Gregg had to be with the qualifying public forum teams, the Georgetown crew left with Mr. Rider on an R-MA van. The whole way to the tournament the team was dead asleep. Arriving just before rounds, the team registered and met together to discuss some key tactics. “I am confident in our teams ability,” stated Brennan.

At the tournaments there were teams from as far as Casper, Wyoming. After the groups first round, they met together and discussed some strategies and cases that other teams were using. Ms. Fitzgerald kindly went out and bought the team Smart Water in order to keep them hydrated throughout the day. After grabbing some pop tarts, energy drinks, and water, everyone was ready for their second round. “ We have some good competition, but we are ready!” exclaimed freshman John Holsinger.

One second round was over, it was time for a lunch break. Everyone was given three hours to roam the campus and to get lunch. Without known that a Chipotle lunch was being provided by the generous Georgetown tournament staff, Martha and Brennan decided to explore the town of Georgetown and grab some Mexican food at a local restaurant. Martha, determined to find a dress for military ball, dragged Brennan with her to find a dress. “ Brennan was extremely patient and helpful, he is an amazing friend,” stated senior Martha Galewski.

Meanwhile, back on campus, the rest of the team walked around a bit and took some time to relax. “ The campus is absolutely gorgeous. All I can say is Wow!” commented freshman Apryl Sands, “ It’s just feels so peaceful and tranquil here.” At this point in time, all the students at Georgetown were on spring break, which left the whole campus to the debate teams. Nevertheless, the team didn’t neglect to take advantage of all of their opportunities, such as the free computers and internet. Senior Gigi Baughman was the first to check her email, look up statistics for her case, and of course check her facebook. “ It’s really nice because at tournaments such as these, you meet new people from all around the country and become friends with them. The best part about it is that it’s so easy to stay in contact with them through facebook, so checking it is half the fun.”

The team finished their last two rounds by four o’clock. Unsuccessful in her previous attempt to find a dress, Martha signed out with Max and went shopping yet again. Meanwhile, Ms. Fitzgerald drove the rest of the team in her car to a restaurant in Washington D.C. to grab some dinner. “The food was rich in flavor, and after a day of competing there is nothing better than a good meal,” commented John Holsinger.

After dinner the team retreated back to the Holiday Inn hotel, where they hung out with each other and watched TV. Later that night the whole team, including Mr. Gregg, Tommy Forte , Will Dungan, and Graham Morrow met up in the luxurious high rise restaurant at the top of the hotel. “ You can see all of D.C. from here,” noted Graham.

After some hearty food the team prepared for the next day to come and headed to bed. In the morning, everyone was up and ready on time. Once arriving to campus they enjoyed a delicious continental breakfast, yet again provided by the Georgetown tournament staff. The team had two more rounds to conquer. The team excelled in their diligence, and worked together very well. Both the teams of Galewski/ Morris and Pionkowski/ McCotter cleared to semifinals.

After some lunch, Mr. Gregg allowed the team to go shopping in Georgetown. Everyone found something that they really enjoyed. “I found the coolest blue shoes ever and bought them,” said Will Dungan enthusiastically.

On the way back the team reminisced over the past two days and discussed future tournaments. Georgetown was a fantastic tournament and a great bonding experience.

R-MA Breaks Record Number at Harvard

Brennan Morris

FGLDS President

Harvard, it’s day three and the first day of competition. We woke up bright and early at 6:00 am, went through our basic hygienic motions (I hope), got dressed, and headed to the bus. All the while eating breakfast between said actions. Once we were on our way to the Harvard campus, the Public Forum students began to check out their cases and talk amongst themselves about what they could do to win the day. The Orators went over their brand new lines and there were a handful of jokes told to keep up the good mood. When we arrived at the campus, we all unloaded the bus and shuffled our way through the crowds to double check our postings. When everyone was sure of their rooms and we had all acquired our flow-pads and water bottles, the PF students went off to their rounds while the Orators and Extempers awaited their rounds to begin about an hour later.

Once our rounds had gone off, there was a great relief in having finally begun the competition part of the tournament. After the round, we convened as a team to discuss how our rounds went and to grab a bite to eat. The Public Forum students discussed their arguments and how the rounds took place, while the Speech kids had a few hours to catch their breath before their next round. Many people exclaimed: “Wow, we have a lot of time before our next round.” Because of this, most speech kids had plenty of time to reunite with friends from past tournaments, and students who went to GMIF, a summer speech program (Gigi Baughman, Tyler Solley, Martha Galewski, and Brennan Morris) were able to catch up with a tight knit group from the camp this past summer. Finally, the last rounds of day one went off, and after that we met up at the bus. We went out to dinner to replenish ourselves after a long day of hard work. Once we had returned to the hotel (read Air Force Base), we all took a moment to relax, before finally going to bed.

The next day, we repeated our basic beginnings and headed out again for the Harvard campus. This day would include the rest of PF preliminary rounds, two more OO pre-lims, plus OO Octas and Quarters, Extemp’s fourth pre-lim, and the same out rounds. The day started out strong as all the orators were reporting a good third round, and the PF kids were saying the same. We all continued through our next rounds, getting food when applicable and moving strong through our competition. Before we knew it, it was time for Extemp to post Octafinals. As we all hoped he would, Brennan Morris broke to Octas, and later that day, to Quarters in Extemp. Then there was OO. Tyler Solley, Martha Galewski, and Brennan, all broke to Octas in OO. In the late evening, Public Forum broke to Triple Octafinals, and due to stiff competition, none of our PF teams broke. However, seeing as they are all first year PF teams at one of the top 5 hardest tournaments of the year, it was definitely not a loss. Most of our teams had a 3-3 record, so they got pretty close. Overall it was a rather successful tournament as far as competition goes.

Finally, on the last day of Harvard (omitting the travel on Tuesday), we had some time to relax a little bit. The Public Forum students went on to watch the PF semi final rounds and the PF final round. The Speech students had time to get work done on the internet and visit the Harvard Bookstore. We had a lot of fun that day. Then, later on around 5:00 pm, we went to have dinner at Grafton Street, which is a very nice restaurant right off of the Harvard Campus. We enjoyed a nice meal and conversed about our amazing experience at the tournament. There was a lot of joy and general light heartedness at the meal. That night we had fun relaxing and packing up for travel the next day.

In the end, Harvard was a great experience. We had a ton of fun and we were very successful as a whole. The team truly came out of this tournament closer than we had ever been before. We learned that by working together, we could make a tournament that was extremely close to not happening, happen in a fashion that was nonpareil to any other team in the nation. It was an amazing experience that I believe we will all remember for years to come.

Pictures available at: http://pbase.com/fglds

Cary Academy Report

Posted by John Holsinger

Logistics Captain

On Friday, February 1, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team traveled to the Charger Classic, held at Cary Academy in Cary, NC. This tournament offered incredible preparation for Harvard and put our teams against the best Public Forum competition in the South.

The campus at Cary was amazing. During the day, Extemp Prep was held in the beautiful library that was basically in the center of the campus. Public Forum and Speech events were held in the other buildings on campus. We sent seven Public Forum teams and one Extemper, Brennan Morris.

As for the nights, while the guys had to stay at a Holiday Inn the girls got to stay at the Collin’s house thanks to their hospitality. Mrs. Collins is great cook and hostess. Also, thank you to Mr. Collins for driving the girls to Starbucks the morning of the tournament and allowing us to pick up coffee.

The tournament itself was 4 rounds of public fourm and for out one extemper 4 rounds of foreign extemp and 4 rounds of domestic extemp totaling up to a grueling 8 rounds total! We made sure that he kept up his strength though by leaving him a chewy bar and an energy drink next to the extemp boxes between every round. The awards ceremony was held in the huge auditorium. Before the ceremony began a band, that was interesting to say the least, performed a few of it’s original music for the waiting tournament participants.

Finally, they started announcing the results, for public forum junior varsity – team Xing and McAteer received honorable mention. For varsity – team Pratt and Morrow also received an honorable mention. Then finally extemp was announced, first came foreign – which Brennan received first in. Then came domestic – which Brennan received second in. Then came an unexpected award, an overall Extemp award for people who participated in both. Brennan also took this award, too.

R-MA State Champions

In competing at one of the largest NFL Qualifying tournaments in the nation, in the nation’s largest District, R-MA came to the campus of Robinson High School and George Mason University loaded to bear and ready to take heads on January 25/26. Bear was found and heads taken, as R-MA took once again the Championship Cup for NFL States – the most competitive tournament in Virginia.

Following a long finals week and extensive practices, the R-MA Speech and Debate Team was ready for this long-awaited tournament. Not only was the state championship in the largest and most comprehensive state league in Virginia on the line, but – most importantly for the kids – the top three entries in each event gained their slot at NFL Nationals held this year in Las Vegas in June.

As Rev. Gregg is the State Chair and Tournament Director, for about two weeks before the tournament he was "up to my nethers in alligators" and really wasn’t able to devote the time in the second-half of the month as he was in the first-half to ensure that teams were working. Quoting Mr. Gregg, "This is where the sacrifice of Myers Park pays off– getting the extra rounds on the resolution and knowing the arguments. The rest, kids, is up to you and your desire. The ‘Screwing Around Light’ if off and the ‘Get Your Crap Together Light’ is on and blinking."

Ably helped by Captain Brennan Morris, the Public Forum teams were prepped and ran an incredible number of rounds. Returners Gigi Baughman and Martha Galewski, as well as other members of the team, stepped in to make sure that we would have solid PF representation at this tournament. Civil Disobedience was argued, counter-argued, and counter-counter argued over the month. Feet of files were filed in the appropriate continent – yes, Africa had been rebuilt and was better, stronger, faster than before – and rounds were prepped.

On a sad note, due to an overlooked infraction, one of our strong PF team members was restricted to campus. His partner, as a real step-up kinda guy, asked to be added into Lincoln Douglas Debate, though he had never debated this form of debate before, as well as went triple-entered in Foreign Extemp and Congress. But the student restricted really showed incredible amounts of character... coming in on Thursday afternoon and preparing the call-up team of Mangen and McCotter with his case and arguments, working with the team that would be taking his place. As Rev. Gregg put it, "I know of few adults who have the greatness of heart and solid character to show that kind of self-sacrifice. But that wasn’t the end of the work... Tommy woke up at 6:00 a.m. on Friday and was there, lugging boxes, crates, files, and luggage to the bus to see of his team. Of all my years of coaching, I have seldom seen such remarkable self-sacrifice in a student."

Loading the bus to the gills... bringing over 18 boxes of trophies, four printers, three laptops, boxes of ballots and forms, 12 huge file boxes of extemp, four cases of water, two cases of energy drinks, and three cases of food, flowpads, and pens... the R-MA Speech and Debate machine showed its full power at the tournament, taking home the State Championship for the fourth consecutive year, as well as The American Legion School of Excellence Award in Public Forum and Student Congress, the George Mason School of Excellence Award in Speech, the Cardinal Cup Champion for Large-School Sweepstakes, and – for the second time in only three years – the NFL Traveling Trophy.

Students saw huge successes at this tournament:
Brennan Morris, 1st in Foreign Extemp, 2nd in Oratory, 5th in the Senate (National Qualifier).
Valerie Pratt, 2nd in Public Forum, Semifinals in Domestic Extemp (National Qualifier).
Martha Galewski, 2nd in Domestic Extemp and 3rd in Oratory (Nationals Qualifier).
KC Mangen and Nora McCotter, 3rd in Public Forum (National Qualifier).
Max Ramundo, 3rd in Domestic Extemp (Nationals Qualifier).
Kaleb Gerber and Marianne Nell, 5th in Public Forum (National Qualifier).
Will Dungan, 5th in Foreign Extemp, Octofinals in LD Debate
Katie Hoptiak, Semifinals in Foreign Extemp and Quarterfinals in LD Debate.
Evan Pionkowski, Semifinals in Domestic Extemp and Quarterfinals in Public Forum.
Tyler Solley, Semifinals in Oratory
Gigi Baughman and Xing Zhang, Semifinals in Duo Interp

Pictures at: http://pbase.com/fglds