Well, that’s about it for 2015. It’s been an interesting
year.
I retired from regular coaching, but kept doing tabbing and
helping out behind the scenes for those who wanted it, which was just about all
the usual suspects. I showed up so often at tournaments that a lot of people
forgot I wasn’t coaching anymore. Sometimes I did too, and I really wanted to
sit down with a bunch of plebes and knock some sense in them and brainstorm a
new topic, but mostly I was quite happy with the freedom from worry about them
falling off a cliff or whatever. This really hit home when we’d go out for
dinner during a tournament and someone couldn’t come because they had kids to
take care of and responsibilities to attend to. This of course proved the old
saw that forensics would be so much better if it didn’t have kids in it—unless
they’re projectile vomiting—but then you would run into some old coach crank
complaining pointlessly about some nonsense and you would remember that, no, it
really is about the students, and would you please go stuff yourself in a moldy
closet with the rest of the CheeZ Doodles, you old poop?
One thing we’ve been seeing over and over is the growth of
PF, apparently at the expense of LD. The latter isn’t going away any time soon,
but at the circuit level it’s become so parochial that it has left behind
everyone but the true believers. Much like policy. Which everyone saw coming,
but now it’s really here. There’s the continuing argument that PF will go down
the same path, but even if that’s true, we’re nowhere near that yet. Plus I
happen to doubt that it’s true. As long as you have to pick up a lot of parent
ballots, you have to make clear presentations in a logical fashion without any
smoke and mirrors. Viva les parents!
People have, as always, come and gone. The infamous
traveling tab room is changing at a snail’s pace. CP claims that some day
tabroom will obviate the need for tab rooms, but we’ve got a long way to go
before that becomes a reality. And we had one moment this year when we were
running a small division that simply wouldn't compute, and JV tried to sort it
out in his head, Kaz tried to sort it out using the hand-pairing screens, and I
printed up and tossed some cards, much to the awe of the assembled masses. Three different approaches that yielded the
same solution, but only possible because of the collective experience of
understanding the underlying mechanics of tabbing. At the point where “the
computer” does it all we’ll be replicating the idea that students don’t have to
learn to, say, spell, or add, because “the computer” will do it for
them. Same arguments apply, and I won’t insult your intelligence by repeating
them here. You get the picture. Anyhow, the point is that we need to find new
people to man those tab rooms, as long as they exist. There’s too few of us who
can do it and, more importantly, who like to do it. In today’s competitive
environment, most coaches aren’t willing to forgo their literal coaching role
in aid of maintaining the system overall (in more ways than this one, alas).
Hell, I’ve heard people whine that the system is out of their control, and I’ve
offered to bring them in to work in tab any time, and been completely ignored.
Better to whine that the system is out of your control, I guess. We like
bringing new people behind the scenes. We like new people knowing how things
are done and why. We’ve been touting transparency since forever, and the only
closed tab rooms I run are by league rule for the CFL. The rest of ‘em? Watch.
Learn. Take over some day. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
Coaches in general have been coming and going. This year
seems to have brought more change than most, or maybe I’m just more sensitive
to it, given my own situation. One person I’d like to see more of is CP, but he
seems to always be running around on NSDA business, or seconding Kaz at some
other venue. It’s been great fun working with the Paginator, even though we all
fear that after he graduates he’ll migrate to the Midwest and bring debate to
the farming community. Fr. Michael has been pulled in more often, and as the
Vast Coachean Army well knows, I’ve always said that you can’t have too many
monks around no matter what the situation. Meanwhile Kaz and JV have remained
stalwart, and our little trio has spent more hours together than most humans
could possibly tolerate, without once throwing one another out the window. I
maintain it’s the ukulele music and the yodeling that keeps us together. Kaz
and JV contend otherwise.
So the season is now about half over. Still to come are
Bigle X, the Gem of Harlem, Baby Bump, Penn, Lakeland, CFL Grands and,
apparently, the last hurrah of the NYSDCA tournament. And, of course, NDCA in
Orlando, where I intend to buy a BB8 pin as a souvenir. So there’s lots more
happening, and I will continue to report on all of it. Among other things.
Meanwhile, we’re going on hiatus until the new year. Enjoy the holidays, and always
remember, when all else fails, well, you’re screwed.
___
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