We’ve now managed to eliminate or almost eliminate two MHL tournaments. To put it mildly, we are in a quandary about this.
First of all, why have two of these events in a row tanked? I’ve heard various reasons given, the venues were too far away being the most popular. But these same events have been doorbusters at those venues in the past, or at least viable. Yeah, Monticello is far away, but not having any debate that weekend is even further away, if you know what I mean. Newark is far away? From whom? Certainly not New Yorkers, who can pop on a train in be there in the proverbial blink. Come to think of it, aside from people in Monticello, for most schools getting to Newark is a piece of cake.
I think it goes deeper than that. For one thing, policy, once a mainstay of the league, has all but fled completely into discrete city leagues both in NY and Jersey. Few non-urban schools have policy teams around here, and those that do haven’t been terribly religious about MHL attendance. They’ve concentrated on invitationals wherever they might be, and I’ve always wondered how they developed varsity to get on those planes in the first place if they never had any rounds for novices. Am I saying that policy is dead around here? Not at all, because those urban leagues seem to be doing a fine job. But they’re not venturing much out of their neighborhoods, for whatever reason (presumably, and reasonably, financial—even though MHLs are virtually free, you still have to get there and back, and no one gives away transportation). Critical policy mass is long gone aside from UDLs: hell, when I started the Sailors even had policians, and there seemed to be plenty of rounds for them. I’m pretty sure that Montwegia has fielded its last CXers, while policy holdout NFA seems to be DOA altogether (sigh). Staunch members of the VCA know how I have been tracking this for many years now. The obituary for policy may be a long way off, but when it is finally written, a lot of people will shake their heads and say, Gee, I thought it died years ago. Without belaboring the issue, it’s not hard to suggest that the very same things that put policy on life support are now working their way over to the LD ward, but that’s another issue altogether. Assuming that there is some sort of mathematical constant for the conservation of debate energy (the total number of debaters remains the same or maybe even grows, but not in the same events—i.e., PF is through the roof), it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it…
Anyhow, even the PFers aren’t coming to MHLs, so it’s not the dying of the debate light altogether that's the problem. My personal opinion is that, in a word, coaches don’t care enough about debate as a whole. Everyone fusses and fights over things at the varsity level, but no one is fussing and fighting enough over the incoming flow of noobies. Somehow, I guess, they’ll just sort themselves out while we’re all arguing about obscure rules or how our judge preferences aren’t adding up to our satisfaction. I always take the opposite point of view. Varsity folk are more than capable of sorting themselves out, finding rounds, getting signed up and organized; it’s the young ’uns that need coachean concentration. I invented Academy debate to buffer the middle ground, to hold people between the hysteria of their novice year and the sophistication of their varsity years; there hasn’t been much traction there, either. Some lip service, but that’s about it. If coaches really cared about anyone other than the top, winning debaters, they’d be jumping all over MHLs and Academy events. I hate losing debaters to other school activities, because I think debate is good for people. I especially think debate is good for people who aren’t exactly good debaters. I’ve had my share of naturals who can’t help but win from day one, but while I’m happy for their successes, my greater pride has been in the troopers who don’t have the knack but learn a whole lot of stuff that makes up for not having that knack. Turn just about any coach inside out and he or she will give you that same line. You want to know how the coaches really feel? Take a look at where they are every weekend, and where they sign up their students.
We’ll probably get together at the MHL Blowout and decide exactly what we’re going to do about the future. I have to admit that I am almost completely convinced to kill the league. We could run an early season event like the first-timers and a workshop without any underlying league. After that, why continue to delude ourselves? Good old Malcolm Bump started the MHL; it seems almost destined that one of his successors end it.
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