In which we further gird our loin chops for the Championships

As me sainted mayther used ta say, I’ve been as busy as a one-armed paperhanger these last couple of days. The State Championships has 13 divisions. Gaul, just to provide a comparison, had a mere 3, and it cost Caesar and his mighty armies quite a bit of effort to manage. If Caesar and his mighty armies had also had to schedule Middle School rounds, Brutus might not have had to turn on his old buddy after all because Caesar would have already retired and gone fishing off the Norman coast. Oh, well. I think I’ve put together a reasonably doable schedule, I’ve got rooms for everybody, and we almost seem to have enough judges. Great googly moogly, this is a lot of work.

I have to admit that I have no dealings during the year with middle schools, and they seem to run on a different dynamic from high schools. It’s not just that the students are younger (duh), but they don’t have the coaches who go to tournaments week after week who have a basic sense of what happens. (I realize that I’ve just implied that the coaches who do go to tournaments week after week have a basic sense of what happens, which is totally absurd, but I’m just trying to provide a basis for analysis.) I keep getting messages from parents wondering what’s happening with their teams, and they don’t often seem happy with the answers, which include things like “What team?” Oh, well. We can let people in up until  we’re actually in the rounds; we need not be sticklers. We want entrants, not people who we’ve turned away, especially the little MS kids. Although at Lakeland, a little MS kid came into tab with a problem, and he must have been all of four and a half feet tall, and we thought he was the nicest little representation of a future debater, until we asked him what division he was in and he said Varsity PF. Okay, I know I’m getting old, but Kaz’s former NFA judges were sitting with us and they had to put tie themselves down to keep from falling off their chairs at this announcement.

I like MS debate, of course. Why wouldn’t I? I wonder if they shouldn’t stay entirely at MS tournaments, though, aside from something like the Championship. They are little kids after all, and high schools can be overwhelming to them. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m certainly no expert, and I really don’t know what goes on in the MS debate universe. I’m having enough trouble keeping up with what’s going on in the HS debate universe.