Final Destination

We're all back in New Mexico after a week in Dallas for the National Tournament. The tournament was a great experience for all of us on the trip, and we have a slew of new knowledge to prove it. While no placing trophies were brought home, our competitors are proud for making as far as they did at the national level. At a tournament where a girl who placed first in Humorous Interpretation at the Harvard and Stanford tournaments doesn't make it past quarterfinals, much can be said about unpredictability.

In supplemental events, including prose, extemp commentary, and supplemental debate, everyone from our team made it past the first cut. Many made it past the second cut. Quinlan went on past five cuts before being eliminated, making it into the top 30 of 250 competitors in extemp commentary, surely a feat to be recognized. Erin proceeded through 6 cuts in Supplemental Debate, also making it into the top 30 out of 300 competitors. Both should be extremely proud.

As the tournament came to a close, the team watched HI, DI, and Duo finals on Friday night, which was a treat. All of the HI's that made finals were hilarious, the DI's were filled with impact, and the Duo's had both. Although our team quickly began to argue about which piece would take first, which second, and so on, in the three events (we're debaters, what can we say?), the results at awards were closest to what Mr. Smith had guessed, in all three events. I suppose he knows how to judge a good performance and a bad one.

Some of us chose to sacrifice sleep Saturday morning in order to watch Original Oratory (a ten minute, memorized, persuasive speech on a topic of the competitors choice) and Extemp finals. We learned a lot to bring back to New Mexico from the performances, all of which were great.

Our flight back to Albuquerque left this morning at 8:30, and we arrived back in NM at around 9:10 (NM time is an hour behind). Our overall experience at the National Forensic League's National Tournament in Dallas was a great one. Next year, the tournament will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, and we hope to break the ten-qualifier barrier and bring around 15 competitors. But we'll try not to jinx it.

You can expect more updates this summer on work we're doing to prepare for next season, and I will try to keep this blog constantly active. Thanks to all of you who have been following for the past week, we appreciate your support, and we hope to see you in the future.

Still in the Game

Days Two and Three:

Erin had a winning record, just one winning ballot short of moving on past preliminary rounds, Tim received a Presiding Officer position in his Senate room, holding a brand new, gold-plated gavel to show for it. Our Duo teams put forth respectable scores in every round, and Quin gave some of the best-informed, best crafted speeches he's had the honor to give. We are now rocking in Supplemental Events!

Quinlan and Erin are still going strong, both having succeeded into the top 30 (10%) of their respective events. Tim made it past three cuts in Prose, an impressive feat to say the least. We are currently in a hotel room helping Quin and Erin achieve the ultimate preparedness for their rounds tomorrow, and we will be cheering them on throughout the rest of competition!

We had a nice team dinner at RJ's Mexican Restaurant tonight, a delicious treat! Today was the first intense day of competition, and it was at times alarming to hear the joyous screaming and yelling when competitors saw their codes displayed on the octa- and quarter-finals postings. Our experience at Nationals thus far has been a great and rewarding one, and we are exuberant to have two great competitors in the last leg of the tournaments!

Keep posted here for more updates tomorrow on Quin and Erin's progress, as well as reviews on Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, and Duo Interpretation final rounds. Also, make sure to be updated on a special honor our coach, Trey Smith, will be receiving tomorrow on the big stage!

Thanks for all of your support thus far, hope you keep reading!

First day Frenzy

Today was our first day of competition, a hectic but fun day. We were supposed to wake up at 5:45 this morning, and the girls room managed to do so, however the boys decided to use Tim's iPad as an alarm. Tim forgot to set the time on his device to the proper time zone, so we woke up an hour late. Still managed to leave the hotel by 7:00!

At the Sheraton, the first task was to help Quin set up in the Extemp Prep Room, which is perhaps the most terrifying room at the tournament. Here's some pictures:

If you don't know what a normal prep room looks like at a normal tournament, you know that it's usually about 1/10th of this size. Intimidating, I know.

After getting Quin all set up, I proceeded to Tim's Congress chamber, Senate Chamber 5, to sit in on some legislative action. After nearly falling asleep during debate on a bill that would cut military aid to Pakistan and replace it with civilian aid (money and food), I went to the 38th floor of the Sheraton and experimented with the zoom on my camera. A picture of the DART rail system we've been using:

 I met up with John Garrity, our good friend from St. Pius, who is also an "observer" at the tournament. We went to a killer pizza parlor and had some delicious pizza.

After eating, we made our way up to the 37th floor to watch some more Congress, which was more interesting the second go-around. Tim was elected as Presiding Officer (essentially a Speaker of the House position) in the second session, and he did a great job. Unfortunately, although the New Mexico Speech and Debate Association enforces the NFL's rules at local tournaments, many of the standard procedures from New Mexico congress did not carry over to the National level, which made it a bit difficult for Tim as a P.O. The judges thought he did great though.

After scoping out the general competition, I'm a bit underwhelmed. The Senators in the congress rounds I observed just weren't all that impressive, but perhaps it was simply a day-one parasite. We'll see tomorrow!

Tim feels confident about his performance today, as do the rest of our Qualifiers. Erin claims confidence that she won all four of her debate rounds today, but we'll try not to jinx anything. Quinlan says the prep room and overall atmosphere is intimidating to the point of throwing him off a bit in his speeches, but we're confident that the combination of his skill and high level of preparedness will help him pull through. Marc, Jessi, Madi, and Poiette all witnessed some extremely good Duo's today in their rooms, but are content with their performances.

There are two more preliminary rounds left for all events, set to go off tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon marks the beginning of out-rounds, and we will receive postings tomorrow around mid-day. You can expect more coverage of our team for the rest of the trip, so be sure to check the blog out every once in a while!

A Day of Travel and a Night on the Town

After arriving in Dallas, we soon realized that our mothers were correct when they told us that it would be ridiculously hot outside, and ridiculously cold inside any building with air conditioning. As you know from the previous post, our hotel is extremely trendy, with cool neon lights in every room and chic furniture all over.We checked into the hotel, then walked the ten minutes in 100 degree weather back to the nearest DART station (which is a bit too far, if you ask any of us), and proceeded to the Dallas Sheraton, where the tournament will be held. After registering our team for competition, we ate amongst the plethora of fast food restaurants inside the Sheraton. You see, the Sheraton is a collection of four HUGE buildings on the four corners of a street intersection, all connected by sky bridges. There's an ice rink and jewelry shops in the central court. It's like a slightly downscale version of a Vegas hotel. After we finished our business at the Dallas Sheraton, we proceeded back to our hotel, and then to the West End area for a "street part," which offered food, drinks, a haunted house, giant hamster ball racing, karaoke, and giant devil people, among lots of other interesting attractions. We waited 30 minutes for a table at TGI Fridays, where we were met with dare I say below average service. But they were slammed with debate kids, so we'll let it slide this time. Upon arrival back at the hotel, we were met with the realization that it was already 10:00, and we must wake up at 5:45 tomorrow morning. Oh well, living the life of a Speech and Debate junkie comes with it's perks and it's downfalls. Quin printed a ton of articles for Extemp, our buddy Carlos from St. Pius came over to work on Congress with Tim, Ms. Pearson worked with the interp kids, and now we're all off to bed.

Tim says his favorite part of the day was talking with the giant devil-man and his pet zombies at the Street Party. Let me tell you, they were genuinely terrifying.

Expect a slew of progress updates tomorrow during our first day of competition!

This is a summary of our day in the form of digital media.

Daunting Dallas

The eleven of us met at ABQ Sunport at 7:15 NM time this morning for an 8:30 flight to Dallas. Upon arrival in Dallas, we encountered our first experience with the DART Transit System, a high speed, above-ground train thing. The train is surprisingly clean, and the rides are quick.

Our hotel (The Sheraton Aloft) in downtown is one of the most modern, chic, and dare I say hipster buildings I've had the honor to walk through. Vibrant colors, modern furniture, and awesome bathrooms. This week should be fun. 

More later. 

The Qualifiers and Their Qualifications

As you have hopefully read in the previous post, the T-Wolf S&D team qualified seven members to the National Forensic League's National Tournament for the 2011 season. I'm going to go ahead and assume that the majority of you reading this aren't all too familiar with the National Forensic League and the events it has created for competition, so in this post I will do my best to fill you in on our qualifiers and the events they will be participating in at the tournament next week in Dallas.


Timothy Bedeaux:


Tim is our team captain, who graduated this year. He qualified to the National Tournament last year, coincidentally in the same event as he will participate in this year: Legislative Debate, also known as Student Congress. In this event, competitors assemble as a mock United States Congress, debating bills and resolutions brought to the floor by their fellow Senators, just like in real Congress! Competitors are required to follow Parliamentary Procedure, a formal set of rules and procedures that create a very professional atmosphere. A video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU0N2rkyqeg&feature=related


At the National Tournament, competitors are allowed to enter in one "supplemental event," an event they can compete in in the case of being knocked out of competition in their primary event. Tim is entered in Prose as his supplemental event. Prose is an interpretation event in which students are allotted five minutes to interpret a piece of their choice.




Quinlan Cao:


Quinlan, a rising senior, and our other co-captain for next years season, has qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking. This event requires students to arrive prepared with information and articles on various international affairs, and give a seven minute speech on a random question drawn out of an envelope. Competitors have thirty minutes to prepare the speech, using only written resources they have printed/prepared in advance. It is highly recommended to use as many pieces of evidence from as many articles as possible in a speech.


Quinlan is entered in Extemp Commentary as his supplemental event. Extemp Commentary is just like International Extemp, however the topics are focused on domestic, U.S. issues, the speech is five minutes, and the prep time is cut to twenty five minutes.




Erin Bush:


Erin, a graduated senior, will be competing in Lincoln Douglas Debate, a one-on-one debate centered around issues of morality and justice. Her topic at Nationals will be, Resolved: When forced to choose, a just government ought to prioritize universal human rights over it's national interest. An LD round is structured in order to allow both the affirmative and negative speakers a chance to present their arguments, refute their opponents arguments, defend their own points, and finally convince the judge to vote for them through "voting issues." 


Erin's supplemental event is Supplemental Debate, a slightly more relaxed version of LD that is focused more on domestic and foreign policy issues. The topic of debate will be randomly selected from a pre-determined list before each round. The topics include oil subsidies, health care, and the war in Afghanistan.




Madi Mateski and Poiette Hilbun: 


Madi (a rising senior) and Poiette (a graduated senior) are a Duo Interpretation team, and will be competing in Duo at Nationals. Duo is a two person interpretation event that allows two competitors to interpret a piece of their choice, either humorously, dramatically, or in a manner that includes both. The rules of Duo prohibit the members of a team from interacting with each other in any way; no touching, or even looking at each other. This proposes a heightened challenge to convey the piece to the audience in an understandable manner. A video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfu1e4JQRfQ&feature=related




Marc Lucero and Jessi Green:


Marc (rising junior) and Jessi (rising sophomore) will be competing in Duo at the National Tournament, alongside Madi and Poiette. I've already explained the event, so yeah. Marc and Jessi are special for they are the youngest qualifiers from our team, and among the youngest qualifiers from the state. 




Keep following this blog for constant updates on the Tournament! We leave for Dallas Monday morning, and you can expect daily posts at least, likely more. 

From the East Mountains to Dallas

East Mountain High School (EMHS) is a small charter high school located in Sandia Park, just around the corner from Albuquerque. The students here enjoy a small school environment that allows them access to the tools needed to achieve success. With high graduation rates, great teachers, and a desirable small-school atmosphere, EMHS has a reputation for success. Unfortunately, the student body lacks the numbers to compete against larger Albuquerque schools like Manzano, La Cueva, and Albuquerque Academy in sports and extracurricular activities. There is one exception to this rule, however: the EMHS Speech and Debate Team, that gets to compete against 4A and 5A schools from all around the state.

The Speech and Debate team has only been in existence at EMHS for four years, but that didn't stop us from growing exponentially and earning great success. In these past four years, the team has grown to a size that includes one in every six students attending EMHS. The past season of competition brought great progress and achievement for the team, as we were able to consistently take home team sweepstakes awards (by being in the top three award-grossing schools at a tournament) at tournaments, and we ended the season by putting an end to Albuquerque Academy's 24 year winning streak at the State Tournament, as well as qualifying seven students to the National Tournament, to be held in Dallas, Texas.

Today is June 7th, Nationals begins on June 13th, and our seven qualifiers are constantly at school (yes, we know it's summer) working hard in preparation for the Tournament. This blog will take you with us to Dallas for six days, keeping you updated on rounds, events, and our experience at the 2011 National Forensic League National Tournament.


PS: My name is Jace Reynolds, I'm a rising senior here at EMHS, Co-Captain of the Speech and Debate Team, and I'll be your "host" for the Tournament.