Speech

I haven't mentioned it yet, but the cumulative results of the district speech tournament were that we disappointingly got 2nd. It looks like Madison regained their perennial title which we had the brief pleasure of stealing last year. Last year we crushed them at districts. But, nevertheless, they sort of crushed us this year. The official results were something like this (not perfectly exact):

1. Madison - 175
2. Wilson - 112
3. Lincoln - 55
4. Grant - 25
5. Roosevelt - 11

So, as you can kind of see, they gave us a little bit of a whooping. Which is surprising, because I though we were dominating until the end. Speech and debate tournaments typically do end up where you have an exponential increase in scores as you move from last to first, but I'm still deeply disturbed by this. I have resolved to do much more in order to achieve dominance next year and the year after. Currently, we have 3 sophomore debate teams and 1 senior team. The senior team is excellent but will be gone next year. The sophomore teams are all very good by any standard, so my supreme aspiration is for us to achieve a sweep of the district tournament (which would be very possible, seeing as the top 3 teams from this year are graduating). Furthermore, I am in the midst of constructing a 4th team of next year's sophomores. Right now there's Joseph Kibe, who seemed to confidently sign on for next year in a conversation I had with him. Beth will be doing Lincoln-Douglas Values debate, which should further enhance our points (if she gets good, which she will because it's a prepared debate and involves cross-examination). That leaves much need for people in IEs. We're losing a lot of them next year. We're really screwed if we don't get a suficient number of people to replace graduates. This year's debaters will be branching out into IEs undoubtedly next year (I personally have already dedicated myself to extemporaneous, for which I am going to state), but that won't be enough. So if you're reading this and you don't do speech, please consider it. It doesn't take up that much time, and if you're not good now, you will become good. The only good thing is that Madison is losing some really key people that used to win everything (Kira, Adam, Kira's boyfriend... they're the only ones who win probably 50% of Madison's total), excepting Anesh of course, who happens to be a junior. I know, it's painful. But let's analyze Anesh a little bit further. He's not that good of a debater. His HI was good but not amazing this year (it's the piece that's holding him back though). And Hannah beat him in ADS (the first time a non-Madison person has won in about 6 years). Yes, it wasn't just anyone Hannah beat. Hannah beat Anesh at ADS (he didn't even get 2nd, he got 3rd. That's a little surprising, and I'm not sure I agree with it), and she beat Adam too. That's like some young startup cyclist crushing Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France. Except it's in Oregon state high school speech. So we'll see what happens in future years. I just hope we can make a proper rebound next year.