Deering, States and Nationals

I think everyone had a fine time at Deering, especially Julie (4-0, Welcome to JV!). I got to watch our fledgling PF teams and Julie in LD. I thought the PF teams were very strong for their first time out and for being "forced" to be in varsity. Yes there are some things to work on, but I was impressed. Mr. Hart really enjoyed judging PF so he will help at NFLQ's.

Looking ahead to states, I think we will be okay judge wise. I count as a judge though I'm in Tab. However, we have our annual struggle with NFL judging, now doubled to include CFL judging. Everyone is varsity at NQ's, and since family cannot judge your category, our two good LD judges are out. I count as one LD judge but we need one more "unaffiliated" for CFL and NFL. We will need a PF judge for CFL and Mr. Hart will do PF at NFL.

Everyone has work to do on their LD cases! I was impressed that Julie credited the team with building her case - which was true. You guys know the material and the fundamentals. She put together a case she could communicate (at the novice level) from what you gave her. We need to see about "painting your houses" though. (see me for metaphor)

PF people have some minor details of their cases to improve on or further research and "teamwork" issues to work on. You guys didn't do anything "wrong", you just have tough opposition to "outperform". The best teams seemed to have two partners working in sync with each other, in a shared fashion. We relied on the better speaker during GCF while the opponents gathered like hyenas around a lion. I gathered some ideas on that stuff after talking to other coaches. (a "talking points" list, questions list, and practice with mannerisms and "GCF signals", among other things) It will be tough to get better in two weeks but I think you have a chance if you will do the work. Above all, we'll need to run practice rounds - a far more serious need for PF than LD since teamwork is involved.

On other fronts:
Mr. Hart and I talked about doing a spring banquet for "Extracurricular" activities like Speech, Debate, Drama and Music. What do you think? We could use a respectable name too in order to add some class to the event.

TTFN

Mr. C