In which we debrief on the NYSDCA Championships

The NYSDCA Championships is always havoc-filled. We were organized way better than last year, though, and I think we kept the confusion down to a minimum, or more to the point, managed the confusion better. And confusion there was.

The numbers were workable in all the divisions, so in tabbing terms we were okay. We mandated that judges' obligations would extend for the whole tournament, and we had few problems there; fewer than I expected, to tell you the truth. CP was in the building, so we had him fix an issue with the judge pools, and apparently he also finally knocked the bye problem. So, technically, we were fine.

But let’s face it. We were working on the fly. There's something about the Middle School universe—all those parents trying to find their children, or uncles trying to find their nephews (What School does he/she go to? I don't know. Oh. That's helpful.) Stuy is a great venue, and it’s not as if we hadn’t been there before, so that was okay. Except that Sunday there was a mini-marathon that closed down the West Side. Of course, I told everyone about this Saturday, but one school decided not to pass this information along to the right people, so our 9:00 start on Sunday was 10:00. Outrageous and alarmingly dumb. Rule number one of attending a tournament: read the emails to the coaches. “No one told us this, that or the other” always boils down to no one on the team having read the emails. And on our end, we couldn’t forfeit the leading teams in half the divisions. Sigh. But I was indeed ready to pull the plug on them 3 minutes after they pulled into the building, so they just beat the clock. I mean, even if they hadn’t bothered to read the email, could they maybe have read one of the dozens of warning signs on the highways all week? Feh!

Breaking down responsibilities worked pretty well, although I think I expected to do less than the others expected me to do vis-à-vis room pools and the like. I get it. A real plus was Mama C running the table for us. She’s a budding tabber, but this weekend we needed her keeping that machinery running, and she was great. She also had two awesome Stuywegians helping out. There’s kids at tournaments that want to be in charge of everything and sit at the table eating Chinese food and watching Netflix episodes and ignoring things like ballots and schematics and questions from the guests, and there’s kids at tournaments that do everything that needs to be done, from judging to judge-chasing to logging in the Luddites, and it is the latter who are the stars. These two, Alex and Katherine, were Superstar quality. We gave them trophies for Achievement in Awesomeness.

The late start and the lack of building availability into the wee hours forced us to shut down a couple of divisions early, but most everybody got their rounds in. I had the beauteous moment of pairing semis in one division and seeing that it was 2 closeouts and therefore going immediately into a final. That hardly ever happens, and it warms the cockles of a tabber’s heart, let me tell you. You can’t have enough closeouts if you ask me.

I also visited with old alum McLean, who was around for the weekend. He’s getting out of law school and already set up with a career. Jeesh! And The People’s Champion traveled back and forth from Hudville with us, and we went out to dinner with him Saturday night and talked about what he might be doing now that he’s graduating. All these great lives on the beginning of the curve of adult accomplishment—makes one proud. Come to think of it, all the alums over the years make one proud. What an amazing group of people I’ve had the good fortune to know. If my daughter hadn’t done debate, there would have been an awfully large hole in my life. I have Kate to thank for all of it. Nice thought.