Wisconsin Forensics Daily

Monday Meditation: Stop Reading Codes at Awards

A Call to Action for Tournament Directors

When I first started coaching  13 years ago, students were never known by more than their codes at forensics tournaments.  The awards announcer would proclaim, “and in first place, Solo Acting Serious,  from Anyville school, 42R3!”  In the meanwhile, awards ceremonies have become a classier affair, with standing ovations for the first place champion, and standards for tact enumerated in the WFCA Code of Conduct.

In the early part of the new millennium, I experimented at some tournaments with running PowerPoint presentations during awards, sliding names and schools behind the contestants.  I was actually inspired by the spectacle that is the NFL National Tournament Awards program, and wanted to bring some of that celebration of students to our local competitions.  In order to make this work, we needed to collect students’ names during the finals (power) rounds.  The second set of typing in PowerPoint added a few extra minutes of waiting before awards, and whomever would operate the PowerPoint slides might advance a name a few seconds too early, ruining the suspense of announcement.  So, the practice was dropped in favor of more efficient, shorter awards ceremonies — about the same time the “One-Clap” method of recognizing finalists took wing.

By then, however, the practice of collecting names and announcing them during the awards ceremonies became a norm, and a form was even added to the WFCA Handbook, tournament forms section to facilitate collection of this information.  As Mike Traas began more freely distributing his amazing Microsoft Access file for tabulating tournaments, that feature was built-in to allow reading of names and inclusion of them in the results packets — and subsequent posting online here at Wisconsin Forensics Daily.  When I piloted TabRoom.com at the Alverno tournament this year, I was pleased to see that it preserved ink/toner for the reading script generated, only showing students’ names — with phonetic key based on pronunciation guides coaches typed during online registration — and schools.  The only exception was Group Interp. and Play Acting script pages printed by title (so I’ll have to ask the developer of that software if he can incorporate an option for names instead).

So, with all this technology and desire for fast and efficient awards assemblies, why do we perpetuate the practice of gratuitously reading codes during awards ceremonies?  The tournament is over; let’s celebrate the students and the schools they hail from, not the temporary system used to mask their identities up to that point!

Respectfully,
Adam Jacobi
Former Coach, Rufus King HS & Director, Alverno College Tournament

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Live from the WDCA Spring Coaches Meeting

The Wisconsin Debate Coaches’ Association is holding its Spring Meeting today at the Ripon Public Library. Eighteen schools are represented and will be discussing a wide range of issues including the novice evidence packet, the WSDT, next year’s tournament calendar, etc. A running log of the meeting (live from the President’s table) is below the fold.

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Monday Meditation: The Debate Season Begins

For some teams the season began last weekend at Wake Forest or Greenhill. For others, the season began even earlier at Grapevine. But for most teams, the season begins this weekend with the start of the WDCA schedule and Marquette’s Hilltopper Classic. As we begin the season, WFD asks: what tournaments are you planning on attending this season?

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Monday Meditation: WFCA State Thank You

WFCA President Bonni Knight asked Wisconsin Forensics Daily to post this thank you letter:

Dear Fellow Coaches and Friends,

I want to take a moment to thank you all for your hard work throughout the season, and especially last weekend, to help make the 2008 WFCA State Tournament a success. Congratulations to everyone. Whether or not your students came home with trophies cannot be a true measure of what was won that day. Last Saturday was a tribute to hard work and dedication on the part of students and coaches alike. In the end, talent (and a little luck, sometimes) brought the winners to the stage, but every kid who showed up was changed by the performances they saw and the ballots they received.

As I stated in the listening sessions throughout the day, I am inspired by the dedication of the people who make the tournament possible. The list is long, but permit me to mention a few of them:

Chris Zoch – Tournament Director. This man did a superhuman job of organizing and scheduling this event, always displaying gentility and grace, even in the most stressful of moments. Without his attention to detail, the tournament could have been a disaster.

Deano Pape – Site Director. After the tournament was over, and everyone had left, I observed Deano carefully straightening the rows of chairs in the gym for an event the following morning. I cannot imagine how much work this must have been for him, but I do know this… his ability to inspire the team of cheerful college team members to get up and be there at 7 am on a Saturday is truly impressive.

Jodi Becker – Site Coordinator. It was Jodi who arranged all the coordination of details. Throughout the day, I was impressed by her ability to juggle countless details about rooms, concessions, etc, all the while smiling calmly.

Mike Traas – Tab Room Director. Wow. Data flowed through the computers, set up and managed by Mike. His staff performed effectively and cheerfully, and everything went very smoothly. This room was a sight to behold, with teams of focused professionals hunched over their computers muttering numbers to each other, allowing the tournament to conclude almost exactly on schedule.

Paul Seymour – Tournament Assistant. I met Paul at a meeting room at the Country Inn on Friday night, where he was leading a staff of volunteers in stuffing packets and organizing judges. Another detail person, his work really moved the tournament along.

Father Gary Wegner – Tournament Practices and Procedures Chair. The large number of protests and complaints brought to this committee was, I believe, unprecedented. But Gary and his team heard both sides of every story, and always made every effort to give people the opportunity to speak in defense of the protest. I was most impressed with Gary’s common sense approach to things, as well as his gentleness during conflicts. Also, hats off to Joe Meinecke for his quick use of Google to try and help people prove the validity of their cuttings.

Adam Jacobi – Congress Director: Adam’s dedication to the activity of Student Congress is legendary, as is his passion and talent. The day went smoothly, and everything was handled professionally. Adam’s decision to move the congress to earlier in the day has truly improved the event, as it allows kids to “give it their all” and still have something left for the next day.

Steve Sexton – Past President. Steve was responsible for organizing the scholarships and awards. Thanks for providing inspirational insight into all of the great winners.

I mention all of those people and their actions because I think sometimes we take for granted the generous dedication of these volunteers. It is easy to pay your dues and registration fees, and just show up without ever wondering how it all takes place. The fact that an event of this magnitude can be run completely by a group of dedicated volunteers in truly unbelievable. But many of us are nearing retirement age, and it is time for more members to step up and volunteer. Host an invitational tournament. Host a workshop. Volunteer for a committee. Run for office. Have a say in the future of this group. And think about attending the Spring Meeting in Fond du Lac on May 2 – 3. Get to know us. Let us help you. You may contact me with any questions.

Finally, as many of you may already know, my assistant coach, Steve Sparks, passed away in August at the age of 26 from a pulmonary embolism, devastating me and my students. I also lost my brother-in-law, my next-door neighbor, and several friends this year. It ended up being one of the most difficult years of my life. But it also taught me something: You can never count on someone or something to be there tomorrow. You have to live life to its fullest every second. To me that meant many things: coaching my students with every ounce of energy that I possessed, spending precious time with my beloved family traveling to Belize for Christmas, visiting a friend in Vermont, or in the hospital, shopping occasionally (or more than occasionally), and trying to lead a complex organization that, because it is composed of people, can be full of conflict. I urge all of you to move forward and work together for the good of your students, and for all Wisconsin forensicators. Life is too short to hold on to disagreements and conflict. And our students deserve our best work.

It has been a genuine honor to be president of such a dynamic, vital organization.

Sincerely,

Bonni Knight

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Monday Meditation: The Importance of Coaches

Late last year, Steve Sparks – an assistant forensics coach to Eau Claire North High School, died suddenly of a a pulmonary embolism. At the first Steve Sparks Memorial Tournament at Eau Claire North earlier this year, head coach Bonni Knight delivered a moving speech on the impact that coaches and forensics have on student’s lives. I have asked Bonni to share the text of her speech with Wisconsin Forensics Daily and it follows below the break.

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Monday Meditation: The Importance of Coaches

Late last year, Steve Sparks – an assistant forensics coach to Eau Claire North High School, died suddenly of a a pulmonary embolism. At the first Steve Sparks Memorial Tournament at Eau Claire North earlier this year, head coach Bonni Knight delivered a moving speech on the impact that coaches and forensics have on student’s lives. I have asked Bonni to share the text of her speech with Wisconsin Forensics Daily and it follows below the break.

I want to thank you for coming. This has been an interesting year for me. This year, I am president of the Wisconsin Forensic Coaches Association. In this position, I have had to go to a lot of meetings, deal with a lot of conflicts, and write a lot of emails. But one of the coolest things I got to do was help write the topics for special occasion speeches. As I was sitting in this meeting last July discussing protest and at-risk speeches, I never dreamed I would be doomed to write a few special occasion speeches of my own this year. It never occurred to me that in a few short weeks, I would have to write the eulogy for my best friend and assistant coach Steve Sparks. Or give a speech of tribute today to an audience of forensics students, parents, and coaches.

Today is the first annual Steve Sparks Memorial Forensics Tournament, so I want to ask you to bear with me for a couple minutes while I tell you what that means to us here at North.

Steve was a graduate of the class of 1999. He was considered by most teachers here to be one of the smartest kids to ever graduate from North. He did play acting and radio and placed 6th at state.

Steve began as a volunteer coach in 2005. I asked him come in “for a week” because my dad had just died and I had to leave town right before the UWEC tournament. And he never left. He coached here for three years from November until May, 5 days a week from 3 until 6. He was always early and always stayed late. Steve died unexpectedly on August 2, 2007 from a pulmonary embolism. He was 26 years old.

Steve’s students and his friends will tell you that he was brilliant, witty, hilarious, and completely, and thoroughly dedicated to North High Forensics. As my friend, Steve would do anything for me. He would make me laugh, teach me, comfort me, and even camp out with me at voyageur night. Where else would I have found another adult who could stay up all night on a school night while camping out with a mob of high school kids?

As I have struggled with the grief over the last 6 months, I realize I have learned two things from Steve’s death:

The first is something I want to tell the coaches in the room, most of whom I have known for many years, and two of whom, Laurie Adams and Angie Oplinger, are former students of mine. I never knew how much forensics meant to Steve while he was in high school. He never came to me and said, “Man, this is the greatest activity ever. Thanks so much for all you’ve done for me.” Nor did any of my other students, really. Kids don’t do that. But as he began coaching here, I began to realize that forensics had been the single most important, formative experience of his high school years. Almost every story he told was filled with references to forensics trips or forensics friends. And I had no idea. I had been completely unaware of how much it had meant to him to be part of a team of creative, intelligent people. At his funeral though, countless former students came up to me and thanked me for having been a part of their lives. So my lesson for the coaches is: You have to know that you have changed lives. You have to believe that, even though they don’t tell you. They can’t. They don’t really know it yet.

My second message is for everyone in this room, especially the kids – but really it’s true for everyone. Try to learn from message number one. When someone helps you, gives to you, or loves you, always tell them how you feel. My single greatest peace in all of this is that I did, about a year ago, sit Steve down and tell him how much I appreciated all he had done for me and what he meant to me. So, as trite and trivial as it sounds, let me tell you from personal experience, that you never know how long someone will be around. So make sure to thank someone who helps you, and tell people that you love them. Kids, you have no idea what your coaches have given up to be here today for you. Rest time, time with their families, time with their friends. They gave all that up – for you. Not for money, or prestige, or the tee shirt – they did it for you. And parents, you have no idea how extraordinary your children are. They are here because they are dedicated and committed. Every time they do this, they are learning, growing, and becoming more articulate, and more confident. Sometimes they make you (and me) crazy, but they are great kids, and you should be soooo proud of them. And you should tell them so.

So this has been my special occasion speech to you, and quite honestly, I cannot imagine a more special occasion than to honor a friend and a coach. And so I am proud to introduce Steve’s friends who will honor him today by handing out the awards at the first annual Steve Sparks Memorial Forensics Tournament. Thank you.

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Monday Meditation: Wisconsin Forensics Tournament of Champions

The Monday Meditation Column is designed to reflect on ideas that we all have after a tournament, reflecting on the events that occurred during the the past weekend. Today’s Monday Meditation comes from a real post-tournament reflection that the James Madison Memorial coaches had after Appleton East’s Tournament.

The suggestion was that we (the Wisconsin Forensics Community) create our own Tournament of Champions and offer this as an additional competition to the Wisconsin Forensics Season. Read more below for more details on this idea. Wisconsin Forensics Daily would like your input as to whether or not this is a good idea.

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Monday Meditation: Wisconsin Forensics Tournament of Champions

The Monday Meditation Column is designed to reflect on ideas that we all have after a tournament, reflecting on the events that occurred during the the past weekend. Today’s Monday Meditation comes from a real post-tournament reflection that the James Madison Memorial coaches had after Appleton East’s Tournament.

The suggestion was that we (the Wisconsin Forensics Community) create our own Tournament of Champions and offer this as an additional competition to the Wisconsin Forensics Season. Read more below for more details on this idea. Wisconsin Forensics Daily would like your input as to whether or not this is a good idea.

The idea is to create a small tournament with a large number of high quality competitors. The relatively small size of the tournament would make it easy to attract a significant number of quality judges. This might eliminate concerns that are often expressed about the State tournaments. The goal of this tournament would not be to replace the existing state tournaments, but instead to provide an additional tournament with high quality competitors and judges. This type of experience could be crucial to develop regions of the state where forensics competitions are not often held. For example, a Wisconsin Forensics Tournament of Champions might include Conference Champions and those that reach a “Gold” status at the WHSFA State tournament.

Here’s our tentative thoughts as to how this might work. The WiFTOC would be an invite only tournament. Invites would be given to individuals who have achieved a qualifying leg. A qualifying leg would include: A first place finish at any WFCA/WHSFA tournament provided that individuals are ranked (preference, not points are the basis of comparison) and that a final or power round is held when necessary, a first place finish at any Conference tournament provided that the competitors are ranked, qualification to either NFL or CFL Nationals (in a Wisconsin Forensics Category. e.g. IX and USX would just be extemp, DP would work for both HI or DI. Declamation would work for prose or would not receive a bid.), a “Gold” score at WHSFA State and a final round appearance at the WFCA State tournament. Some categories would be exempt from qualification status. For example, Novice Prose would not qualify some one in prose.

There are several issues that would need to be hashed out. First: Do we really need to offer all of the categories? Of the schools that would be interested in attending this tournament, if it happens, not all of them would be interested in all of the categories. So what happens when we have three people interested in Moments and two in Four-minute? Should we combine them into a greater category? The same thing holds with Play Acting/Duo/Group interp.

Second: how do we get results from all of these contests to varify. WFD and the WFCA does a pretty good job tracking down the WFCA tournaments – but there are WHSFA tournaments that we often don’t get results from. Moreover, conference results are often not reported. Some conferences don’t hold forensics. How should we deal with that?

There are also broader issues involved that need to be discussed. Are schools interested in an experience like this? Would this undermine the WFCA/WHSFA state tournaments? When would this be held to not interfere with the WFCA/WHSFA tournament schedule? Who should host such a tournament? What coaches should be involved in creating the tournament?

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Monday Meditation: WI Debate Persona of the Year

For the last five years a Wisconsin State tournament reflection post shows up either on cross-x.com or right here on WFD. That reflection post, entitled “Wisconsin Debate Persona of the Year” asks the community a series of questions to nominate who they felt has done the best this year. WFD encourages everyone to participate in the reflection of the year that was in Wisconsin Debate.

The questionnaire is included in the full article.

1> Best Debater Overall
a) Best Senior Debater…
b) Best Junior Debater…
c) Best Sophomore Debater…
d) Best Fresh(wo)man Debater…
e) Most Improved Debater…
f) Debater With Most Potential…
h) Best Team/Pair…

2> Best Round Overall
a) Best Round You Watched…
b) Best Round You Debated In…

3> Best Program Overall
a) Best Program For Novices…
b) Best New Program…
c) Most Improved Program…
d) Program You’d Most Like To Debate For (Other Than Yours)…

4> Best Argument
a) Best Affirmative Case…
b) Best Counterplan…
c) Best Disadvantage…
d) Best Kritik…
e) Best T/Theory Argument…

5> Best Specific Skills
a) Best 1NC…
b) Best 2AC…
c) Best 2NC…
d) Best 1NR…
d.5) Best 1AR…
e) Best 2NR…
f) Best 2AR…
g) Fastest Debater…
h) Funniest Debater…

6> Other Stuff
a) Favorite Tournament (in-state)…
b) Favorite Tournament (out-of-state)…
c) Favorite Judge/Critic…
d) Weirdest Round You Saw/Debated In…
e) Best Non-Debate Experience at a Debate Tournament…
f) Funniest Thing You Stumbled Upon While Researching…
g) ?

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Monday Meditation: WSDT Casebook

The State Tournament is fast-approaching; as in years past, I’ll be encouraging qualified teams to contribute to the WSDT Casebook 2k7. This year, I’ll be compiling Affirmative and Negative versions of the casebook; teams may contribute whatever information they feel comfortable disclosing. Teams will only receive the casebooks to which they contribute. More information is available below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

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