Moving right along… (And let me tell you, the temptation to mire oneself in a certain discussion is strong, but, alas, not very entertaining, and entertainment is where the big coachean bucks are, or so they tell me.)
What a weekend! The centerpiece was, of course, the MHL workshop. For those who have just tuned in, well over a year ago someone (I think at NDCA) suggested things that we all should be doing, and among these was trying to find ways to bring people into the activity without their spending any money. Sounded good to me, and it sounded good to O’C and Kaz and JV, and the MHL Workshop was born. O’C was able to get us rooms at his school, and we had a pretty good event. Our problem last year was that the school calendar was nutty and we had to run it awfully early. This year the calendar is nutty again but in a different way, so we ran it later, and O’C was again able to open the doors of Bronx Science for us, and we got what I would estimate to be about 150 participants, including PF, LD and Policy, plus parents getting orientation and judge training, plus bringing in this year’s crop of new coaches, plus training varsity kids as team leaders with their novices after the event. Once again CP came down to oversee the PF, while Kaz brought her assistant Peter in to work policy, and O’C had some of his assistant coaches onboard for LD training. Plus of course we were all in there running modules ourselves. When one school arrived late with about 40 kids, we had to tack on a whole extra division, and we enlisted the People’s Champion to start them, and then I took over, which meant that I started talking at about 11:00 and by 5:00 my throat was killing me.
And I’m sorry, but I have no choice but to pat us all on the back. O’C and I were beaming all day at the wonderful thing we were doing, and telling each other it’s the best thing we do all year. And it is. The MHL, since its inception, has dedicated itself to bringing debate to the youngest students who can easily be overlooked in the varsity world of invitationals and universities and national circuit. But, ladies and gentlemen, you’ve got to start somewhere, and with MHL, you get to start at a level of equality with other novices and JV, which means you learn and grow together, and competition isn’t a grind guaranteed to hand you a loss. MHL leadership has gone through many hands over its long life but it has never changed its goals. I’m proud of us. Really and truly.
As an antidote to the pride I was able to feel over our forensical activities of the weekend, I was forced to feel nothing but shame for the subsequent event of the weekend. CP stayed over at the chez, and we went out for a little spot of Sunday golf with another friend of mine. The good that had been done for forensics on Saturday was, I’m sorry to say, eclipsed by the bad that was done for golf on Sunday. This was some of the worst golf I have ever seen. Some of the worst drives. Some of the worst putts. Even our cart-driving left something to be desired. The only thing that could have made it worse was if we had asked O’C to complete the foursome. As a matter of fact, when things looked bleakest (about every five minutes or so), we would console ourselves with memories of O’C in the miniature golf video from the DiDeAd: only in the even more abject misery of others could we find any balm for the abject misery of ourselves. And thus, I am afraid, I call an end to this year’s season on the links as the debate season heats up for real. Nothing like ending on a down note. Yet, somehow, we still managed to have fun. Go figure. Then again, if it wasn’t fun, why would we do it? But then again again, we also do debate…
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